Federico Fenseco and Norma Shuh co-star in Nunsense. <p>
 
The fun-loving, high-kicking sisters of Nunsense--On Vacation in Vallarta strut their stuff every Monday night at The Santa Barbara Theater.

Benito Castillo with the organizers of the event

This past Friday morning, my wife, Conchita and I along with Eileen O’Leary had the opportunity to visit Pasito De Luz, which is the childcare center in the Pittial  area, located Exiquio Corona 545 Col. Bobadilla . Puerto Vallarta, Jal. México C.P. 48295. <p>

We arrived early, and there were only several children there ahead of us, so that gave us the opportunity to spend some with them. There were two young ladies there, volunteers from England, who along with the regular staff were feeding the children.  While we played with the children as best one can, many more started to arrive.  In no time at all, all four of the little rooms were overflowing with these challenged children ready for their breakfast.  One little one, who I thought to be about two, already had her stomach attached to her feeding tube.  I found out later that she is 5 years old.<br>

In spite of all of their challenges, they are a very happy group of children.<b

Yolanda Sanchez, not only is she the lady who started all of this, but she also is the one who keeps it all together.  She told us very excitedly that now after 5 years of pleading with the administration of Puerto Vallarta, they have finally given her a large piece of land to build a large center on to accommodate her ever growing population  of children.  This is her dream come true. 

Now if we can find an Angel to help her, that large center will change from a dream to a reality.<br>
            
Our mission this morning was more than just to visit Yolanda and the children.  Eileen O’Leary’s Theatre On The Bay, has just completed a season of three plays at the NH Krystal, and had two special benefit performances which all the proceeds were earmarked to go to Pasitos De Luz.  We were here now to deliver that check.  <br>
             
Looking around at the needs, I could see that we could easily use ten times what we were able to raise, but I know that there are many others out there that are helping this worthy cause.  But Yolanda needs much more than just money, she needs people who care to come and to visit and show these children love.  Even if you don’t have money to give, surely you can spare a little love for these children. If you do, you will be blessed by the experience.

