From Friday, April 30 through Sunday, May 2 North High School’s theatre department, the Black Masque Theatre Company, will form a distinctive alliance of educators, artists and students to create the Denver premier of a theatrical production that will take you back to 1943 and the “Zoot Suit Riots.”

Showtimes for “Zoot Suit Riots” are 7 p.m. on Friday, April 30; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 1; and 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 2. Tickets for the Zoot Suit Riots are available for purchase at North High School (2700 W. 32nd Ave.) between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the main office and at Common Grounds Coffee House (3484 W. 32nd Ave.) after 4 p.m.

Ticket prices are $10 and $15. All proceeds benefit the Theater program at North High School - promoting arts and education.

The “Zoot Suit Riots” is a play that will feature the students of North High School in a dramatization of the events that took place in Los Angeles during the summer of 1943. Los Angeles, a city that was a major training and transit point for military personnel, saw itself on the front lines of the war in the Pacific. However, there was a burgeoning war at home against the Mexican pachuco gangs. The Zoot Suit style was readily picked up in the young Latino and African-American communities on the East and West Coasts. From there it was adopted by swing musicians and dancers and became uniquely identified with the swing movement.

North High School students will explore the music, culture and lifestyle of 1943 Los Angeles (Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Ankle Chokers, Reat Pleats, Pompadours & Duck Tail Hair) to recreate the incidents that led to a critical yet relatively unknown event in U.S. history.

A talented cast of 30 students will act and dance on stage. A crew of 10 will serve as stage managers, light board operators, costumers and make-up artists. Students will serve as ushers - outfitted in pachuco clothes - as they seat the public in the 800-seat auditorium at North High School.

Joining the project is a remarkable team of educators, actors and artists:

• Educator and artist Carlos Fresquez is a nationally acclaimed artist and professor at the University of Colorado. He served as curator for the largely successful exhibit at the Chicano Arts and Humanities Gallery in 2003 in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots.
• The costumes will be designed and provided by Jay Salas and Craig Pena of Suavecito, a national leader in Zoot Suit culture and Latino fashion based in Denver.
• Celebrity guests will visit Denver for this project. Renowned actors Tony Plana and Ada Maris. Mr. Plana is widely known as the patriarch on the hit Showtime series, Resurrection Blvd and is the Artistic Director of the East LA Classic Theatre Company. His wife, Ada Maris, plays John Leguizamo’s mother on the Nickelodeon series, The Brothers Garcia. Mr. Plana and Ms. Maris will offer theater workshops to students at North High School and attend performances. Mr. Plana returns to Denver after his company’s successful production of Much Ado About Nothing at North High School in December 2003.

The proposed project: to produce a play focusing on the richness and variety of the Latino experience, will provide the students of North High School, and others throughout metropolitan Denver, a most comprehensive and powerful examination of the Latino experience in the United States.

The play is directed by Jose Mercado, an actor and teacher who has guided the theater program at North High School since September of 2003 in a direction that exposes students to professional development and cultural enrichment in theater. Mr. Mercado holds an MFA in Theater from UCLA. His acting credits in LA include two plays at the Evidence Room Theater with Megan Mullally, the Emmy-winning star of Will & Grace; and the Geffen Playhouse production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Wit. He is a member of SAG and AEA.

For more information, call the school at 303-964-2700.