What’s in a name? Explore identity, roots, heritage and bygone New Bedford at Through a Portagee Gate, a play adapted by Patricia A. Thomas from the memoir by Charles Reis Felix. Culture*Park Theatre’s production of Through a Portagee Gate will be presented at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford, Thursday, May 31, at 7:30pm. Tickets, are $10 and $15 and are available on the Zeiterion’s website, or at the box office. A fun, fast-paced full-length play that dramatizes the immigrant experience, Through a Portagee Gate is a story of the immigrant experience intersecting with the American Dream through a cobbler shop at 868 Acushnet Avenue, in New Bedford. Through a Portagee Gate will be presented locally one night only in advance of a 2019 tour to the Azores and Portugal.
This energy-packed production features spoken Portuguese language, song, and other
surprises. Michael Ventura of New Bedford inhabits the role of Jose Felix, the cobbler/
shoemaker from Setubal, Portugal. John Costa of New Bedford plays Jose’s son, Charles, who narrates the story from his classroom in Escamil, California, driven to confront his heritage by an unsuspecting custodian and Azorean immigrant, Senora Oliveira, played by Lynda Araujo, of Taunton. Nancy Leary of Fall River plays Ilda, Jose’s wife. Tania Montenegro of Providence, and Adam Vieira of Taunton play daughter, Idalia, and young Charley. George F. Moses, R. J. Botelho, Patricia Thomas and Michael Thibeault of New York and Providence, round out the cast in this Culture*Park production, directed by Patricia Thomas.
Cast members play multiple roles including a Lenny Bruce-type stand-up, a philandering
pharmacist, Senor Cabral, Mrs. Maud D’Haze, the North End Communist, and double as singers and announcers in the Radio Ensemble in the WNBH Studio as they read the latest news, and sing jingles advertising the latest products, “broadcasting in downtown New Bedford from the New Bedford Hotel…” Pa Jose listens to the Radio Ensemble as they broadcast news stories and world events, taking listeners on a journey through the twentieth century, from World Wars, Roosevelt, Hoover, Unions, Textile Mill strikes, the WPA, and beyond.
Examine the drastic change in the Acushnet Avenue landscape – Old Weld Square – New Bedford- as much of it literally disappeared with the development of Route 195. “Hear the unquiet spirits calling out”…ghosts of Tommy’s Fish and Chips, Kroudvird’s Shoe Store, Braudy’s Department Store, Harry the Hatter, Phil’s Cut-Rate Notions, Genensky’s Pawn Shop, McDermott’s Fish Market…The North End Police Station with its Magic Turret from Fairy Land…This epic story is alive with humor, wit and sincerity drawn from the human experience.
Framed by a dynamic father/son relationship, it depicts the story of Jose Felix, from Setubal, Portugal, who came to America in 1915 in pursuit of the American Dream, with nothing but the coat on his back, and the shoe-making skills passed on to him by his father. Settling in the mill-town of New Bedford, MA, Jose worked day and night for sixty years collecting nickels and dimes for his work as a cobbler, while keenly observing life around him through the window of his shop at 868 Acushnet Avenue, in Old Weld Square. “No sparrow fell unnoticed.” Jose is an unforgettable protagonist, whose observations, and witty exchanges with his customers and family result in hilarious and touching dialogue, at once charming and idiosyncratic. We find Charlie, “Carlos,” the
son and second protagonist and story-teller of the play, who is a teacher in Escamil,California, “masquerading as an American” as he denies his roots and yearns for an “American” identity. There, in his elementary school classroom, the Portuguese-speaking custodian becomes an ironic confidant.
Revived in 2017 at Bristol Community College, Through a Portagee Gate was first commissioned by Dr. Frank Sousa of the Center for Portuguese Studies, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and performed there in 2006. The play was a featured presentation at the Escrita da Vida Symposium of Contemporary Portuguese- American Writers at the J. F. Kennedy Library, Boston, and toured Massachusetts funded by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. In 2008, the play, along with Amarelo, by Paulo Pereira, was published in the volume, Two Portuguese-American Plays, by the University’s Tagus Press.
Tickets, priced for the Community, can be purchased online at the Zeiterion Theatre’s website, or in person at the Z’s box office. Don’t miss this opportunity to catch this endearing play about New Bedford-both satirically funny and relevant in its examination of the immigrant experience.
For more information, please contact Culture*Park, 774-202-0588, or at culturepark.ed@earthlink.net, and the www.zeiteriontheatre.org for tickets
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