Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 09/30/24

Faukner focus. Last Thursday night Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner was among those honored as one of She Leads America’s 2024 Christian Women of Distinction for her positive impact on America society through her work as a journalist and faith in Jesus Christ. Dr. Alveda King did the introduction as Congresswoman Lisa McClain presented Harris with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition and her name and accomplishments were entered into the Congressional Record at the U.S. Capitol.
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A play for understanding. For over twenty years, Jacalyn Kane has built a reputation for creating and producing non-profit events, award shows, and major festivals on both coasts. During that  time she has often been immersed in Latin music culture, producing concerts for such legends as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz at New York’s Madison Square Garden and managing clients such as Ruben Blades, Marc Anthony and Menudo. Through it all, her ambition has always been to serve as a cultural bridge between Americans.

Her latest venture in that regard is In My Father’s House, a play she wrote that explores cross-cultural and faith themes that opens Thursday and runs through October 20th at Teatro Paraguas (Main Space) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The story involves a romance between Alana, a Jewish graduate student, and Angel, a Hispanic ex-gang member that is complicated by differences in faith and culture, as well as issues of gang violence, racism and police brutality.

JWK: So, tell me about this play and your path to writing it.

Jacalyn Kane: I originally wrote the play – the first draft, anyway – in 1992. I had just arrived from New York City to Los Angeles as a young actress pursuing an acting career. I was really blown away by what was happening in the streets. It was just following the Rodney King LA riots. Especially coming from New York City, I was just really amazed and upset that there was such a division. The boundaries were so clear – where you lived, the clear-cut racism that was happening and also the violence, the police brutality, the gang violence, all of it. The drive-by shootings were at an all-time high.

I had a conversation with one of my parent’s friends. They invited me down to Puerto Vallarta to see them. It got pretty heated. We differed in our views, extremely, as to what the solution was or why this was happening. I ended up with food poisoning…lost in the hotel room, pre-internet, pre-cell phones with a little stubby pencil and a housekeeping card that I wrote all over…as a storyline. The plot just sort of poured out of me. So, that’s where it began.

JWK: Briefly, can you summarize the plot?

JK: For sure. A young Jewish woman living at home with her parents in Beverly Hills, because she’s in grad school as a social worker, wanders into East LA for a work-study program to help a cafe owner stay open. She walks into the wrong cafe. The other one has already been closed.

JWK: Is the closure due to the LA riots?

JK: Not particularly, more that she couldn’t afford to stay open and was coming on hard times. It could have been influenced by that, for sure. The economic revitalization program wanted to help with a loan so that she could stay open – or reopen.

So, Alana walks in and meets Angel who runs his mom’s cafe. Two weeks prior to the beginning of the play…his baby brother Robby was killed in a drive-by. (Angel) is no longer in a gang. When he was younger, he was. He’s 24. She’s in her early twenties. So, they meet and they fall in love. Her father deeply disapproves of the relationship. Even though, he’s a liberal Democrat (and a supporter of) civil rights and so forth, he very much wants her to preserve Judaism. As you go through the play, you learn why – because of what his father went through to come to America.

Some of this is semi-autobiographical. We have a young man who plays the spirit of her grandfather (playing a clarinet). My grandfather did play a clarinet…at the turn of the century during the Russian Revolution or before it took hold. So, like around 1916. They didn’t know he was Jewish. He kept it pretty secretive. Also, he was considered a member of the tsar’s staff. So, his mother desperately wanted him to leave – and he did. He left in the middle of the night with a Jewish Gypsy caravan to make his way to America. This (scene) is mentioned in the father-daughter conversation as to why this is so important preserve – and because of the Holocaust.

Angel, in the meantime, is trying to come to terms with the passing of his brother. His father was killed in Vietnam and now it’s him and his mom running the cafe. His old gang is trying to pull him back in for a revenge shooting. She walks in at this time. As they develop their relationship, she’s trying to be the peacekeeper…What I learned at that time (was) that one of my friend’s mother was the person responsible for creating a truce between the Crips and the Bloods in her living room by saying to them “You need to communicate and stop these revenge killings.”

JWK: That sounds like a play right there.

JK: Yeah! Of course, we know what’s going on is horrible in the Middle East. We’re all just gonna end up killing each other. So, where does it end,  right? (Alana’s) trying to say to them “Where does it end? You have to communicate.” This is also what my friend’s mother did – and they did keep the peace for so long because if they could communicate – at that time it was with walkie-talkies – then they could say “Hey, did that really happen? Was that a revenge shooting or was that somebody else? Or was it the police?” Who knows? So, this theme is also brought up, the police brutality at that time. So, (they need) to be in communication with each other. That theme is also in her household with her mom who is a Sephardic Jew. She’s trying to keep the peace between father and daughter – to say “This is crazy. If you can’t peace here at home, you’ll never find it out there.” So, this is the theme that they’re navigating throughout the play.

