by Mike Smith
Daily Lobo
UNM students with an affinity for the stage or the writing of Ray Bradbury might want to consider a visit to the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Beginning Aug. 31, the acclaimed New Mexico acting troupe Teatro Nuevo MÇxico will be at the center nightly until Sept. 3, performing a version of Ray Bradbury's "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit."
"The play is about six men, all of whom are too poor to own good clothes," director Michael Blum said. "It's hard to get girls when you don't look good, so they pool their money and buy one perfect suit. They take turns wearing it, and it changes their lives."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The play's story is a classic one, Blum said. It first appeared as a short story - then titled "The Magic White Suit" - in the Saturday Evening Post in 1957. Bradbury adapted it for the stage in 1972. Blum said it has been a musical, a TV drama and a 1998 movie, but its incarnation as a stage play has certainly been among its most popular. Over the past 25 years, the play has been produced in New Mexico at least five or six times, he said.
Joseph Wasson Jr. plays the lead role and is also the National Hispanic Cultural Center's programmer and production manager.
"The first time I did this play was in 1981," Wasson said. "I have a personal involvement in this play. I love this play. I've acted in all four of the productions of it in the 1980s and directed it twice. It's the perfect show to do."
Blum said he chose this play to direct for several reasons.
"For one thing, it's about Hispanics," Blum said. "When Bradbury first wrote the story, he was living on the cheap in LA. He wrote about what was around him, and what was around him were Hispanics - poor people, people trying to get by, people trying to fulfill their dreams."
The cast is another exciting aspect, he said.
"It's been wonderful working with them," he said. "The thing about this play is it's usually done with younger men - 20- or 30-something-year-olds. This cast is about ten years older than usual, and they are so seasoned. Everything just flows and is beautiful. This is a hell of a cast. I've been directing for over 20 years, and this is one of the best casts I've ever worked with."
Although the play uses a wide range of technical aspects - from backdrops projected on a large screen behind the actors to a multi-story re-creation of a Los Angeles barrio - the story and its message is undoubtedly the most important part, Blum said.
"All six of these guys are just at the point in their lives where they say, 'Something's got to happen,' and that something is the suit," he said. "It brings them together, and it creates this friendship, and what they realize is that there is something greater than their individual dreams - the camaraderie that develops between them."
Blum said he wants the play to fill audiences with a sense of joy.
"Bradbury writes with joy," he said. "This cast performs with joy."
"The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit"
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Aug. 31-Sept. 3
Thursday-Saturday 8 p.m.
Sunday matinee 2 p.m.
$15-$25
