Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 110

Wisconsin State Journal Sunday, September 28, 1980, Section 9 1 mm i Members of the Cuban Salsa Band relax with their sponsor, Ricardo Gonzalez (far left, back Gonzalez, Oscar Duquesnaz, Luis Armentero, Carlos Equis, Vicente Martinez and Rolando row) in Rick's Havana Club. They are (left to right, first row) Enrique Herrera, Jose Alda- Martinez. zabol, Manuel Rodriguez, Kenny Pena, Francisco Aguero. Also, (back row, left to right) photo by Maurice Thaler Musicians bridge cultural gap By Susan Kepecs Written for The State Journal The Cuban Salsa Band landed at the Dane County Regional Airport the afternoon of Sept. 13, making Madison its new home.

Band members arrived just in time to participate in the local weekend celebration of the autumnal equinox. That night they played beneath the Capitol, under the stars, until midnight. An international crowd of several hundred people turned out to dance to the infectious rhythms of Madison's newest musical entity. Spanish phrases floated through the air as many Madisonians took advantage of the opportunity to practice the language and to help make the many Cubans in the audience feel at home. On Sept.

17, the band played at the International Folk Festival at the West Towne Mall, inspiring a troupe of girls from the Kehl School of Dance ready for their own act in Mexican costumes to get up and dance with them. Within the same week they played two consecutive nights at a packed Rick's Havana Club at 150 S. Blair St. They also played at the Mexican Independence Day Fiesta on the Library Mall. That was their first week in Madison.

the Wisconsin Student Association), and one at the University Theater in La Crosse. They also played at a Twins baseball game in Blooming-ton, Minn. "The band has been well received wherever they have gone," Gonzalez said. "One of the things that characterizes Salsa is that it reaches out beyond Latino audiences. There are as many Americans on the dance floor as Latinos.

This music really bridges the culture gap." "Salsa" is a combination of traditional Cuban popular music and electronic amplification, and it has "guaguanco." Guaguanco can be roughly translated as "rhythm and flavor." "Salsa," Gonzalez said, "has its roots in AfroCuban music. This is quite possibly the only all-Cuban salsa band in the United States, so you could call it the real McCoy." Gonzalez says the band is the best thing to come out of Fort McCoy. He has had problems as well as successes in working with the refugees, but he decided to run the risk of sponsoring the whole band because of the high degree of discipline they possessed. Most of their material is original. Some of it was written in Cuba, some at Fort McCoy, and there are new tunes in the works.

All of the band members have musical backgrounds. Rolando Martinez Dominguez, 30, has been a The band formed at Fort McCoy about three months ago. It began as an informal jam session. Two men, who had been professional musicians in Cuba, percussionist Kenny Pena Sanchez and guitarist Rolando Martinez Dominguez, got together to accompany some singers. The process of organizing the band began.

Agusto Figueroa, who was an interpreter with the psychological operations unit at Fort McCoy, contributed his time and energy and got the band off the ground. Using rented instruments of inferior quality, and living in the atmosphere of the resettlement camp, the refugees managed to become a band with real potential. Ricardo Gonzalez, director of the Spanish-American organization and owner of Rick's Havana Club, was excited about their future; he decided to sponsor them and become their manager and agent. While the band members were still at Fort McCoy, Gonzalez and Figueroa arranged some performances for them. The first time they left Fort McCoy was Aug.

7 when they played at the Memorial Union in the afternoon and at Rick's Havana Club that night. A series of performances followed, including one at Merlyn's on State Street, one on the Library Mall for registration week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (sponsored by professional musician for six years. He went to music school in Cuba, then played in several different combos and orchestras. He said he had always wanted to form a group in the U.S., and he was one of the founders of the Cuban Salsa Band. The other originator is Kenny Pena Sanchez, also 30, who plays percussion and received his musical training at home.

His father plays the piano and a brother plays the guitar in Cuba. Sanchez has been a musician for 15 years. Both men said they had worked hard to organize the band. They sent word around Fort McCoy that they were looking for musicians, and they spent a lot of time looking for quality talent in those who responded. Vicente Martinez Carranza, 28, is lead singer.

