With budget freezes and belt tightening throughout the California education system, it is most likely that the art programs will feel the most pain in up coming months.

But for right now, our Theatre Department isn’t worried about number crunching. It is concerned with the production of “Stand and Deliver,” adapted for the stage from the movie based on influential Garfield High School teacher, Jaime Escalante.

Former student and part-time Cerritos College instructor, Sal Velasquez, has spent the last three weeks grooming his cast for a story he feels hasn’t lost an ounce of importance for our society.

Struggling with racism and elitism in his own life, I watched as Velasquez shared personal experiences with cast members helping them to identify with their characters.

“I encountered this glass ceiling,” Velasquez told me regarding his Grad-School years at Columbia University in N.Y., “this institutionalized [discrimination], on the east coast based on, I can’t account for anything else, but on my skin color and my last name.”

After Cerritos, Velasquez obtained the goal that Escalante taught his students they were capable of. As a minority, from a low-income family, educated in the classrooms of Calif. public schools, he earned a degree in Drama at the Univ. of the Pacific in Stockton.

He further enhanced his education attending one of the oldest and most prestigious IVY League schools in America. “A lot of average people go there,” Velasquez said regarding Columbia.

But at a prominent school like that, he encountered a number of students who were practically bred for such an institution. “Parents pay $20,000 a year for private schools from the time these kids are in kindergarten,” he pointed out.

In comparison to academic life in southern California where students are, “lucky if they get into Long Beach City, and dream of going to UCLA or UCI.”

Escalante’s students exemplify this mindset. In monologues, different characters express their indifference to education, citing friends and family members who dropped out of high school, but have managed to survive.

Suddenly enriching your mind doesn’t seem important when your father’s business needs help, such as Ana Delgado played by Renee Duron. And what can a diploma get you that work experience can’t, asks Francisco Garcia, played by Arnold Sullivan.

Cerritos’ production of “Stand and Deliver” will be a timely reminder of the importance of our educational system. Especially within the urban, minority populated cities. It will also prompt consideration of the value of fine arts programs in our schools. As Velasquez puts it, these programs are seen as luxuries.

“A lot of people who run schools don’t have an art background,” he explains. “If more people were teachers in the fine arts and went on to pursue positions like Academic Vice President, we might stand more of a chance of having less cuts happen to this area.”

When the cast takes the live stage for the first time on Feb. 28, what spectators will enjoy is a well-oiled performance put on by a large, dedicated cast, with no budget. But that has not put a damper on these students who, in less than a month, are already running through rehearsals script free.

History has shown us that the entertainer has had an important role in developing our culture. In classroom lectures, Velasquez draws parallels to man’s use of fire as a source of protection through heat and the nourishment of physical connection.

From this gathering, we have given birth to the story telling traditions that eventually adopted a stage for performances. Plays are a means of preserving our history and connecting with outsiders by relaying our experiences.

Audiences still gather, more likely in movie theaters today, to share the experiences of modern storytellers. It is one of the largest businesses in America. But is an appreciation for art still as important to us academically? Velasquez thinks so.

“Is it [art] necessary for our human survival? At some physical level, no, but at a cultural level, you couldn’t really have a society or culture, as we know it without it. If that is important to us as a society, then art is important. And that is why you want to try and build an appreciation for that as early as possible,” Velasquez said.

In preparation for this thesis, Velasquez developed a play based on the poetry of Langston Hughes. Entitled, “Hughes’ Blues,” the two act play revolved around one day on a fictional Harlem street in 1940’s New York. The dialogue was developed strictly from Hughes’ poetry. At the recommendation of Department Chair, Georgia Well, Velasquez submitted it for a contest that won him the chance to produce his story. “Hughes’ Blues” was performed at Cerritos in the fall of 1992.

“Stand and Deliver” as the first play of 2003 was the suggestion of Well, also. She contacted Velasquez, who recently returned his residence to Los Angeles after living in New York. The two also agreed to incorporate another former student, Alejandro Patino, in the role of Escalante.

Patino is a successful actor in Los Angeles with roles in various commercials and sitcoms, as well as the movie, “Bowfinger.” He is inspirational to the cast as a Latino in the entertainment industry.

“Stand and Deliver” runs Feb. 28, March 1, 6, 7, 8 and 9.