Steppenwolf stages reading of Mango Street

April 27, 8:32 AMChicago Literary Scene ExaminerRobert Duffer

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On Monday night (April 27 @ 7pm), Steppenwolf Theatre will stage a reading of Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, which is the One Book, One Chicago selection for Spring 2009. Actors will be performing scenes from the adaptation by Tanya Saracho, co-founder of Teatro Luna, to be performed for Steppenwolf's Young Adult series in the fall (10/16/09-11/1/09).

Cisneros' classic bildungsroman is structured by vignettes, or one-to-two page scenes that reflect the mindset of the tenish-year-old Esperanza, the Chicago-Latina protagonist. Cisneros not only pulls off the child-narrator but draws in adult audiences with her poetic imagery and highly-stylized structure. Most of the brief scenes in this brief novel, or novella, are abrupt immersions in events both momentous and mundane. "Chanclas", a two-pager about Esperanza not wanting to dance at her cousin's Baptism because her mother forgot to buy her new shoes, sticks out in my memory as representative of the whole Mango, suggesting so much by showing only moments.  It'll be interesting to see how Saracho ties it all together on stage. Consider tonight a preview of the work-in-progress.

The FREE reading cosponsored by the CPL will be held in the upstairs theatre; RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.