PORT TOWNSEND — Carmelita Colòn, a complex and fierce character, is the “Queen of Tamales.”
Yet when entering a history museum, she can find almost no sign of her rich life.
Instead, the institution is replete with references to Carmelita’s ex-husband, the guy who branded himself the king of tamales of Walla Walla.
“This actually happened in my research,” said Ana Maria Campoy, the playwright and director who proceeds to tell her fictional character’s story in “Carmelita: A Vindication for the Unwritten, or How to Write Yourself Back into History.”
It is the final play in Key City Public Theatre’s 2024-25 season, and it opens this week. It stars Antonieta Carpio, actor-educator-artist from Seattle, with music by composer Olivia Pedroza and Clarice Marx as “the Voice of History.”
The play is “the wild West meets choose-your-adventure, with some romance of course,” said Campoy — and most of all, it is “about women finding community amongst each other.”
“Carmelita” previews Thursday, opens Friday and continues through May 11 with evening and matinee performances at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., Port Townsend; tickets can be purchased at www.keycitypublictheatre.org or by calling 360-385-5278.
“See this show if you like adventures that end with hope … and to be inspired by history,” Carpio said.
Carmelita came from 1860s Mexico into the new territory far to the north. She learned a new language, founded a restaurant, raised a child and built a life independent from her ex-spouse.
“How do you become a person who feels so strong that you can do that?” Campoy asked.
The answer is a journey, she said, about the necessity of community. That, after all, is how people survived gold rushes, wars and discrimination.
“I had no idea my play would become as relevant as it has,” Campoy said, adding she wrote it long before the 2024 election. The playwright has been collaborating on “Carmelita” with Key City Public Theatre for two years.
Now, at last, Campoy is watching Carmelita’s journey come alive on stage in Port Townsend.
“Antonieta is fire. Absolute fire. She’s just been so perfect in this role. She brings heart and bravery,” Campoy said of Carpio, adding the actor laces her performance with humor.
“Carmelita’s story is my story, just transported in time. And I can say it’s my mother’s story or my abuela’s too,” said Carpio, whose family is from El Salvador.
“Our strides with community, our children or ourselves, have the thread of migration for a better life,” she said.
“Being able to portray a woman with such ferocity, from her point of view, is an honor and a privilege.”
Campoy, who grew up in Southern California and in the Mexican state of Sonora, has done abundant work as a translator and bilingual adaptor of Shakespeare and many other productions. “Carmelita” is her original play — a thrill, Campoy said, that sparks her memory of the fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Bidleman, who told her to keep writing.
Authors through history have inspired Campoy too: “Carmelita’s” subtitle comes from “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” Mary Wollstonecraft’s work of feminist philosophy from 1792.
In the wild West — and elsewhere in the world throughout history — “women will work together to survive. We will figure it out,” Campoy said.
On the surface, we might give the impression we’re swimming smoothly like ducks on a lake, she added.
Underneath, “we’re paddling like crazy and working together, building coalitions in ways you wouldn’t expect.”
When it comes time for the performances of her play, Campoy’s desire is to see and hear how people feel.
“Be loud. Respond,” she said.
“Laugh, cry.”
“Carmelita” is about women helping one another, Campoy said: standing up for human rights.
“Your safety and liberation is my safety and liberation,” she said.
At the same time, “it’s a hard thing to admit that we need people,” since the dominant culture reveres the individualistic, bootstraps mentality. The playwright hopes Carmelita’s story “makes people a little bit braver, so they turn to each other.”
Carpio, when asked what she hopes to give her audience, said: “A new viewpoint. This isn’t about being Latino or telling a Latin story, although I’m proud to say I am and this is.
“This is about how we look around our pueblo, our town, and make a difference. Even if it starts small like Carmelita’s tamale recipe.”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
