‘Fear of a Brown Planet’ bring multimedia to life on stage

Monday, July 1, 1996

Production exhibits futuristic view of California’s politicsBy
Brandon Wilson

Summer Bruin Contributor

The Place: California. The Time: Near the Middle of the Next
Century. An oppressive totalitarian regime governs the people with
an iron fist. All subversive activity is punishable with extreme
prejudice. Off-world colonization is just beginning to extend
imperialism through the cosmos. And only four underground freedom
fighters are left to fight the power.

This is not the the set-up for some new summer blockbuster
coming your way, but it is the story in performance troupe Mal
Ojo’s new multimedia show "Fear of a Brown Planet." The show will
open July 4 at Regeneration in Highland Park. The performance
includes the rap/rock group Aztlan Underground and will benefit the
EZLN, the Zapatistas currently embroiled in conflict in
Chiapas.

Mal Ojo, whose members are Susan Carrasco, Tomas Carrasco,
Jennifer Sanchez and Elias Serna, portrays various groups in the
course of the show, including The Brown Underground, a lone band of
the last Chicano activists left to stand against a frighteningly
fascistic future.

"We wanted to amplify the political situation in California,"
Mal Ojo member Elias Serna explains. "Let’s say Proposition 187 and
the repealment of affirmative action do succeed, what will that
lead to in 50 years? What if Dole, Gingrich and the whole boys club
succeeded in turning back the clock in the future."

The show combines the live action of the performers with
prerecorded segments on video which is used by the members as a
videophone, a futuristic piece of telecommunication which gives the
Underground contact with the rest of the world. "We’ve always used
a little video in our shows," Serna says. "But starting with a show
in San Diego at Cafe Cinema, we did a totally multimedia show,
experimenting with a large screen; and what happened for me was a
strong impression that we were doing something that started
resembling a movie. What really affected me was that we could do a
show where people would leave feeling like they’ve just seen a
movie. Or even something more than a movie."

Serna, 28, is no stranger to moviemaking and the world of
cinema. In addition to his performances with Mal Ojo, he’s just
completed his second-year in the UCLA Film School’s graduate
director’s program. Serna completed his undergraduate studies at UC
Berkeley.

"In college, I became actively involved in the Chicano activist
network," Serna says. "I was always artistic, drawing, sketching
and painting, and I knew a lot of creative people. My sophomore
year I edited a Chicano/Latino newsmagazine where I came across an
artist named Lalo Alcaraz."

Serna and Alcaraz collaborated on numerous magazines where they
developed and honed their brand of politically-oriented humor. The
pair decided to try using theater as an arena for their ideas the
way they had done with the printed page. Tomas Carrasco joined them
and the trio Chicano Secret Service was born.

Fiercely original, but patterning themselves after troupes like
El Teatro Campesino, the Chicano Secret Service had their
three-skit debut on Aug. 29, 1988.

Touring extensively through the U.S. and Mexico, the group spent
six years making a name for itself with their dicey brand of humor
that dealt with both the personal relations and political situation
of Chicanos. With the addition of video, their performances have
expanded.

"I think the whole movement into video is mainly our attempt to
go beyond the stage and to make a link with film, which is what
we’re naturally heading towards." Serna says.

With his acceptance to the film program at UCLA in 1994, Serna
began learning how to make films. Working with friends, classmates
and fellow Secret Service members, Serna produced and directed
"Xipe Totec," an impressive short film debut that blends surrealism
with political realism.

In March 1995, Chicano Secret Service disbanded, only to be
reformed by replacing Alcaraz with Tomas’ sister Susan and with
Elias’ wife Jennifer.

"It’s always a little hard to work with new people," Serna says
regarding the personnel shift, "but it’s been very exciting to
expand the array of characters available to the group. It’s also
probably refreshing for the audience used to seeing three smart
aleck Chicanos doing obnoxious humor develop into something that’s
more representative of the community at large."

This fall, Serna continues his studies at UCLA. "I’m on the
documentary track," he says. "And I just advanced with a movie
called "La Movida" (The Movement), and it’s basically a 30-year
analysis of the Chicano/Latino experience in L.A. with a global
outlook."

In the future, Serna hopes to both continue making films with
Mal Ojo, as well as use the Masters of Fine Arts degree from the
program to teach on the collegiate level. "Once after a [Chicano
Secret Service] show, an audience member asked us, ‘Are you a
member of any political organizations?’ We said, ‘We are a
political organization.’ We try to organize, educate, mobilize and
tell people what’s going on."

With "Fear of A Brown Planet," the group hopes to entertain but
more importantly to make the audience think about how the present
could give way to a harsh and oppressive future.

"Our works always criticize conservative politics for its lack
of vision and its treatment of non-Anglo people in this society. We
do all our work conscious of what [our predecessors] accomplished,
and this show allows us to project our voices into the future."

THEATER: "Fear of a Brown Planet" on July 4, 5 and 6 at 8 p.m.
at Regeneration in Highland Park. For more info: (213) 550-1365.
Cost: $5.