by Polly G. Vicars
My mother must have been prescient when she called me "Polly," as all of my life I have been kind of a Pollyana finding something wonderful almost every day. My motto has always been a paraphrase of "There ain't no bad days sisters and brothers, it's just that some are better than others." And last Saturday was one of those "better than others."
On that day, Husband and I received a telephone call from José Marciano, a young man from Las Palmas, a scenic pueblo about 25 miles northeast of Vallarta. He had become a becado (scholarship student) back in 1994. While he was only one among many, we remembered him vividly as his story was quite different from the average boy.
In those days, Bernice Starr, Joan Blake, Judy and Angelo Galeana were running the America-Mexico Foundation, Inc., (now Becas Vallarta, A.C.) with a small cadre of Mexican, American and Canadian helpers. Husband and I were so impressed with the Foundation and the help they were giving to bright, but needy kids of Puerto Vallarta, that we jumped right in to help.
Las Palmas (Escuela Federal #55) was one of the eleven junior highs where the foundation was giving scholarships to eighth and ninth graders. Each September, Judy, Angelo, Husband and I would pack up applications, records from the previous year and visit each of the schools to screen the incoming 8th grade class with the social worker and principal. Students had previously filled out applications giving us the family background- - numbers of sisters and brothers, family income, usual meals, grade point averages and more. There were always many more applications than scholarship slots available. We had very strict criteria - 8.0 grade point average out of a possible 10, excellent citizenship/deportment and dire financial need. If all other criteria were met by competing applicants financial need became the deciding factor.
During our 1994 visit, Alejandrina Huizar Cisneros, the social worker at Las Palmas, asked us to meet with a very unusual young man, José Marciano. After finishing elementary school, José could not go on to junior high because his family with 4 children was extremely poor. His father's tenant farming earned very little money. Obeying his father, José had to go to work, not school, and he put away little bits of money until finally he had enough to return to school. He loved learning and made straight 10's (all A's). Then his father told him he could not go back the following year as the money he was spending on school was needed by family. That was when Alejandrina asked us to meet with José. He was a shy, clean cut young man who went straight to our hearts. Of course we awarded him a scholarship, which was not going to be enough for his father to allow him to continue in school. In those days, the scholarship consisted of one-half of the students school expenses: uniforms, books, assessments, transportation, lunches, etc. At a meeting with José and his father arranged by Alejandrina,Husband and I talked with father about José's eagerness to learn and how bright he was. We offered to pay the other half of his scholarship so that he would not be spending any of the family's hard earned income. The father really wanted José to work full time, but my friends know I can be pretty persuasive, so a deal was struck. José would go to school! It is hard for us gringos to realize how much just a small amount of money can accomplish down here! José continued his straight 10's and came to visit with us, bringing his report card every three months for his stipend. He finished junior and senior high. After his senior year he came to visit, we thought to discuss his university plans. He informed us that he was not going to continue his education right away, but was going to work to help his family while trying to save what he could to further his education at a later date. We tried to convince him to continue, but he had a plan and was sticking to it.
Life went on and through our work with the AMF we met and worked with many other students and I am ashamed to say that as the months and years went by we didn't often think of José even though we had become very fond of him. Happily, by this time things had changed so that junior high scholarships consisted of paying in full for uniforms, dress shoes, gym clothes, tennis shoes and all text books. When the government finally stepped up and began furnishing books, we then were able to provide all the needed school supplies: calculators, pens, pencils, dictionaries, notebooks, etc. instead of books.
When out of the blue, we got the call from José Mariano and he arrived we could hardly believe how grown up he had become! We should not have been surprised to find he is now 29. He told us that he was in the University of Guadalajara's Vallarta branch, CUC, studying accounting with only two semesters to go before graduation. As we chatted, he presented to us a plaque, beautifully mounted on wood. When I read the heart warming words, of course in Spanish, a lump formed in my throat and tears began to trickle. He had written in poetic prose the most incredible tribute to Husband and me in thanks for our help.
Indeed some days are better than others, and that day surely is on the top of our list for one of the best days ever!
If you would like to help some other bright young person achieve her or his educational goal there are many avenues for you. First you can buy tickets and come to the 45th Anniversary Becas Ball on Friday, March 9 at the beautiful Westin Regina Hotel. And you can sponsor a student through the foundation. For one year it only takes $160 US to sponsor a junior high student, $450 US to sponsor a senior high student or $600 to sponsor a university student. Donations to honor birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions are welcomed and announced to the honoree with a cheery greeting card. Memorials to loved ones are also a great way to help. The family of the loved ones will also receive a lovely card announcing the gift. Of course you can become a working member of Becas Vallarta, A.C. and really get to know these special kids. Practically every cent you donate goes directly to scholarships. The Foundation has no paid staff, no office, no equipment, no telephone. All projects are carried out by caring members! Join us, you will love it! For tickets or more information see http://www.puerto-vallarta.com/amf/ or call me at 223-1371

When I first met Eileen O’Leary we were both involved in what was the first adult English speaking theatre to be presented in Puerto Vallarta.  The play was “Everybody Loves Opal”, and it was being presented in the IFC clubhouse.  I was a member of the cast, and she was the assistant stage manager.  At that time I had no idea what a talented lady she really was.  I found out very quickly after working with her for three weeks in that first play.<br>
 
The actors who were in that first play and Eileen decided that they wanted to do more plays, so we formed Theatre Vallarta, and with Eileen as our director, we soon began working on another play. This play, a comedy farce was “Opening night”; and after much hard work both in finding a venue to perform in as well as on the play itself, they did open “Opening Night” at a art gallery downtown. Unfortunately, I had to bow out of that one because of illness.<br>
  After a brief time away in Canada, Eileen returned to Puerto Vallarta to produce and direct many other plays, this time as Dinner Theatre.  To name just a few, “Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Play On”, “The Melville Boys”, “Two and Two Make Sex”, “The Mouse Trap”, and more. <br>
    Before finding this new venue, Eileen O’Leary tried several different restaurants here, some of which were very good, but not quite as well suited for dinner theatre as is the NHKrystal Hotel. The room is large, as is the stage, and the food is excellent.  She opened here with a new name for this new location.  Theatre Vallarta has become Theatre On the Bay.  Her first play “BedFull Of Foreigners”, which she not only produced and directed, but acted in as well, got off to a slow start during the two weeks before Christmas, but came back with a “Big Bang” in January, with over 400 people attending the performances.<br>
   
