Nerdlandia

In the heart of a Fresno barrio, two high school juniors learn that changing themselves for the name of love doesn’t work as well as just being who you are. Martin, dubbed as Junior Einstein, is a brilliant Chicano nerd who has a huge crush on Ceci, the gorgeous chola. When Martin can’t shake his love for Ceci his cholo-wannabe friends help transform his look and attitude to be more machismo. But what Martin doesn’t know is that Ceci has a crush on him and decides to change her look to match his geeky style. In the end, they realize being themselves is enough and that what's inside matters more than the apperance. This over the top play, exaggerating on stereotypes, is meant to be comedic but comes across one-dimensional. Soto’s show more use of Spanish street slang, urban dialogue and play of audience adds to the overall playfulness and spunk of this short play. If staged properly and cast used the performance cues, Nerdlandia could be entertaining. As a straight read this play lacks luster, a bit of a bore.

Target Audience: Middle school and older
This play might be more relevant and easier to follow for urban areas and Spanish speaking communities. show less

Gary Soto tries his hand at a lighthearted play geared towards being performed at a diverse (meaning enough of a Latino demographic) high school. This is "Grease" Latino style, except backwards. Nerd boy goes through a cool makeover to get the chola of his dreams while said chola goes through a nerd makeover of her own to get the nerd of her dreams. They end up meeting each other halfway as each likes both nerd and cool parts of each other. There are a lot of Spanish words thrown in (glossary in back) as well as a lot of humorous dialogue and body language. Not in-depth in the least, that is not the goal for this short play as its shallow aim of being yourself--with just a few tweaks--is met without any major breakthroughs.

Martin a high school nerd has found himself in love with his complete opposite, a chola named Ceci. Ceci has also discovered that she is in love with Martin. Both Martin and Ceci decide they need to change who they are to get the other to notice them. This is a fun and entertaining play that would be great for a reluctant reader. The subject matter is interesting and amusing. This play could be very useful to a teacher who wants get students interested in reading and performing plays.

This play was ok but it wasn't one of Soto's best works. It's full of stereotypes about gangsters and nerds and maybe that is why it didn't like it as much as his other stuff. The "chola" falling for the nerd is something that the kids would never see happening but it's a play that is easy to read and they would probably enjoy it more than I did.

9016