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With her reverence for author Sandra Cisneros—and the coming-of-age genre as a whole—Tanya Saracho seemed like the perfect candidate to adapt “The House on Mango Street” for Steppenwolf’s New Plays Initiative. But the 33-year-old co-founder of Teatro Luna is the last one to admit it. “I’m not a Cisneros scholar,” she says with a pleading edge to her voice, “[Steppenwolf] pushed me into the pool ... and I’m glad they did because I would have just chickened out.”
It’s not hard to understand why Saracho was freaked out by the prospect of adapting the classic story for stage. Published in 1984, “The House on Mango Street” has sold more than 2 million copies and was named the Chicago Public Libray’s One Book, One Chicago title last spring. It was the second book Saracho read in her E.S.L. class after moving from Mexico at age 12 to the Texas border town of McAllen. (She now lives in Roscoe Village since moving to Chicago in ’98.)
After lots of encouragement, Saracho realized that music was her key to the text, which unfolds as a series of poetic vignettes about a girl growing up in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. With the help of composer Tamara Roberts, the production was infused with rhythms from the late ’70s. Early hip-hop, cumbia, salsa and Puerto Rican bomba y plena made the cut.
We asked her more about her “play with songs” (“We’re not allowed to say ‘musical,’” she jokes). Here’s what she had to say.
Tell us about your process of adapting a book into a play.
I work from fear. I panic, and then something comes out.
Why were you afraid of this project?
Every Latina woman that I know has read this book. They can quote lines from it. ... So I have this community accountability to deal with.
So people’s high expectations made you nervous?
That’s the main thing. And I didn’t feel worthy. I’ve never adapted a full book. But also, well, you read it. Did you find a narrative in there? How do you adapt that?
That’s what I’m supposed to ask you.
I don’t know. We’ll see on opening night. [Laughs]
Did you have a specific neighborhood in mind for ‘Mango’?
No ... Mango Street is mythical. I understand Chicago, so I took a house from here, a street from here, a corner from there.
That sounds similar to the way Cisneros created her characters for the book.
Yes, exactly. I didn’t want to make it literal. People really keep wanting me to say Pilsen, but it’s not. [Cisneros] didn’t grow up in Pilsen.
Were you in touch with her during this process?
Yes. I don’t know if she’ll come see it. It took me ... the third conversation to not be a geek about talking to her.
Were you afraid to talk to her?
Yeah. She asked me, ‘Why did they pick you?’ I don’t think she meant it in a bad way.
Is it important for people to read the book before they see the play?
I think it’ll be a deeper experience. Of course, I’ve interpreted the book. This is not an adaptation of every word. I’ve taken some liberties.
In the introduction to the book’s 25th anniversary edition, Cisneros says that before she finished it, she didn’t think of it as a novel but “just a jar of buttons.”
I describe it as puffs of smoke. But a jar of buttons ... that’s great because you can rattle it. That’s amazing.
Any other books you’d like to adapt?
I love ‘When I Was Puerto Rican’ [by Esmeralda Santiago]. I still stand by that book; maybe they’ll let me do it next year.
Did you propose that in lieu of ‘Mango’?
Yes, because not everyone knows it.
Can we look forward to that next year, then?
Maybe. Yeah, they’re going to be like, ‘Tanya, you only like to write about 12-year-old Latina girls.’ And I’ll be like, ‘That’s okay. What’s so wrong with that?’
Rebecca Palmore is the Metromix events producer. rkpalmore@tribune.com
