This holiday season, Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg will play host to a somewhat nontraditional rendition of the Christmas story. Mary and Joseph are there, and they’re still making a trek – but this time, they’re Latino emigrants trying to make it to America, where baby Jesus is born in a hospital – not a barn.

That’s how it goes in this updated take on the traditional journey to the manger in Bethlehem. Called "La Posada" ("shelter" or "inn"), the production is loosely based on the Latin-American traditional Christmas celebration of the same name, where neighbors trek from house to house in search of shelter, until the final home welcomes them in to a holiday party.

The Harrisonburg production is funded by an Arts Council of the Valley grant, sponsored by NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center and follows a script similar to an original one used by a bilingual Latino theater group at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ called Teatro Chirmol.

Edwin Bonilla (standing), who plays Jose, a modern-day Joseph in this take on the Christmas story, checks on Armando Sanchez during a scene in "La Posada." The play was performed at 7 p.m. on Dec. 5 and 6 p.m. on Dec. 6 at Community Mennonite Church. Photo by Nikki Fox

"We’re bringing our own participants’ sensibility to it, but it is back to those original people and the great work that they did," said Heidi Vogel, an associate professor in 91¶ÌÊÓƵ’s theater department and the show’s director.

The show has about 15 cast members, spanning a broad range of cultural and ethnic heritages. The show, said Vogel, will incorporate Christmas traditions from many of those cultures.

"This particular Posada is not aimed only at the Hispanic community," she said. "The idea is to create more of an overall community event, including voices from different minority communities as well as the majority, and bringing them together … it is not necessarily a religious event, but a cultural celebration."

Which makes it fitting for Harrisonburg. According to Tina Glanzer, special events coordinator for NewBridges, Harrisonburg has a thriving immigrant population – English is the second language for nearly half of the students in city schools, she said – so "La Posada," with its ethnically diverse cast and blended cultural interpretations of the Christmas story, is a perfect community-building event for the area.

"It’s exactly fitting for NewBridges, because [the cultures involved] are all the populations that they’re working with," she said. "And one of the outreaches of NewBridges is to pull people together and help them understand each other, and each other’s traditions, and appreciate what those traditions are."

Among the traditions incorporated in "La Posada" are multiple ethnic musical numbers. Some, Glanzer said, are traditional Christmas carols simply sung in different languages, but others are Russian or Spanish carols or bluegrass pieces by local band Daphna Creek. The songs are used as segues between the play’s vignettes, and Vogel said that while the production is in both English and Spanish, audience members don’t have to be fluent in either to enjoy the show.

"It is a chance for the many different cultures here in Harrisonburg to come together to celebrate the season," she said.

"La Posada" runs at 7 p.m. on Dec. 5 and at 6 p.m. on Dec. 6 at Community Mennonite Church, 70 S. High St., Harrisonburg. Featuring a barbershop quartet, Daphna Creek bluegrass band, Slavic Christian Church choir and Smithland Elementary Choir. Audience participation is encouraged. Free, with donations accepted for NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center. For more information, call 383-1105.

The cast includes Harrisonburg High School students, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ and JMU students and bilingual community members. The director is Sara Prince, a community member with theater experience.

"Erase Una Vez, Maria y Jose" or "Once Upon a Time: Mary and Joseph," is an original play based on a posada, a tradition in some Latin American countries of celebrating Christmas for nine days and nights. The play is a bilingual re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for a welcoming place of birth for the baby Jesus.

Teatro Chirmol

Teatro Chirmol, in its fourth year, gets its name from a type of salsa (chirmol) that combines seemingly incongruent flavors to make a taste salsa that works well together. Participants come from several Latin American countries and range in age from 14 to 25.

The project, which originates in 91¶ÌÊÓƵ’s Community Learning Center, seeks to give authentic voice to the local Latino community, integrate Latino youth with university students and provide community education about the assets and challenges of living biculturally in the Shenandoah Valley.

Traditional Latino food will be served prior to Saturday’s performance and immediately following the Sunday show.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $2.50 for students and children at the door.

Teatro Chirmol, a bilingual theater group at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ, will present a Christmas play, "La Pastorela," at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 10-11, in the mainstage theater of the University Commons.

The cast includes local Latino high school students, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ students and bilingual community members.

"La Pastorela" is a traditional Mexican Christmas nativity play that tells the story of a group of shepherds who are visited by angels. The angels tell the shepherds about the birth of the Christ Child and ask them to take the journey to Bethlehem. They embark on their journey, but on the way they face many struggles and obstacles to achieving their goal.

Teatro Chirmol, in its third year, "seeks to give authentic voice to the local Latino community, integrate Latino youth with university students and provide community education about the assets and challenges of living biculturally in the Shenandoah Valley," according to play directors Silvia Romero and Marcos Quintana.

Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for students and children at the door.

Teatro Chirmol, a Latino theater workshop at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ, will present "Bajo un Mismo Techo II" ("Under the Same Roof II"), 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Apr. 9-10, in 91¶ÌÊÓƵ

Zulia Mena will speak about the impact of the war in Colombia and U.S. foreign policy on the Afro-Colombian people 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ. The coffeehouse is located on ground floor of 91¶ÌÊÓƵ’s University Commons.

Ms. Mena was elected to Congress in 1994, serving for four years as Colombia’s first ever Afro-Colombian congresswoman. Today, she continues her work in the Choc� as a community organizer and social worker.

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Mena will speak at James Madison University. She will be accompanied by Harrisonburg resident Silvia Romero, who will talk about her experiences as a Latino in the Shenandoah Valley. The presentation will be held at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Building 1301.

Ms. Romero was born in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Her family came to the United States in 1991, and she started elementary school not speaking a word of English. Romero currently works for the Shenandoah Valley Migrant Education Program and is involved in the community through her church, Blessed Sacrament, and the Latino theater troupe, Teatro Chirmol.

Mena is traveling across the southeastern U.S. with Witness for Peace, acting as a voice for the Afro-Colombian population internationally. Her appearances locally are sponsored in part by 91¶ÌÊÓƵ’s Conflict Transformation Program (CTP).

Admission to both presentations is free.

For more information, contact Danny Malec, (540) 729-6936; e-mail: dannymalec@hotmail.com.