Eileen is now hard at work, putting together both “Love Letters”, which opens next Wednesday with that special preview performance for Pasitos de Luz, as well as “Deathtrap”, scheduled to open the first of March.  This week, she is having both plays rehearsing one after the other.  Since she is directing both, as well as gathering the necessary props, I don’t think she has much time left for sleep.  But after next week, when “Love Letters” opens, she only will need to concentrate on “Deathtrap.”  As I stated at the beginning of this article, Eileen O’Leary is not only one magnificent Director, but she is also an excellent actress as well.

Sandi Lee Is Superb...Go See And Hear Her!
By Twila Crawford

Howdy! From that first greeting to the theater audience, Sandi Lee is Patsy Cline in voice, dark-haired good looks and cowgirl outfit. And the audience greets her throughout the performance with singin´ along, dancin´, standin´ up with rousin´ clappin´ and departin´ Santa Barbara Theater Tuesday night (show is at 8:00 p.m.) with enthusiasm about Patsy Cline...and Sandi Lee.

This is Sandi´s first major solo performance here
- we definitely need to see and hear her more around Puerto Vallarta. This is not her first time being Patsy Cline. Sandi performed as Patsy Cline in Love Always, Patsy Cline, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she lived for eight years. Sandi moved from pop opera to learning a different type of music and a way of speaking with a Virginia drawl. After opening night in Riyadh, an elderly couple from Winchester, VA, Patsy Cline´s hometown, told Sandi they knew Patsy Cline. ¨Äfter all these years, our Patsy is back.

¨ The two-women show with Sandi and veteran Vallata performer Mikki Prost combines humor, sadness and reality, and is based on Patsy Cline´s friendship with Houston housewife Louise Seger. Mikki Prost as Louise is quite the contrast to dark-haired, well-dressed and lovely Patsy Cline with Louise´s sorta blond hair, blue jeans and boots, and rough-edged, Texas country-girl look and demeanor...with, oh my, that accent we´ll have ringing in our ears when we try to sleep. Despite those contrasts, upon meeting, they became great friends and pen-pals. They had love of Schlitz beer (remember?) and as Louise says, ¨shared about children, husbands, and loves lost and found.¨ Patsy impressed Louise with willingly frying eggs and simply being down-home. Patsy describes herself as an ¨ol´ country girl who doesn´t read music or know what key I´m in.¨ Louise says, ¨Patsy was just as much as (like) us.¨

Patsy´s songs are what we came for, and Sandi Lee fulfills our expectations, and then some. She opens in a black-and-white cowgirl outfit with I´m a Honky-Tonk Merry-Go-Round and moves through country as well as pop songs such as The Wayward Wind and even Shake, Rattle and Roll. So many songs we had forgotten about since our Dad listened to the radio to the Grand Ole Opry while working on wood projects in the evening in his garage. How about ´em (we´ll all be talkin´ this way): I´m Back in Baby´s Arms, Anytime You´re Feelin´Blue, Walkin´After Midnight, I Fall to Pieces, Your Cheatin´ Heart, Stop Pickin´ On Me, You Belong to Me, Got a Feelin´ Called the Blues, Sweet Dreams of You, I´ve Got Your Picture - She´s Got You (both previous songs bring back high school memories for us - the class ring, the high school yearbook...), Two Cigarettes in an Ash Tray, Crazy, Seven Lonely Days, If I Could See the World Through the Eyes of a Child - What a Wonderful World This Could Be (Patsy sang this at bedtme one time to Louise´s young son), Blue Moon of Kentucky, and South of the Border. Sandi´s voice is most pleasing in the lower registers.