JWK: So, Alana is Jewish. Does Angel’s faith play into the story?

JK: Yes, it does. He’s actually a Latin Catholic. She’s fascinated by this. She’s always wanted to know what it was like to wear a cross, go to confession and kneel before an altar. So, they do talk about this. She does kind of play into that world a little bit. He brings her into it and she willingly goes and wants to experience what it’s like. So, this, of course, is like a big no-no, right? But she does explore it a little bit.

JWK: What do you hope people take from this story?

JK: I hope they have conversations about “Where does war end?” Where does the violence and the gang killings with our youth that still is happening (end)? Unfortunately, gun violence (and) these killings that are going on in schools (are) are all related. So, where do we stop it? A lot of it comes though communication and knowing that we can call for peace and not have keep having back-and-forth, back-and-forth revenge. Where does it get us?

JWK: So, you relate the theme of your play to things going on in the world – even outside the United States.

JK: Oh, yes. We don’t talk about it specifically in the play but it’s an ongoing theme of violence. People don’t want this. They really don’t. The majority of people don’t want this.

Another theme that comes up – and this is a learning curve for the characters in the play – (Alana), her father, they all come to sort of an understanding of how we can be different, understanding of what each other have been through – and have tolerance. We all have our history of what we’ve been through. It’s not always the same yet, in the end, we all want the same thing. We want to live a peaceful life and love who we choose to love, not based on race, religion or the color of your skin.

There is a moment in the play that’s actually very poignant where her father goes to East LA. Now, he’s probably never been there before. He’s trying to find her. He knows she’s been staying down there and he misses her. So, he goes down there to try to talk to her in person. Again, this is before cell phones, right? When he gets to the cafe, he meets Rosie, Angel’s mother. Alana and Angel have already gone out for the evening. So, he meets Rosie and they sit and talk. He basically starts with saying “I don’t approve of my daughter’s relationship with your son.” She’s very wise, worldly, spiritual and accepts everybody. So, she sort of tells him…”You know, we’re really not so different, are we? If I had brought a gringo boyfriend home my father would have (disapproved).”…So, they have a little bit of a tender bonding moment where they come to understand that “Maybe we’re not so different.” Love is what matters.

JWK: When it come to communicating with each other, in the age of social media, do you think we’re better or worse off than we when the Rodney King riots happened. Are we moving in the right direction?

JK: That’s a good question. At times I feel like we are moving in the right direction and then, with what we’re faced with today with so much violence reemerging, in another sense no. I suppose my hope is that it has to all come to the surface. It has to really boil to the surface so that we can deal with it and heal it…For better or worse, we’re being shown by the division in this country how bad the underbelly is and how imbalanced things are in the hopes that we can really change it now. That is my hope.

Unfortunately, I think things have gotten worse. Because there’s more communication? Maybe so or maybe not. Maybe, because what we can see now on social media so quickly, we’re seeing things that we didn’t know existed before – even though they did. Interesting enough, the Rodney King incident was probably the first thing that went viral – and this was before social media. Because someone happened to videotape it from their apartment window, we were able to see it firsthand, probably for the first time – other than let’s say Vietnam – on the news.

JWK: I guess there were comparable incidents during the Civil Rights movement where things were caught on camera that also galvanized the country.

JK: Yes, that’s true. In a way, the more those things are caught hopefully it brings it to a boiling point where it stops – or it starts to change. I mean we have seen that, somewhat with police violence…Those riots happened because because policemen were not held accountable.

JWK: So, I guess you hope this play comes to New York at some point?

JK: I would love that! I’m from New York. I would (also) love for it to go to LA because that’s where it was originally written and takes place. I did do a two-person version of it there when I was a member of a group repertory theater – but I would love to also bring it to New York City. That would also be a part of my dream. It is where I started my music career which sort of overlaps. There is a lot of amazing music in this. You might be familiar with David Maldonado. Back in the late eighties, early nineties when I worked for him…we managed Marc Anthony and Menudo and we did concerts with Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. I was really entrenched in the Latin culture. So, I embraced. A lot of that is in the play as well.

JWK: Great. Anything you’d like to say as we wrap up?

JK: No, I think we covered it. I think the only thing I would say is I’m really grateful that I found amazing, amazing actors. My hat’s off to them! I hope people can come see the play – whether it’s here (in Santa Fe) or eventually in New York City or in Los Angeles.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.