He studied voice for three years at the Conservatory Musical in Havana, and also studied on his own. He played in a charranga, which, he explained, is a typical Cuban orchestra, composed of 11 men like a salsa band. The difference is that it uses different instruments flutes and violins rather than brass. Bass player Luis Armentero Solorano from Havana is 21 and studied for two years at a conservatory. Manuel Rodriguez Torriente, 31, plays Turn to Pqge 3 ui yn mm mm Del Lewis has come home Mr, I i By Genie Campbell Of The State Journal For Del Lewis, once a familiar face to Madison theatergoers, returning to the Capitol City is like receiving an invitation to come home.

Hired this fall as assistant professor of theater at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lewis is where he wants to be teaching and directing in a university setting. It's the goal he set for himself after giving up the New York stage in 1972 to enroll in graduate school. At the time, Lewis was 35, much older than his fellow students "I had written nothing longer than a postcard in that time," he said, laughing but, also, much more experienced. He had 10 years of professional acting under his belt, including several stints on Broadway. Just prior to leaving the Big Apple for Wisconsin, Lewis was playing Jacob Rothschild opposite Jill Clayburgh and Hal Linden in "The Rothschilds." But making it to Broadway wasn't enough.

"Reaching the point where I could get feature roles on Broadway was ultimately what I thought I wanted to do," said Lewis. "But it wasn't enough for me. I realized that the part of theater I really like the best is the digging part the rehearsal period the creating. You're not recreating something night after night on stage for 13 months." There was more to Lewis' decision, however, than just a career stall. "I also began wanting all the middle class things I had always said I didn't want but really did a home and children," admitted Lewis.

"I loved the city very much but it became con- had. Years spent performing on stage was also in his favor. But he didn't think he had enough teaching experience. He was wrong. Lewis is now head of the undergraduate acting program.

"What I want to do most is provide some kind of consistency and logical progression of growth for the students," said Iwis, who will have his first directing assignment as a faculty member this spring. Lewis is directing Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" for University Theater. He also hopes to occasionally get back on stage and act. He believes that it is still imperative for any budding actor who hopes to make a real career on stage to eventually make his or her way to New York, "especially for film and television." But it is possible to make a living today in regional theater, he confirmed, and he recommends that anyone heading to New York pick up some professional credits along the way. A degree won't matter in finding a job, he said.

"It's preparation for a certain quality of life." Even though the university professor has never lost his love for New York, he has been back only once since he left in 1972. "Mainly it was a question of time and economics. Last summer, my wife and I took the kids there and showed them all the places we used to go to. It was as stimulating as ever a constant bombardment of senses." Thinking about all the character roles he one day could play, Lewis added, "We've decided that when I retire from here, we'll go back and I'll start acting again." fining." This is all common knowledge to people who met Lewis while he was living in Madison the first time, from January 1972 through the spring of 1977. He enrolled as a graduate student in theater, became a teaching assistant for the university and periodically directed for University Theater and Opera.

What most of the community remembers, however, is his work with the Madison Civic Repertory Theater. Lewis, who holds a bachelor of music degree from Midwestern University, was the first artistic director MCR ever had. He helped to negotiate the move to Oakwood Village (MCR's home until its move last spring to the Civic Center) and double ticket sales every year he was in charge. Most important to him, he got a chance to consistently direct. "It was a wonderful opportunity for me," Lewis said.

"It was a chance for me to build something." In 1977, Lewis landed a teaching job at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.; very reluctantly he and his wife, Abbie, who had graduated in costume design from UW-Madison and met her husband in summer stock in Florida, and their two children, packed up and moved south. Lewis, who was born in a small West Texas farm town, doesn't regret the three years he spent in Greenville although "after leaving I realized what an incredible place Madison is." When a position opened in the department of theater at UW-Madison last spring, Lewis didn't think he had a chance. Practical knowledge he "i .11 1 I ft I UW-Madison assistant professor of theater Del Lewis. Stale Journal photo by Edwin Stein.