Carmen Margarita Zapata (born July 15, 1927) is an American actress. Zapata was born in New York City to a Mexican father and an Argentine mother. She has been in over one hundred movies and shows, including Batman: The Animated Series, Married… with Children, Sister Act, and she was Carmen Castillo in Santa Barbara. One of her longest-running roles was on the bilingual children’s program Villa Alegre, where for nine years she played lead character “Doña Luz.”
The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts
The artistic leadership of BFA is Artistic Director/Project Director Margarita Galban and the managerial leader is Managing Director Lina Montalvo.
Mission
The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts (BFA) is the only full time professional bilingual theater on the West Coast of the United States. BFA’s mission is to serve communities by presenting classic Spanish language drama and contemporary plays, in order to bring awareness of Hispanic culture. BFA also provides educational resources and training opportunities in the performing arts. BFA strives to positively affect the image and self esteem of Hispanics, and encourage the inclusion of Hispanic culture in the public school curriculum, and to create a pool of talented, well trained theater artists. BFA serves approximately 180,000 low-income families and individuals, children and adolescents, high school and college students, and senior citizens.
History/Programming
The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, a nonprofit corporation, was founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by Carmen Zapata, Estela Scarlata and Margarita Galban. Ms. Zapata has now retired and is President Emeritus. Ms. Scarlata retired to pursue personal projects after 30 years of service to BFA. Ms. Galban remains as artistic director and continues to provide leadership and vision to BFA.
Touring Program- Theater in Education – Since 1979, BFA has taken its mainstage productions and specially commissioned plays on local, state wide and in some cases, national and international, tours in schools and theaters. The Touring Program has reached hundreds of thousands of children in Southland school districts.
New Translations – BFA creates, commissions, produces and performs new English translations of major Spanish language plays, thus making available the vast an little known body of Hispanic literature to non-Spanish speaking audiences.
Teatro Leido – Staged readings. BFA presents six staged readings in BFA’s Teatro Carmen Zapata. These works are chosen from nation wide submission of plays that deal with social issues affecting Hispanics in America. This project gives new playwrights and directors the opportunity to practice their craft and receive feed back from a live audience. Post performance discussions are held.
Zarzuela
Since 2004 BFA has included segments of zarzuelas (light opera) into its programming. “Introduction to the Zarzuela” at the Ricardo Montalban Theater was the first venture. “Maria La O” music by Ernesto Lecuona , a full zarzuela was produced at the Alex Theater in Glendale, Ca in 2007, “Las Leandras” at the Los Angeles Theater Center in 2008. This year BFA produced “Zarzuela Under the Stars” at Grand Performances, at the California Plaza on July 9. This Fall BFA will produce the Cuban Zarzuela “Cecilia Valdes” music by Gonzalo Roig at LATC.
Planning and Leadership
BFA has solicited a grant in collaboration with The Boys and Girls Club for the purpose of expanding services to young people. BFA will provide after school hours classes in Drama, Wardrobe, Dance, and Theater Movement to young people 11-to 17 years of age. Classes will be taught by Blanca Araceli Soto and Ana Alfonso.
BFA plans to continue building on its foundation of professional productions of classic and contemporary plays presented at Teatro Carmen Zapata through programming. BFA’s primary objective is to expose the general public and students to classic and contemporary theater; to provide residents and students with arts enrichment; to foster an appreciation for theater and to offer the public an affordable, live, cultural arts experience.
Core Audience: BFA serves over 63,000 people annually, more than 40% of whom earn less than $40,000. Approximately 75% of our audience is Hispanic, 15% is white and 10% are other ethnicities. More than 50% are students. Nearly 30% are over age 55; 35% are 25-54; and approximately 35% are 24 or younger. While BFA’s audience is primarily Spanish-speaking, an equal amount of energy is placed on serving and reaching the English-Speaking community. BFA continues to expand its audience through community outreach, continually updated marketing strategies, and promotional efforts. Strong outreach efforts are directed to Southern California’s underserved, low-income individuals and families who are in need of Hispanic culture, arts education and theatrical enrichment.
