Nicaraguan Exports His Own Revolutionary Theater

Nicaraguan playwright Alan Bolt was surprised when Harold Pinter unexpectedly arrived at his farm one day. The farm is the home of a radical agricultural and theatrical cooperative run by Bolt in the mountains near Matagalpa, and it's a magical place, according to visitors. Many of them include movie stars and artists, and they make the two-hour drive from Managua almost as if they are on a political pilgrimage.

"So there was Harold Pinter trudging up the road," said Bolt, "I'd never met the man and he came up to me and said 'I have come to your farm because I want to work with you.' "

The two playwrights sat down and talked for a few hours, and finally Bolt, whose brand of social activism and street theater are especially popular in Europe, realized they could not write plays together.

"I'm sorry, Harold," Bolt told his visitor, "Our sensibilities are too different. I can't work with you because you love words and I love images."

Bolt's integrity and ideals are legion in Central America, where his theatrical use of Latino myth, music, dance and imagery in the cause of revolutionary change has triggered threats on his life by both the Sandinistas and the Contras.

Bolt, 39, is former chairman of the National Theatre Department of the Ministry of Culture under the Sandinistas. One of the foremost playwrights and directors in Central America, Bolt's newest work, "Salsa Opera," premiered at the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival at Cal State Northridge last Saturday, where the show will run weekends through Aug. 12.

The production deals with the dreams and illusions of two naive Central Americans whose border crossing hurls them into the brutal realities of immigrant life in Los Angeles.

"It's the Promised Land as toxic waste dump," said director-choreographer Miguel Delgado, a Teatro Campesino veteran who choreographed "Zoot Suit" and "La Bamba."

Delgado's teamwork with Bolt marks a rare collaboration between high-profile Chicano and Central American artists.

The soft-spoken playwright/farmer/environmentalist, who just returned to Nicaragua after spending a month here preparing his show, said the Central American assimilation problem on L.A.'s streets is stark: "Anglo hostility is bad enough, but on Olvera Street and in MacArthur Park," he said, "I found Chicanos saying they don't want Central Americans coming here either.