At the Educational Theatre Foundation (ETF), increasing theatre access for students, educators, schools, and communities is a top priority. One way it happens is Craig Zadan Pathway for Equity in the Arts, a $10,000 grant that helps high schools produce work rooted in racial equity, bring in professionals of color to mentor students, and host community conversations that matter.
For Hoover High School in San Diego, that work took shape with Bocón, a Spanish–English play about voice, identity, and migration. ETF chatted with theatre director Kati Behumi about the production’s impact on campus and the growth it sparked for her as an educator.
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A Story Students Could See and Hear Themselves In
Choosing Bocón put students’ lived experience and language center stage—but the turning point was who stood beside them. With Pathway funds, Behumi brought in teaching artists who reflected the community, including puppet and mask designer Tara Ricasa and choreographer Patricia Astorga—professionals who made students feel important and raised the bar on what they believed they could do.
Ricasa’s in-school residency turned advanced theatre classes into a design studio. Students learned sculpting, rigging, and problem-solving on a deadline—including a last-minute “puppet ER” when the giant La Llorona head had to be re-engineered days before opening. Panic gave way to apprenticeship: real constraints, collaborative fixes, and the pride of seeing a complex idea hold onstage.
Astorga braided folklórico and flamenco into movement sequences, giving the ensemble a physical vocabulary rooted in heritage. Just as crucial, both artists spoke candidly about their careers—touring productions, large-scale puppetry, and the business side of making art. Hearing those stories, students connected the dots: “You can actually make a living,” reframing theatre from an extracurricular to a career possibility.
The mentorship extended beyond craft to confidence. Students hesitant to perform in Spanish—or to audition at all—found coaches who mirrored their identities and expectations. As one student put it after working scenes in class: “I didn’t think I’d be able to, but I could, because we were guided by an expert.”
From Stage to Civic Space
Beyond the impact on students, the show choice also created a safe space for topics many programs cannot—or will not—tackle: immigration, displacement, and the daily uncertainties that shape family life. “We wanted the voices of our students and their families to be heard and not be silenced,” Behumi said. In City Heights, where policy shifts have directly impacted much of the student body, aligning art with community realities meant families recognized themselves onstage and understood why support belonged just outside the theatre doors. “The audience was really dialed in,” Behumi noted. “They knew this was about them.”
Building on that intent and fulfilling Pathway’s requirement to host a community event, Hoover chose a post-show panel. Representatives from the U.S.–Mexico Border Program (AFSC), the Community Law Project, and school leadership met families where they were, so they could ask about healthcare, housing, legal aid, and school supports in a space they trust. “It felt really good that we could involve the community in things that are real and serious,” Behumi said.
Audience responses also affirmed the choice: “It wasn’t just entertaining. It was important… it made me cry,” one father told her.
For the student matinee, Behumi had students complete a short reflection/survey right after the performance to capture reactions while it was fresh, and many of them tied the story directly to their own lives. One wrote, “The youth who immigrate here… may not feel like they have a voice. This play helps give them a voice to speak their truth.” That immediacy surfaced onstage, too: during La Llorona’s farewell, when the script lists war-torn countries, a student quietly added, “and Sudan too,” underscoring how current the themes felt.
For Behumi, the takeaway is clear: “Arts aren’t just to admire, be pretty, or entertaining. The arts is a very powerful way to make change,” she said. “It lets our kids know this is another way to tell their stories—they can make change through the arts because it touches people in a different way.”
Momentum, Measured in What Lasts
By closing night, Hoover had mounted four performances, welcomed about 700 audience members, and involved 42 student artists, numbers that now function as permission slips for what comes next. “We came, we saw the show. It was so awesome,” ninth graders told her, an early sign the production was recruiting future artists before they ever enrolled.
Recognition also came from the district. Hoover received four VAPA Spotlight Awards—two for student performers (including the actor playing La Llorona and a mariachi guitarist who composed an original song), one for the music director, and Artistic Innovation for Behumi. “We brought in a lot of unusual things that aren’t your standard production—puppetry, live mariachi, movement,” she said. “I was very proud of that.”
Just as importantly, the show built durable “muscle”: cross-department collaboration, culturally rooted choreography and design practices, and tools that stayed. Instruments purchased for organic sound now live in theatre classes, where students use them for SEL “music-therapy” breaks. “It’s kind of nice that I could keep some of these instruments and continue to use them for student well-being,” Behumi said.
Setting the Foundation for Growth
Beyond the impact on students and the community, the experience has also had a lasting impact on Behumi. She applied to Pathway as her first-ever grant “just for the experience.” While she was “the most surprised” to win, it’s also been a motivator to pursue more funding after seeing the impact on students. “Once you get it, it pushes you—you have to keep going with it,” she said.
Artistically, the work is already multiplying. Hoover’s Drama Club is devising a new bilingual Spanish–English play on issues students identified themselves—proof that a culturally specific production can spark a pipeline of student-led storytelling. Her advice to other programs doubles as a roadmap: “Do it for the experience of applying for a grant, if nothing else, because you never know,” she said. “Use the money to bring in other people—teaching artists who can give kids added experience beyond the one teacher they know. Those connections are truly inspiring.”