REVIEW: Excellent, Relatable Latina Actors Reflect ‘Real Women’ At Moline’s Playcrafters
Doing theater is a tremendous way to gain self-confidence and a new family.
Both are on display in the excellent new production of “Real Women Have Curves” by Josefina Lopez, at Playcrafters Barn Theatre, Moline, directed by (and co-starring) Cindy Ramos. The heartwarming story was originally set in a small sewing factory in East Los Angeles in 1987, but has been updated to be in the present, with references to ICE and social media.’
Its themes include gender politics and the Latina immigrant experience. The story is told from the point of view of Ana (played by Cristina Gomez), the youngest employee and Mexican-American teen navigating family expectations, self-confidence, and body image while discovering the true meaning of love, family, and empowerment.
Ambitious and bright, Ana yearns to go to college, but doesn’t have the money, according to a synopsis. The five women talk about their lives, loves and deepest desires while attempting to meet impossible production deadlines. Within that week at the factory, the woman face many challenges such as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, troubles with their husbands and other male characters mentioned in the play, judgement from other characters, as well as yearning for dreams that do not seem possible to fulfill.
All five Playcrafters actresses are Latina, as are their relatable characters, and we can identify with their hopes, fears, and struggles, regardless of what background or gender you are.
In an illuminating program note, Ramos (who plays the childless 30-something Pancha) says this show is personal, “a celebration of our culture, our families, our bodies, our dreams, our imperfections, and the courage it takes to take up space in a world that sometimes tells us we should make ourselves smaller.”
Growing up and as a plus-size Latina, Ramos said she rarely saw women who looked like her at the center of a story. She wrote that one of the reasons theater is remarkable is that it “can make us see ourselves in someone else’s story. It can challenge the ideas we’ve been taught about beauty, success, family, and worth. It can make us laugh, make us uncomfortable, make us think, and sometimes, remind us that at our very core, we are all human.”
Even if a story is set among foreign characters with whom we don’t have much at all in common (poor undocumented Latinas), we learn about them, care about them, and how we are similar under the skin. We all have hopes and dreams and feelings, and care deeply what other people think of us.
I identified with Ana, as the aspiring writer who doesn’t like her early-morning job and struggles to express herself, jotting her thoughts down in a journal. Gomez is a 20-year-old new to the theater world, and her dramatic high point is near the end of “Real Women” where she gives a stirring, brief monologue about what happens to Ana, choking back tears, asserting her strength and independence.
Each of the five here – including Adriana Blanco as Estela; Lidia Gomez Castillo as Carmen, and Celeaciya Olvera as Rosali – are declaring their hard-won independence, finding and claiming their true place in the world. In the story, Carmen is a 50-year-old mother of eight (including Estela and Ana), who fears she may be pregnant again. Estela has a record and fears deportation; Pancha laments not being able to have kids, and Rosali is on a water-based diet, obsessed about her weight.
The ramshackle sewing-shop set is fully lived in (designed by Craig Cohoon and painted by Jacque Cohoon), and while each table has a sewing machine, you never really hear them on and “working.”
While Ana is the youngest in the group, Gomez gives her fiery feminism, standing up for women’s rights and ability to say “no” to men, and control their own destiny.
Partly because of the 100-degree heat in the story, Ana near the end of the play takes off her shirt, which shocks Carmen. The defining scene progresses in the women venting their frustrations, shedding their inhibitions and clothes (they all keep underwear on), as they display what they feel are physical flaws. The humor is ratcheted up when Carmen joins in, and we not only see more of their skin but the story exposes their vulnerabilities and strengths.
Estela longs to open up her own boutique (an earlier scene shows Blanco luxuriating in showing off a pink dress under a spotlight as soft music plays), and that dream is realized by the end. At the triumphant bows, each of the women model a fancy dress, and reveals more – their irresistible attitude, confidence, flair, and beauty (inside and out).
A plea for self-acceptance, and body positivity, “Real Women” shows as Ramos wrote – “every woman deserves to see herself reflected in the story and every girl deserves to grow up knowing that her story matters, her voice matters, and she matters.”
As an organization that has shown many times over the years that it respects diversity of stories and casting, Playcrafters has become a member of the Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber, and will collect feminine hygiene products during the “Real Women” run for Glenview Middle School’s Dignity Project, Ramos said. If you see the show, keep your program to get 10% off a meal through Oct. 4, at Coya’s Café, 2903 Avenue of the Cities, Moline.
“Real Women Have Curves” will continue at Playcrafters (4950 35th Ave., Moline), at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2-3, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4. Tickets are available HERE.