We see Patsy in many beautiful outfits, 60¨s-style. Sandi, with Patsy´s dark hair, wears many colors well. And, oh those high heels. The setting is simple, primarily in Louise´s kitchen. Over in a bar, we see posters back to the 60´s of a red and white Chevrolet, a movie poster with Marilyn Monroe and others, and a poster of the benefit at Memorial Auditorium in Kansas City, Kansas, where Patsy performed for the last time before she died at age 30 in a private plane crash in a thunderstorm on March 5, 1963, along with her manager and two other performers. (Take a look at the poster on stage for more details about performers in the final show. You´ll recognize names.) During her short life, she recorded 108 songs.

Behind the scenes of the show, Don MacLachlan handled sound, Bill Deavenport supervised lighting, and Roberta Valdez was responsible for costumes.
We know you´ll love Sandi Lee´s singing, and you´ll laugh, we think, too, with Mikki Prost who is in the same blue jeans to the finale. Mikki, as so many of us previously have seen, knows how to play an audience...especially the men.

Mikki´s acting is strong as Louise remembers Patsy. True Love is sung after Patsy Cline´s death in the plane crash. The audience insisted on several encore songs that Sandi Lee requested be kept as a surprise for new audiences. Just go...and laugh, cry and sing along with Patsy Cline.

This past October 11-16, the Committee of Sister Cities Puerto Vallarta - Highland Park participated in a series of activities that strengthened relations between the two communities, including a Gala Dinner in Highland Park, Illinois with the participation of chef Ulf Henriksson, Chef/co-owner pf TRIO and VITEA restaurants here, Chefs Ramiro Velásquez and Carlos Nieto of Restaurant Carlos (considered one of the leading restaurants of Chicago by ZAGAT), Chef Ami Sananes of The Culinary Experiences and Chef David Bell of Highland Park Country Club.

The Gala Dinner participants enjoyed the presence of Highland Park Mayor Michael Belsky, the Consul of Mexico in Chicago, Lic. Carlos Sada Solana, the Director of CPTM Chicago, Lic Eduardo Chaillo, the Director of Municipal Tourism of Puerto Vallarta Lic. Luis Cerda (representing Mayor Lic. Gustavo González Villaseñor), and Illinois Senator Susan Garret, among others.

