Half of Dr. Garcia High’s student body is Hispanic. Many of their parents have never attended a show because they only speak Spanish. Not anymore.
Valentina Palm
Valentina Palm
Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post
The May 1 performance of “High School Musical” at Dr. Joaquin Garcia High School will be the first time Mariana Martinez’s parents attend a school event in which she is playing a role.
They haven’t stayed away because they are working, or because they don’t care for the theater. They didn’t attend because they didn’t feel welcome — because they speak little English, she said.
This show will bridge that gap. For perhaps the first time in Palm Beach County, those who speak only Spanish can wear headsets and hear Marianna and three other students voice the characters of Sharpay, Troy, Gabriella and all the other Wildcats in the musical based on the 2006 Disney Channel movie that captured hearts young and old.
“Having the show translated so they can be a part of it got them so excited,” said Martinez, a native of Honduras and a freshman at the school.
” ‘We can be there because we will understand,’ ” Martinez recalls her parents telling her.
Half the families at Dr. Garcia High identify as Hispanic
Jason Young, the school’s theater director, proposed incorporating the headsets with live Spanish translations to make the show truly accessible to those families that speak only Spanish. Almost half the students at Dr. Garcia, on Lyons Road between Wellington and Greenacres, identify as Hispanic.
Instead of having to take their eyes away from the stage to read the translated text on a playbill, they will hear the Spanish dialogue through the headsets in real time, Young said.
“A school has an obligation to serve the community that its students are drawn from,” said Young, who won a 2023 Tony Award for excellence in theater education.
“When our Spanish-only speaking families come to watch the show they are able to share that experience, just like anybody else, regardless of a language barrier.”
The High School Musical production at Dr. Joaquín García High School will start on May 1 and run for four weekends.
Advanced tickets for the show are available online.
Idea of ‘High School Musical’ came from the students themselves
Initially, the drama club at Dr. Garcia sought to stage “Little Shops of Horrors” this year but when Young found out it required a license agreement, he asked his students for musical suggestions.
Several of them raised their hands to pitch “High School Musical.” Young was surprised: He thought the Disney films were “dead and gone” but it was the musical his students grew up watching.
It became the perfect show for Dr. Joaquin Garcia High School because — as its closing number, “We’re All In This Together” puts into song — it breaks down barriers between people, Young said.
“The idea behind it is that regardless of our differences we need to come together and actually embrace what makes us different, rather than tear each other apart,” Young said. “That’s a perfect message for our kids, especially today.”
When Young opened the auditions for “High School Musical,” students started pouring into his classroom. For almost half of the 40 students participating in the show, it will be their first time in a theater production.
Each student has a role in all the on-stage and backstage work. Some act and dance while others design costumes, create scene designs and manage the theater’s lighting and sound. Together, they built the red and white replica of the Wildcats’ East High cafeteria.
What this ‘High School Musical’ means for Hispanic students
When Young announced the show would include Spanish translations, students were excited but also skeptical. They didn’t know how it would work and most had never been involved in a play.
Martinez and her fellow Latinos in Action students Rebeca Posadas, Samuel Muñoz and Gianluca Malo volunteered to be the Spanish voices of the show’s characters.
The first step was to create the script. Daleen Torres-Muñiz, the school’s Spanish and Latinos in Action teacher, worked with the students to recreate the dialogue with accurate translations that didn’t sound robotic, but rather how teens would talk to each other.
Even though they are not performing, the students will be on stage sitting on a press box towering over the stage as they do the live narration of the script in Spanish. For them, it’s more than just a show.
Posadas, like Martinez a native of Honduras, got emotional thinking of the moment she gets to see her mother sitting in the crowd on opening night.
“It means everything to me,” Posadas said with a weep. “These are tears of happiness because I can show her I am accomplishing new things that I couldn’t do in my country.”
Malo arrived in the United States a year ago from Colombia with his family. He is learning English and is shy about speaking in public but says the show has helped him make friends, get involved with school activities and gain a sense of belonging.
“Before, I came to school and went home,” Malo said. “Now, I stay after school and I feel looser, more social and talkative.”
Martinez never thought she would be part of a school play. But “High School Musical” is one of her favorite movies and she knew it would be an opportunity to show her family what she was capable of.
“They will be able to see me and my progress,” Martinez said. “And what it has been like to start my life from zero.”
Muñoz, a native of Colombia, will bring his father and older brother to opening night. When he got the part to do the Spanish translation, he rushed home to tell them.
“They will feel included because they can actually understand what is going on,” Munoz said. “It’s also a chance for them to see how I’ve worked on relating myself to others.”
‘High School Musical’ gave Dr. Garcia students sense of community
Before joining the drama club, Gabriela Ortiz-DeSantis said she rarely wanted to be in school. Her mom would constantly have to pick her up because her stomach or her head hurt. Now, she stays in rehearsals until 10 p.m.
Ortiz-DeSantis and her friend, Madison Howell, auditioned hoping to get casted as the math whiz Gabriela and the drama queen Sharpay, respectively, to match their personalities, but they got the opposite roles. Since then, they have helped each other get in character.
“I like singing with Elio, who’s playing Ryan. I love all our duets,” in songs such as “Bop to the Top,” Ortiz-DeSantis said. “I like to have Sharpay’s attitude and be able to show that on stage.”
Lisandra Rodriguez, a freshman whose family is from Puerto Rico, is one of the main dancers, and she is expecting a big crowd on opening night. She will bring her mother and her boyfriend, a couple of aunts and her grandmother, along with her sister and several of her cousins.
“This gave my grandma and her sister the ability to be able to come see me,” said Rodriguez. “Being here, it just feels like I can be myself. Being on stage makes me feel a way nothing else has ever had.”
Elio Fantuzzi — the freshman who is interpreting Ryan, Sharpay’s show partner and overshadowed brother — has wanted to play that role since he first saw “High School Musical.” But it wasn’t until he arrived at Dr. Garcia that he felt comfortable to try acting.
“I didn’t really express who I was in middle school. I would usually hide the real me,” Fantuzzi said. “But when I got into high school and I found out about theater, I decided I wanted to do this.”
For Kiara Godoy, the freshman daughter of Honduras and Brazilian immigrants, it will be her first time playing a role on stage and also the first time her parents attend a school event. She mustered the courage to join the show because of the musical’s message.
“You should be proud of what you like and what you do, and you should always encourage other people to do the same because, at the end of the day, we only get to experience high school once in our lives,” Godoy said.
Armelle Jean Jacques, a freshman whose family is from Haiti, was cast as Ripper, a skater who secretly plays the cello. She only tried out for a character role after her friends from the drama club insisted she audition.
“Before, I was subconscious in myself and didn’t have friends who were supportive of me, so I would never try to do anything bigger,” said Jean Jacques. “Then, as I was the rehearsals I started connecting with everyone and I felt that I belonged somewhere.”
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
