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It鈥檚 1992 and the City of Angels is smoldering.

Gunshots scald the streets. A pervasive fear of new riots echo everywhere.

Opening at Santa Fe鈥檚 Teatro Paraguas on Thursday, Oct. 3, 鈥淚n My Father鈥檚 House鈥� explores the romantic, multicultural love affair between a Jewish graduate student and a Hispanic former gang member.

Their relationship navigates cultural clashes and familial disapproval wrapped in themes of gang violence, racism and police brutality.

The play germinated when Santa Fe playwright Jacalyn Kane was living in Los Angeles. The violence was sparked when a jury in the Los Angeles suburb of Simi Valley acquitted four police officers charged with using excessive force in arresting Black motorist Rodney King a year earlier.

It was there that Kane met Aqeela Sherrills, a former gang member, who negotiated a truce between the Crips and the Bloods.

鈥淪ome things are autobiographical, many are fiction,鈥� Kane said. 鈥淚t parallels what鈥檚 going on in the Middle East. It鈥檚 how to stop the revenge killings.鈥�

Alana is a social worker who lives with her parents in Beverly Hills. She travels to East LA, where she meets Angel in a coffee shop.

What follows defines culture class.

Alana鈥檚 father, after years of lecturing her about the importance of marrying within her faith, highly disapproves.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a poignant scene with her father as he goes to look for her and Rose, Angel鈥檚 mother,鈥� Kane said.

Her younger son died in a gang drive-by shooting.

The fear and violence reflect Kane鈥檚 own family history.

鈥淢y grandfather played clarinet in the czar鈥檚 band during the Russian Revolution,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e was secretly Jewish.鈥�

This was while Czar Nicholas II was imposing pogroms, or organized massacres, on the Jewish people.

鈥淗e left in the middle of the night with a gypsy Jewish caravan,鈥� Kane said. 鈥淗e went to Rotterdam and then New York. He had the equivalent of $50 in his pocket.鈥�

Such hardships fueled Alana鈥檚 father鈥檚 determination that she marry a Jew.

Kane visited her father in Puerto Vallarta while she was living in Los Angeles.

鈥淭he night I arrived, I had this heated political conversation with my father鈥檚 friend,鈥� she said.

The friend didn鈥檛 understand why the rioters couldn鈥檛 鈥減ull themselves up by their bootstraps.鈥�

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have an education and politics is in the way of that, plus police brutality, how can you rise up?鈥� Kane asked.

Then she got food poisoning. She was confined to her hotel room.

鈥淭here was a little stubby pencil the housekeeper had left and it just came pouring out,鈥� she said of the play. 鈥淚 feel like it was channeled. I was obsessed.鈥�

鈥淚n My Father鈥檚 House鈥� stars sa国际传媒官网网页入口 actors Svea Kennedy as Alana and Levi Lobo as Angel.

Kane has produced concerts for Tito Puente and Celia Cruz at Madison Square Garden, and managed clients from Ruben Blades to Marc Anthony and Menudo. She also produced and directed The First Americans in the Arts Awards, honoring the achievements of Native Americans. She independently produced and promoted dozens of concerts starring Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills, Lila Downs, Mavis Staples, Kris Kristofferson, Rufus Wainwright, America, Natalie Cole and Judy Collins.