WHEN THE COST OF ADMISSION IS GENUINELY A FREE FOR ALL
By Maria Paz Alegre

When asked to write a piece about the expanded return of The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS this summer, I felt overcome with a sense of joy, but also one of those rare full-circle moments of completion. Although I knew that this day was coming through The Public Theater’s commitment to commission alumni of the BIPOC Critics Lab, it hit me in a way I hadn’t anticipated. I was transported back to my past; I felt like a kid again. While I have a BFA in Acting and decades of experience in making theater in New York City, my foundational knowledge of live theater is something which is forever and intrinsically linked to The Public Theater – and for good reason. Every summer at Shakespeare in the Park, and whenever its Mobile Unit goes on tour, it’s free. And it always has been. 

As the youngest of four children of a single mother, all of us recent immigrants to the United States, I knew this to be true. The concept of something free is not a benefit, it is a lifeline. Blessedly, I do not have experience of what it is to be starving, but I know what it feels like to be voraciously hungry in my soul for something greater than what was in front of me. My mother scoured every newspaper and magazine in the public library to find events and opportunities for us. If it was affordable (or better yet, free) and culturally uplifting, we would attend. Our home was situated in central New Jersey - and whether it was the Cultural Festival of India at the community college or Plays-In-The Park off Route 1 in Edison which boasted a $3 entrance fee (provided we bring our own lawn chairs), my family would be in attendance. Greater still, an $8 bus ticket would bring us to New York City where an entrance fee to the best museum in the world cost “what-you-wish.” 

And one special day every year at the end of June (to celebrate the end of the school year), the two of us would eat breakfast early and catch the 5am bus to New York City. We would prepare the night before by packing a lunch and some library books to accompany us, while we waited in an endless queue in Central Park. Tickets wouldn’t be given out for another six hours, but that was the cost of a free show at The Delacorte. And despite the complaints and grumblings of any 10-year-old made to rise before dawn and wait on a sunburned path for hours, it was always, always worth it. 

I was reminded of this child-like joy as I witnessed the company’s first performance of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS at Astor Place, just a few steps from The Public. Most audience members were casual pedestrians who saw empty chairs and were interested in a live show. When the production began, it felt like that incredible scene in the movie Sister Act where people on the streets heard the music and flocked into the church. There was one person in particular who caught my eye, a DoorDash cyclist whose ebike came to a complete stop as he stood slack-jawed with joy, relishing all of the humor and laughing especially hard at the chancla jokes (if you know, you know). More than impressed, he looked awed, witnessing the beautiful art that New York City is famous for – tailored (perhaps without his knowledge) entirely for him.

To say that this year in NYC has been a challenge for many feels less like a colossal understatement. After becoming the global epicenter of the pandemic, the city has evolved to become the center of a housing crisis, a budget crisis, an education crisis, and a migrant crisis—and all of this in an election year where the stakes have never felt higher, particularly for people of color. This is why The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit’s remounted production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS feels less like a breath of fresh air, and more like a reclamation of joy and survival. 

I’ve learned through working on this piece that Mobile Unit is quite possibly the purest evocation of the original Public Theater by Joseph Papp. I later came to discover that Papp created The Public by borrowing equipment from his day job and squatting in Central Park! The following year he got his hands on a trailer hitched to a refurbished sanitation truck and brought Shakespeare to ball fields and parks in all five boroughs of New York City. Today, with over 8 million people in New York City, residents of Latin American descent make up over a quarter of the city’s population. It makes all the sense in the world that Mobile Unit’s production evolved from classical Shakespearean text to a vibrant bilingual adaptation of gigante telenovela proportions. 

Telenovela is indeed the operative word, as it is the pitch-perfect medium to portray a complex comic plot of mistaken identities, two (!) sets of separated twins, love at first sight just to name just a few of the many themes in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. The campiness of the plot isn’t eschewed, it is embraced with absolute bravado. The play is spoken and sung in a mix of English and Spanish, and while it will no doubt be understood by those that don’t speak Spanish, it will resonate with particular richness for those who speak Spanish and who are able to see their culture represented on stage. 

And indeed, this production makes a point of hispanic inclusion. Co-music director and guitarist Jacinta Clusellas shared: “The music and the adaptation is made for the people. Anyone without a Shakespeare background could completely understand and be seen in this story. The music is an invitation for people to be able to follow the story and feel all of the emotions for those who can be lost in the language of Shakespeare. It’s such a JOYFUL show, and that’s the word I always use to describe the show when I invite people, to leave with a sense of joy. [Director] Rebecca [Martínez] has always said, ‘Joy is such a powerful form of protest,’ and in these times that are as hard as they are, it’s just so powerful that we’re going out there to bring joy.” 

Clusellas also praised the talent of composer and lyricist Julián Mesri, and his purposeful inclusion of several types of Latin music genres, including reggaeton, tango, bolero, cumbia, and música folklórica. Perhaps evoking the beloved Public composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, the melodic songs and music are  an explosive celebration of all things Latino. 

Bringing the music to life is the excellently cast troupe of Latin American performers, many of whom have returned to reprise their roles from the previous year, including the captivating troubadour and guitarist, Sara Ornelas. Ornelas and Clusellas reminisced happily at the earlier performances from the previous year, but both of them made a point to note how production has grown in leaps and bounds. 

Ornelas said: “The show has evolved in so many ways. Last year,  the band itself was just Jacinta and I doing all of the music for the whole show, and now we have a percussionist and a bassist. We’ve added more songs this time around. Before it felt like a trunk play, bare bones and scrappy. When we started rehearsals this time around, we wanted actors who were new to the production to know we weren’t trying to recreate the same show because it’s not going to be the same show. We have different actors, different energies, we have different songs and even changed the keys of the songs. We’re adding new things and letting things go. It helped us accept the evolution of the show and it’s only made it better.”

Clusellas added: “This year we are reaching larger audiences; before we sometimes had only 10-20 people! We also didn’t have an elevated stage–we were just on the ground. As music director of course it’s expanded a lot, like the way we play the music. Last year Sara and I would just look at each other, but now there are a lot more cues and a lot more conducting and of course it sounds bigger.”

The crises that embroil our city are so important, but so too is the joy. The joy of celebrating Latin music and performance, the joy of Shakespeare still resonating after centuries, the joy of genuine cultural and linguistic representation, but most importantly the joy of being outdoors on a beautiful summer evening and watching an incredible production of live theater for the people, and all of it for free. 

Mobile Unit’s production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS began touring across all five boroughs on Tuesday, May 28 and will run through Sunday, June 30. Click here for more information on the show.

Maria Paz Alegre is an NYC-based artist, activist, educator, and culture writer. She is a member of the prestigious 2024 Caldecott Award Committee which judges the most distinguished contribution to American’s children’s literature in the form of a picture book. As a culture critic, she has interviewed a myriad of artists including Misty Copeland, Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Stephen Adly Guirgis.

This piece was developed with the BIPOC Critics Lab, a new program founded by Jose Solís training the next generation of BIPOC journalists. Follow on Twitter: @BIPOCCriticsLab.

Pictured: Sara Ornelas in Mobile Unit’s The Comedy of Errors, touring the five boroughs May 28-June 30. Photo credit: Peter Cooper