Northfield Students Present Latino Short Play Festival

It takes bravery to get on stage and perform. It also takes bravery to address serious topics that affect the lives of your peers, like drug use and teen pregnancy.

A group of Latino students at will tackle both challenges this week as they present the first-ever Latino Short Play Festival.

The 17 students—members of Jennifer Lompart’s English as a Second Language Latino drama class—wrote five plays that focus on the negative consequences of unhealthy teen decisions. They will perform the plays Friday morning for an audience of ESL students from the middle school.

Gerardo Martinez, Frank Calvario, Sharonne Bermudez and Kevin Perez wrote a play about a high school student who gets pregnant and has to quit school to care for her baby.

“We wanted middle-schoolers, eighth-graders coming to the high school, not to get pregnant at a young age,” Martinez said.

“We want to teach them you don’t have to have sex to be mature,” Calvario said.

“Or be loved,” added Bermudez, who plays the role of the pregnant teen.

Although the overall teen pregnancy rate in Minnesota has dropped in recent years, the pregnancy rate for the state’s Latina teens remains higher than the national average, according to a 2011 adolescent sexual health report recently released by Teenwise Minnesota.

The idea for the short play festival evolved after Lompart’s students read a short play with a Latino theme, and then were assigned to write a play about facing an obstacle or temptation.

This is the first year Lompart has offered the Latino drama class, and for most of her students, it’s their first time ever acting on stage. To prepare, they have worked with Lompart’s mom, Linda Henderson, who has more than 20 years of experience directing plays in the Randolph School District.

Lompart said her students have gained self-confidence since the beginning of class, when they couldn’t imagine speaking in front of an audience.

“A lot of them said ‘Yeah, but I’ll help with lights. I’m never going to get up there and act’—and they’re all up there! That was a big surprise,” she said.

Lompart said she hopes the experience will help her students feel more comfortable giving presentations in other classes and, just maybe, give them the confidence to one day consider trying out for a high school or community play.

Lompart received a mini-grant from the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative to support the production.

Cast members are: Melody Altamirano, Sharonne Bermudez, Frank Calvario, Mitzi Calvario, Jenny Corona, Juan Hernandez, Jackie Huang, Arturo Larios, Gerardo Martinez, Jhosi Martinez, Santiago Martinez, Montse Melendez, Rolando Minutti, Pedro Morales, Leslie Nieves, Jose Perez and Kevin Perez.