Bethesda Repertory Theatre, named after the Angel of the Waters fountain in New York’s Central Park, is Alhambra’s newest and only theater company.
The Angel of the Waters fountain is named for the Pool of Bethesda in the Bible, where Jesus heals a paralyzed man. The Bethesda Fountain commemorates the opening of the Croton Aqueduct, which brought fresh water to New York City in 1842 after New Yorkers had been suffering diseases from contaminated drinking water. The name evokes the healing waters of the Pool of Bethesda, which the theater hopes to carry on in its work.
Michael Gomez, Managing Director, and Andrew Galindo, Artistic Director, co-founded Bethesda Repertory Theatre in March of 2023. Both have a lifetime of experience and passion for theater and both are also actors in the company, along with nine others.
“The reason we started Bethesda is because we wanted to champion new, fresh stories putting diversity at the forefront. We’ve seen a lot of theater in Los Angeles and felt that we could bring something that Los Angeles wasn’t necessarily prioritizing. That’s for people of color, stories of the LGBTQIA experience. People of various shapes and sizes,” Gomez shared.
Theater had always been a safe and welcoming space for him. Gomez started doing theater when he was thirteen, and immediately felt that it was somewhere he could fit in and be his authentic self.
On October 19, the company ran a one-night special performance of My Brother’s Keeper, the current production, with the hopes of fundraising for a full production next year. Both My Brother’s Keeper and Bethesda’s first show, Rhythm of Mourning grapple with grief and healing after the loss of a sibling.
A semi-autobiographical play written by local playwright Abel Marquez, My Brother’s Keeper follows a man learning about his late brother through reading his old letters and diaries. It’s a story about brothers, about the queer experience in a very conservative Latino community, and about “the complicated and contradictory nature of being a queer person but also being a person of faith,” said Gomez.
Plays like My Brothers Keeper that tell people’s real, authentic stories are why Gomez and Galindo founded Bethesda. “Our job as storytellers, as people who are in power in terms of running a theater company, is to choose stories that tell the unmentionables,” Galindo said.
Gomez added, “A lot of theater that we’ve seen in recent years has been very palatable, very commercial. Andrew and I have gone to the theater our whole lives and we’ve had experiences in the theater which is what made us want to become actors, where you leave the theater feeling changed. What drives us is moving people and telling stories where people feel seen, where they feel affected, and where they feel galvanized. That’s the main focus: powerful storytelling that’s also representative of our cultures and everyone we know.”
That’s what My Brother’s Keeper does, and what Bethesda hopes to bring to the community. Gomez and Galindo opened Bethesda to bring theater to Alhambra and make it more accessible for people who might not have had the opportunity to see live theater before. The theater industry caters to the rich, who have disposable income and the means to watch a live show. Bethesda is a non-profit theater company driven by the members’ passion for the craft, which hopes to give that passion back to the community.
Galindo grew up in Alhambra and finds a special meaning in bringing live theater to the city. In fact, the theater that Bethesda operates from, Stomping Ground LA, is along the same street that his mother grew up on.
“Everybody should be able to experience art like this. That’s a huge aspect of why we exist,” he said. “To be a professional artist, it comes out of a calling, a need to do it, it’s a service. The fact that you can change someone’s life with the story that you tell is a very powerful thing. To create for the sake of creating, not for the sake of money, to be an artist is a very noble thing. It’s a calling to a cause for change.”
As a non-profit theater, they take a grassroots approach to fundraising, having done several crowdfunding campaigns on sites like Indiegogo and GoFundMe, and rely on donations to make sure their actors are paid fairly and get to continue sharing these important stories.
“There’s something that is really incredible about getting a group of people together and finding people who not only want the art but need it,” Galindo said.
For anyone else who needs it: Bethesda wants to work with you. Learn more about its mission, rehearsals, and upcoming holiday show at www.bethesdarep.com.
