143
setting of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (see Appendix F for photos).
Contl"ill"Y to the tradition of the PRTT of "nationalizing"
the texts, Pay~nt as Ple~cd retained its Brazilian setting and allusions without atte:vting to bring them closer to the Puerto Rican exPerience.
l'~ercedes
Batista, a B1·azil ian dancer and teacher whose
folkloric company has toured Latin Ar.-erica and Eur·ope, was in charge of the choreography of the "capoei ra"--a traditional Afro-Brazilian dance--which opened the third act.
The play has had a wide appeal for
other Latin theatre groups in New York; the 1974 summer production bY the PRTT had been preceded by three others in both Spanish and the original Portuguese. 68 The summer bi 11 ~·
\~as
completed by Bradbury's The Honderful Ice
a short play about six Latin men
buY a beautiful
1~hi
1~ho
save enough mney to
te suit and their adventures while sharing it.
Ten
performances were scheduled, ending the 1974 summer touring season 00
August 31. The 1975
Se~son and Piri, Papaleto, and Pedro, 69 and If You Pron~se ~ot to Learn7D
1975 began >·lith the staging of
tl~o
A1·rabal plays in
the Labor<Itory Theatre: Ceremony for an Assasinated Black 68 rue1·to Rican Traveling Theatre, Program Notes for the production of Pa,Yrr.t;Il~s_?_led~~ New York, Sur.vner 1974. Files of the Puerto Rican TraveT1ng 1n<::at1·e.
69 Piri Tholl'.as. Jesus Papoleto Helcndez, Pedro Pietri, Piri, p~~etO_il!ld Pedro_. __D_i_rected by P~blo (Unpublished pla~script:-Pu~rto filcanlravenrly l!Jeat•·e~~rnes of the Puet·to R1can Travel1ng Theatre. 70 osvaldo Ot·aqun. Historias para ser contadas, trans. Pablo Cabrera and Ricardo ~l.ataniil·os-runpuGiT5heap1ayscrTp-t, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 1975). Files of· the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre.