Hillsborough Community College\u2019s Dean of Student Services was bitten by the acting bug as a young student in his native New York. N\u00e9stor Mel\u00e9ndez has a Master\u2019s in Educational Leadership and Administration, an advanced degree as an Education Specialist (Ed.S.) \u2013 and a powerful desire to be on the stage.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s performing at Stageworks Theatre Dec. 5-21 in Latin History For Morons, a one-man tour de force by actor, writer and comedian John Leguizamo.<\/p>\n
The onstage character \u2013 his name just happens to be John \u2013 tells the audience just what\u2019s wrong (plenty) and what\u2019s right (not a whole lot) about the way Hispanic peoples are represented in American history books. He plays numerous characters and comically acts the stories out.<\/p>\n
Born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents, Mel\u00e9ndez is a longtime fan of fellow New Yorker Leguizamo, whose heritage is Colombian.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in college that I learned about being \u2018the other,\u201d Mel\u00e9ndez reports. \u201cBecause when you grow up in New York City, everybody\u2019s everywhere and they\u2019re all around you. But it\u2019s when you go to a place like a college that doesn\u2019t have as many of \u2018you\u2019 present, you really start to see that you\u2019re somebody else.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo a lot of transformation happened for me when I was an undergrad, and I was blessed that I had theater as that background for my junior and senior year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mel\u00e9ndez did some theater while he was in school (\u201cMy attempts to pursue that as a career did not pan out the way I had hoped\u201d) and he got onstage, every once in a while, during his stint as an education specialist in his home state. He moved his family to Florida in 2022, and HCC hired him in early \u201823.<\/p>\n
Theater was always there, in the back of his mind. \u201cI believe in serendipity,\u201d he says. \u201cMy life has had these incredible serendipitous moments. The job that I have, the professional identity, allows me to be in front of large groups of people almost all the time. So whether it\u2019s working with my staff and doing workshops and panels with them, or we\u2019re out somewhere doing presentations, I have been the guy in front of the room \u2013 with or without a microphone \u2013 for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He joined the Board of Directors at Stageworks, and met (among others) director J.L. Rey, who oversees the company\u2019s successful Hispanic Initiative, which includes producing at least one show per season that\u2019s especially significant to the bay area\u2019s Latin population.<\/p>\n
Serendipity, Part Two: \u201cA couple of weeks before I joined the board, (artistic director) Karla Hartley got the rights to Latin History for Morons. J.L. had been campaigning for that show, so they decided to do it under the banner of the Hispanic Initiative. I met J.L., and he said \u2018You should audition.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mel\u00e9ndez had seen Leguizamo perform Latin History live in person, so he was pumped. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t get cast,\u201d he says, \u201cI could always join the crew, do makeup, set design, scene painting. In any of the ways in which a theater needs help, I was prepared. And I got lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
After some initial concern over casting a member of the theater board, Rey and the others decided that since N\u00e9stor Mel\u00e9ndez was clearly right for the role, they should go full speed ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cJ.L. has been masterful as a director, helping me find some really organic moments,\u201d reports the actor. \u201cBecause we recognized that there\u2019s a lot of John Leguizamo, the man, who resonates with me as a man. He\u2019s a Latin father; I\u2019m a Latin father. He grew up in New York; I grew up in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe very much have that edgy New York bravado, with that strong Latin identity that shaped how we grew up in that city. So I\u2019m reading the script, and there\u2019d stuff in there that I would say in my everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n