King of the Desert (El Rey del Desierto), produced by Tracy Lane for CoActive Content, opens May 5; plays Thurs.-Fri., 8 pm; through June 11. Tickets: $10-$15. Ten percent of the proceeds from the run of the show will benefit The National Latino Children’s Institute headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Chaplin Stage at the El Centro Theatre, 804 N. El Centro, Hollywood; 323.960.5774 or online plays411.com/kingofthedesert.

Standing in front of the semi-finished set at El Centro Theatre’s Chaplin stage, actor Rene Rivera expresses understated pride that his wife Stacey Martino has written a one-person play that chronicles his family’s extended journey as Mexican Americans. “Over a period of time, she began writing a kind of journal that was her effort to understand who I was, as a child, and who I am now as the man who is her lover and her husband. It has morphed from there.

Rene Rivera

“One thing has led to another and it grew, becoming more in depth to include a more expanded view of my family. Eventually, we began to discuss the possibility of putting this up as a stage play.” The world premiere of King of the Desert (El Rey del Desierto) will open on Cinco de Mayo.

Martino, who is from Philadelphia, recalls the otherworldly experience she had when she first visited Rivera’s family home in San Antonio, Texas. “It was such a unique place that was completely beyond my experience. It was like being thrown back to another time. I was so fascinated by the people of Rene’s life while he was growing up and the stories his mother and sisters told me. His father died when he was very young.

“I also met cousins who really had some stories about his expanded family. And that’s what started me off writing short journal passages about Rene and his family, as well as my feelings about Rene, his family and their life in the U.S.”

Martino admits part of her hunger to absorb her husband’s culture was her early experience of being raised in a single mother home with no cultural identity. “My mother eventually married the man who raised me and who I consider to be my father. He came from a strong Italian family and culture and I just drank it up. I loved it. I just naturally wanted to absorb Rene’s culture the same way, especially when I became pregnant with our daughter.

Stacey Martino

“I bombarded Rene with questions about his past because I wanted our daughter to be part of it. At first, Rene would ward me off by saying, ‘I am an American.’ But I was determined to find that history for myself and for our daughter so she would know her Mexican American heritage.”

Both Rivera and Martino are quick to affirm The King of the Desert is a work of fiction, inspired by the elements of Rivera’s life and family history. He portrays all the characters in the play which Martino describes, as “one boy’s search to find out who he really is in an environment that does not encourage self-expression. He learns to survive by becoming anyone other than himself in times of crises, from a Mexican Revolutionary poet, to a Mayan Shaman, to a werewolf.”

Mirroring Rivera’s actual history, the boy’s journey begins in a small Texas barrio and eventually leads to Juilliard School in New York and to the Broadway stage.

The career common denominator for Rivera, Martino and their director Valentino Ferriera is the Actors Studio. Martino began her theatrical work in Philadelphia. At age 19, she founded The What Now Theater Company, which was committed to works about social justice issues. During 1992/93, she studied acting with Shelley Winters in Los Angeles, before moving to New York in 1994. Martino was accepted as a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio on her first audition in New York in 1997.

Rivera, also a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio, has performed as an actor on both coasts. He has appeared on Broadway at Circle in the Square in Salome, starring and directed by Al Pacino. Off Broadway credits include extensive work at the Public Theater, including Richard II (directed by Steven Berkoff), In the Jungle of Cities (directed by Anne Bogart) and Hamlet (directed by Kevin Kline). Locally, Rivera performed in the critically acclaimed They Shoot Horses Don’t They? at Greenway Court, directed by Rick Sparks.

Valentino Ferriera

Ferreira is an MFA graduate student in Acting and Playwriting of the Actors Studio program at the New School for Social Research in New York. Like Martino and Rivera, he is a lifetime member of Actors Studio.This is his third collaboration with Martino. He previously directed her one-woman show, A Slow Crawl Home at The Laurelgrove Theatre. He also staged Martino’s one-woman show, The Gift of Peace, which toured the U.S. in cities affected by violence.

“Valentino and I went to the Master’s program together in New York,” says Martino. “Rene and I met out here in Los Angeles at the Actors Studio. Actually, I saw him on stage in classes before we were ever together. He was always brilliant. I thought at the time, I can never do a scene with him or I’ll fall in love with him. So, I fell in love with him but I never did a scene with him.”

Martino took that memorable first visit to Rivera’s home in San Antonio four years ago prior to the birth of their daughter. She wrote the first draft of The King of the Desert two years ago over a two-day period.

“Stacey tends to write her pieces in 10 to 15 page spurts,” interjects Ferreira. “When you first read them, they are very literary. So, I like to go in and find the places to add or expand on a character. We discuss it. She then goes off and comes back the next day with a new or expanded character.

“We start mining and questioning the characters until we know more about them and how they fit into the throughline. Eventually they evolve into a storyline that fuels their further evolution. Eventually we have the finished piece.”

“Actually, for me, the evolution starts when I am able to put the script away and truly begin inhabiting the characters,” says Rivera. “I must admit, some of the material makes me uncomfortable because it hits so close to home. But, the great thing about working on this with Stacey and Valentino is that I feel so safe on stage. And when you are safe, you are fearless.”

Feature image of Stacey Martino, Rene Rivera and Valentino Ferreira and story images by Ed Krieger

Article by Julio Martinez