By, Bill Reed One day in early 1981, I was sitting with friends at Pichòn’s beach restaurant when John Huston arrived offshore and hailed me from his panga. I had received word earlier that he wanted to see me, but I had put off going to Las Caletas because I didn't want to tangle with the Alacran. I went down to the water's edge to see what it was that John wanted. He tossed me an envelope. "There, Billy. That's the final payment on the book. That does it." No mention of foreign rights, subsidiary rights, or other income to which I was entitled by our contract. Simply, "That's it!" Maid was sitting beside him, a triumphant smirk on her face. Of course this was all at her prompting. I had no time for such petty nonsense. I said, "Yeah, John, I suppose so. That just about does it." John Huston and I looked at each other quietly for a few moments, exchanged casual salutes, and went our separate ways. I opened the envelope. Inside was a check for $5,000 dollars. Added to what I had previously received, that check brought my total recompense for almost four years of work with John Huston to exactly $32,500. It occurred to me that during the same four-year period, my retirement income from the U.S. Navy had totaled three times that amount. Also inside the envelope was a statement from John's business manager, Jess Morgan, which neatly itemized – and deducted from the amount which was rightfully due to me - considerable monies that I had been advanced for research and travel expenses. Not everything had been deducted; there were some items which Morgan graciously indicated were gratis. I recalled my original conversation with John Huston concerning the subject of expenses: "I want you to go where you think you need to go, Billy, and do whatever you have to do. Interview whomever you wish. There are no restrictions, and don't penny-pinch on this. We want to do it right, don't we? And don't worry about what it costs. I'll take care of everything!" I then re-read that sneaky Clause 7 of our written agreement, and realized that legally they had me cold. It wouldn't do any good to scream "... but you said ..." nor would I demean myself to that extent. Nor would I embarrass John by even mentioning “contract violations.” I am sure that Huston had nothing to do with that, and didn’t even think about it; he was above such trivial and mundane things as contracts. The head office (Jess Morgan and his Hollywood lawyers) were behind that clever gambit. Well ... another experience cost. The expense column in my life-experience-ledger was mounting alarmingly. So much for the Big Time, Reed. I only talked with John Huston once after that, at Boca de Tomatlan. We found ourselves waiting there one day for our respective pangas. We chatted for awhile. John said, "You know, Billy, I really miss Jerry Preston. Remember how he used to stand, with his arms folded over his chest, rocking back and forth on his heels, telling those marvelous stories about Cuba? Remember the way he used to grin, give that little jerk of his head, and say, ‘Yep, John. That's the way it was!’ He really was something, wasn't he? I wonder what ever happened to Jerry Preston?" I didn't have the heart to tell him. Let somebody else bring that unpleasant news. I said, "I don't really know, John, but wherever he is, I'm sure he's happily engaged in a scam of some sort." We laughed, for the last time together. We really had nothing to say to each other. I guess we never had. And so it went; repetitive cycles of frantic-if-prosaic activity, comedy, and semi-tragedy worthy of a first-rate soap opera. The last four years had been one hellacious merry-go-round. I was determined that 1982 would be quiet, pacific and, if possible, totally uneventful for me. I needed a break. I got one. I started off that year by breaking my back in a parachute accident. Ho hum.

Seven and soon to be eight graceful, healthy tigers are kept in their natural habitat, five of them at El Tigre. Recently, I was permitted to meet three of them, up close and personal. Not as personal as Jesus, who cared for some of the cubs after birth at his house. The big guy there is Khan, a four year old, Nala is 3 ½ and Samantha, who is six years old is pregnant and is due to give birth in two months. The Carmona household will include yet another cub.

The three youngest tigers on the resort property are Lluvia (2 years), Diego (3 years) and Nala (3 ½); all of which Jesus had the opportunity to have as house pets until they outgrew the Carmona home. Diego lived in the house for five months, Lluvia for eight months and Nala for four.

Richard Massone welcomes Maria Conchita Alonso ("Desperate Housewives") to the show at Tihany here this past Thursday.

By Ed Hutmacher<p>

   Congratulations to cast and crew of Nunsense—On Vacation in Vallarta! The ongoing success of their hit musical, which has been playing to enthusiastic audiences at Santa Barbara since its premiere five weeks ago, caught the attention of Dreams Resort concierges and managers, who decided that the popular show was a perfect addition to their line-up of entertainment at the five-star property south of town.<br>

   The trial run this last Sunday night was a huge success and Dreams Resort has just completed an agreement to run Nunsense on Sunday nights for the next six months. Co-directors Federico Fenseca and Paul Guerrero, along with co-stars Morgan Adams and Norma Shuh, will continue appearing in the hit show this summer. Closer to Vallarta, fans can still catch the high-kicking, fun-loving sisters of Nunsense at The Santa Barbara Theater on Monday nights.<br>

   And for Spanish-speaking locals and visitors, the musical satire Cine Horror plays on Friday nights. This humorous spoof about the movie biz contains a handful of comical vignettes about Mexican movies, auditioning for a part in a movie, making a motion picture, going to a movie, and watching a movie. Be prepared for rapid-fire dialogue, witty asides, a mischievous take on social mores, and a whole lot of riotous dance numbers.<br>

   For more information on shows, call the Box Office at 223-2048 or stop by The Santa Barbara Theater at $351 Olas Altas St. in the Romantic Zone. Since seating is limited, advance reservations and ticket purchases are recommended.

Local theatre folks Frank Meyer, left, and Eileen O'Leary, second from left, visited the childcare center "Pasitos de Luz" this past week with a much-needed donation