BFA conducts written and telephone surveys, post-play discussions and focus groups to aid in assessing each program’s effectiveness, to determine which programs should be expanded, which can be improved and whether there is a need to develop new programs. BFA works in cooperation with teachers and students to help plan its season each year, creating a theater that is truly responsive to the needs and interests of the audience. The marketing plan for high schools and colleges that regularly attend productions at BFA includes sending teachers and administrators the synopsis, historical information about the story, and a study guide to the play.
Artistic Policy: BFA solicits and receives an enormous amount of input from the community, students, and teachers when making artistic decisions about season planning and program development. Additionally, the artistic leadership of BFA puts its mission into action by seeking out the greatest work from the rich history of Spanish language drama, and the most vibrant new plays from the contemporary Hispanic theater world, to produce, translate, revive and introduce to Los Angeles. BFA values the artistic contributions its artists make to the diverse communities of Los Angeles very highly; therefore, it is BFA’s policy to financially compensate all its artists, including actors, directors, writers, designers, and choreographers.
Proposed Artistic Project: BFA plans to: (1) produce and present three educational plays for young audiences in schools and community centers, (2) develop and execute an expanded marketing campaign geared to reach more schools districts, and promote more intercultural exchange. This promotional campaign includes free demonstration performances at BFA’s Teatro Carmen Zapata.
Part of BFA’s mission is to provide arts enrichment and education to K-12 students in Southern California. This is accomplished through BFA’s education programs that tour and that are presented at Teatro Carmen Zapata for school children. BFA has received DCA support in the past for its educational programs and plays for young people. These plays are designed to introduce students of all backgrounds to classic theater from the Hispanic world, as well as to foster discussion about issues of importance and interests to a young audience. BFA’s next Touring Program season begins in the fall of 2011 and continues throughout the academic year until June 2012. To better control production costs, each play has a dedicated day of the week on which is presented. The planned plays are as follows:
Eating Your Colors – This is a new educational show for children grades 3-8, tackling the growing problem of childhood obesity, an especially urgent issue among Latino children. The show promotes healthful eating, encourages physical activity and touches on solutions to problems faced by children today. This interactive, bilingual program features singing, dancing, and comedy.
Introduction to the Classics – This is a 55-minute compilation of four plays from the Spanish Golden Age Comedy of Errors. The scenes were chosen for their diversity, their comedy, their show of sword play, and geared to young audiences to promote a deep comprehension of the works, as well as the idea that the classics can be entertaining and are not feared. Woven together by narration, the plays featured are The Phantom Lady (La Dama Duende) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca; Fenisa’s Hook (El Anzuelo de Fenisa) by Lope de Vega; Misfourtunes of a Household (Los Empeños de una Casa) by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; and the Suspicious Truth (La Verdad Sospechosa) by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón.
Three Cultures, One Spirit – This show is performed in association with the Tierra Blanca Dance Company. It showcases the essence and beauty of Mexican Folklore, and the influences that contributed to its development. The pre-Colombian native influence, the European influence and the African element blend to produce rich dances and rites of passage celebrations. This show and the musical instruments used are explained to the young audiences.
BFA has also received DCA support for a number of years to continue to develop and expand its current audience through proven strategies and new marketing techniques. One of the methods that has been useful in reaching this goal is inviting teachers and other education professionals to our theater (Teatro Carmen Zapata) to see free demonstration performances of our touring shows. Not only can we reach these educators directly, but they also spread the word for colleagues throughout the Southland. BFA continues to build its mailing, phone and email lists for director marketing and evaluation purposes, and pursues local Spanish-language television, radio and print coverage and publicity for appropriate projects.
Measuring Achievement: BFA’s education programs and marketing initiatives are evaluated through demographic questionnaires distributed to audience members, participants, teachers, and students at the time of the performances. Surveys provide instructive data, which include demographic information (ethnic background, home zip code, age, family income, etc.), and an evaluation of marketing efforts. An equal emphasis is placed on the quality of the programs for audiences and participants. Students often write a letter of thanks to express their feelings about their experience. These letters are another way BFA gauges the educational, artistic, and marketing success – and needs – of its programs. Direct-contact surveys are conducted to evaluate the program’s effectiveness, to see which areas need improvement, and which successful program components might be expanded. This is achieved through one-on-one discussions with students, follow-up telephone calls to teachers and focus groups.
