It was conceived in 2017: the idea Jesse J. Sanchez got while working on a production of Hamilton. He wanted to make his own musical, one that covered dreams, generations and cultural heritage. Specifically, Chicano and Mexican American culture. He brought the idea to the resident director of “Hamilton,” who told Sanchez to write a treatment. He did.
Sanchez and a couple of his close friends did a reading of an embryonic draft of “Sueños: Our American Musical” in 2018. “To see if it was worth pursuing,” he said.
It was. They loved it.
“I was like, ‘Okay, I should probably keep doing this.”
Over seven years, the project — his baby — has undergone extensive development. From script readings in Hollywood. To choreography labs in New York. To the Barbara Mertes Center at Las Positas.
The college is hosting “Sueños” for its first staged workshop production over two weekends in March, setting a foundation and precedent for future performances of the musical. It’s an opportunity most community colleges are not afforded. An honor exists in being among the first steps on what’s potentially a staircase to Broadway.
It’s an opportunity to vouch for the theater department’s quality. To attract talented student-actors considering community college. To “shape a piece of American theater,” department director and the musical’s producer Titian Lish said.
She wants to get it right. She needs to.
“People who are going to come see this are going to go back and talk about it somewhere,” she said. “And that can have a really long term impact on where this production goes — where this musical goes next in Jesse’s career.”
Sanchez’s introduction to the LPC theater arts department came in 2018. He was hired on as a last-minute music director for the school’s production of “Evita.” Six years after their 11th hour coworking, Sanchez got an email from department director Titian Lish.
She was congratulating him on the then recent-release of the “Sueños” EP. The six-song recording had made it through a first round of judges — it was eligible for Grammy nomination in 2024.
“It motivates me even more,” Sanchez said. “With just six songs out there, what could it be when the whole album is out there?”
ENSEMBLE: Ella Bracken (left), Michelle Fonesca (center) and Valerie Ramirez (right) are cast in “Sueños: Our American Musical” — which aims to tell the story of three generations of a Mexican-American family in their pursuit of the American Dream. (Photo by Ian Kapsalis/The Express)
Lish and Sanchez’s subsequent email thread involved the latter sending a script and song demos. It ended in August with him and Lish signing a contract to stage “Sueños” at Las Positas.
As the hosts of “Sueños’” first staged workshop performance, cast and crew are actively molding its contents: coming up with notes on the script and bringing them to Sanchez for editing. Like when an actor, Jackie Garcia, felt her character would’ve used “ums” and “uhs” to express palpable nervousness. Garcia plays Desiree, the sister of “Sueños’” protagonist Ali Viramontes, played by Edie Flores.
It’s 1999 and the Viramontes have just relocated from LA to Watsonville, California. Ali’s dream is to be a world-renowned composer — to attend Juilliard. But his new high school doesn’t have an orchestra. Conspiring to achieve his goals, he joins a community college orchestra and sneaks to San Francisco for a Juilliard audition.
Garcia is, in real life, dating the musical’s antagonist: Jason, a homophobic white guy played by Kyle Davidian. Jason’s bigotry is directed at Desiree and fellow queer character Maya — who “kind of have like a thing,” Alyssa Herrera, the actress playing Maya said.
Davidian, Garcia and Herrera did theater together in high school — at Liberty in Brentwood. The college freshmen chose Las Positas not only for its cost, but for its robust theatre department and actor’s conservatory.
Garcia had seen LPC’s rendition of “Little Shop of Horrors” in 2022. Herrera saw Las Positas’ “Footloose” the following year. The shows were, respectively, their catalysts for attendance. “Sueños” is likely to have the same effect — to draw in talent.
All three acknowledged the rareness of an entirely kind and caring theater atmosphere. Even at Las Positas, Garcia said, the jealousy and competition which naturally accompanies acting can tinge a production. This time has been different though.
Karina Gutiérrez, the workshop show’s director, does “a really good job at making the environment feel welcoming and accepting for all people,” Davidian said. Gutiérrez has the cast do bonding games at rehearsals. She’ll ask them, as a group or individually, how they’re doing. It’s made all the difference.
That and the fact that some cast members — like Garcia — are, for the first time, getting to play someone who looks like her: a Latina woman.
“Jesse always talks about how ‘Sueños’ is like his baby,” she said. “Now I feel like it’s my baby, too.”
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TOP PHOTO: Sueños: Our American Musical will show in the Mertes Center for the Arts on March 21-23 and March 28-30. (Photo by Ian Kapsalis/ The Express)
Olivia Fitts is the News Editor and Features Editor for The Express. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @OLIVIAFITTS2.
