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An adaptation of a popular novel for
young teens, “Esperanza Rising,” is the
fall’s first offering by the Wake
Forest-Rolesville High School Drama
Department and will be the first time
the play is presented on the East Coast.
The novel was written by
the title’s great-granddaughter, Pam
Munoz Ryan, and is required reading in
some American middle schools. In 1930,
during the Depression, the real
Esperanza Ortega, then 12, was burned
out of her home in Mexico. She fled to
California where she was reunited with
her mother and became friends with
Miguel Jesus Munoz, whom she real
Esperanza later married.
The play was first
commissioned and produced by The
Children’s Theatre Company of
Minneapolis, Minn. It celebrates
Hispanic culture and features Mariachi
music.
WF-R High School
“continues to pioneer new artistic
territory in the arts,” drama teacher
Marie Jones wrote in describing the play
and the impetus behind it. The school
has a new approach called the Artistic
Learning Community, tying academic
learning to the arts to promote lifelong
learning.
The play will be staged
over two weeks at 7 p.m. on Thursday and
Saturday evening, Oct. 12 and 14 and
Oct. 19 and 21.Tickets are $6. Call the
school box office at 554-8428 for more
information. |
