By Angel Diaz
All of the miles driven, all of the gas spent, all of the sleepless nights did not go to waste. I am so thankful for all of the memories that I got to share with the cast and crew of West Side Story. I have learned so much from this experience about myself and about others. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I was very close to not auditioning for this show because of how distant Kankakee was from my house. And now, Kankakee will definitely have a home in my heart.
When I auditioned for this show, I was definitely worried about how the people of Kankakee would respond to this openly gay dark skinned Puerto Rican man with a liberal agenda. Honestly, I did not know much about Kankakee, however, I knew it was a small town and my ignorance allowed me to assume that people from small towns had small minds that wouldn’t allow my small presence to exist in their city. But, hey! A theatre company in Kankakee was doing a production of West Side Story so how bad could it be!?
Once the rehearsal process began and I started to to get to know all of my cast mates, I started to see all of the beautiful colors that they had within them… my walls of ignorance started to crumble. This entire summer, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by such beautiful people with so much love, compassion, acceptance, and kindness to offer to me and to the world. Suddenly, I realized, not all people from small towns have small minds… but they do have BIG hearts! And you should never pre-judge a group of people based off of where they come from but only on what they individually bring to the table.
In this story, art really does imitate life. There were nights during rehearsal that I would just sit on the side lines and watch the final scene of the show. There is no happy ending. There is no triumph… just REALITY. The reality is that we are more alike than we are different. We all bleed red. We all walk under the same sun. WE are all HUMAN. That’s it. There’s nothing special about it. It does not matter how white you are or how dark I am. We are one. And the sooner America begins to realize that, the better off we’ll be.
I want to thank all of my cast mates, directors, and crew members from West Side Story for helping me tell this incredible story to a world that so desperately needs it. And I want to send a special shout out to the incredible team that is Acting Out Theatre Co.. Thank you for all of the positive energy, LOVE, and encouragement that you all displayed every. single. night.
