With 'relentless optimism,' 'Where Did We Sit on the Bus?' recounts a story of Latinx life in America
The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Bee Quijada ponders how she fits into the mosaic that is America.
She's been emulating the dance moves of a certain famous singer she watches on MTV, whose appearance has been changing over time.
"I keep thinking that there I sit," Bee tells us, "a brown kid, who wants to be a Black kid, who wants to be a white kid."
Welcome to "Where Did We Sit on the Bus?," Brian Quijada's energetic, soulful and frequently hilarious attempt to answer the question a teacher ducked in a lesson about Rosa Parks. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre performs this hip-hop-fueled production Sept. 30 through Oct. 23, with Chicago actor Isa Arciniegas as Bee. Kellen Abston, the local rapper and producer known as Klassik, has scored the show and is performing the music live.
When Arciniegas saw Quijada perform "Bus" some years ago, that "changed my life," she said. The show articulated thoughts she's had but couldn't put into words about being from another country but growing up in the United States. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, her family spent time in both countries before making the move here permanently when she was a girl.
Like Bee, she knows what it feels like to be brown at a table full of white kids.
This production has a white director, MCT artistic leader Brent Hazelton. After Arciniegas asked for more Latinx input on the creative team, MCT added local artist Ck Ledesma (like Abston, a winner of the Milwaukee Arts Board artist of the year honors) as a cultural consultant. The Latinx experience is so large and rich, one person can't represent it all, Arciniegas said, explaining her request. For example, "there are Spanish words in El Salvador that we don't say in Venezuela," she pointed out.
Productions of "Bus" have taken different approaches to creating the music that Bee raps to. Quijada used live looping, triggering music with foot pedals. In a Louisville production, Satya Chávez played guitars, keyboards and other instruments as well as looping.
Abston has scored the Milwaukee production, picking up elements from the script, like a guitar theme for Bee's dad, a guitarist. He'll perform and trigger the music live on keyboard, pads and devices.
While Bee comes from a specific culture, "Where Did We Sit on the Bus?" reflects an experience that's almost archetypal across American literature: the conflict between immigrant parents who want their children to succeed in this country — and their children, who want to be artists.
When 12-year-old Bee tells her father she wants to be an actor and a dancer, he is floored. “How will you make money? You will suffer. Playing only janitors and drug dealers," he tellls her. "If you can get the jobs. And if you can't? Just become a doctor.”
In contrast to Bee, Arciniegas said her growing up was privileged. Her parents always supported her desire to perform. But she understands the conflict between the impulse to make parents happy vs. doing what she needs to do to be happy.
"I think that immigrant guilt is like always kind of ingrained in us," she said.
The big question, Abston said, is "how do we repay our ancestors?" Being an artist may not be the life someone else envisioned, but having the freedom to make that decision is a legacy from them, he suggested. Abston sees his performance in "Bus" as a legacy, too. His late father, Robin Abston, acted on a number of Milwaukee stages.
Life throws challenges and microaggressions at Bee, but she keeps rolling. Abston describes her as a person of "relentless optimism." Bee loves the culture she came from, but is also hungry for new experiences, like eating beef brisket at a Jewish classmate's home, or playing Skimbleshanks in "Cats," or finding the love of her life in an Austrian-Swiss woman.
In the end, Bee answers the question of the play's title with characteristic exuberance.
Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.
If you go
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre performs "Where Did We Sit on the Bus?" Sept. 30 through Oct. 23 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. Visit www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/bus or call (414) 291-7800. Note: MCT is requiring audience members to wear masks during these performances.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Where Did We Sit on the Bus?' a story of Latinx life in America
