El Gato y La Gaviota

Actors from Teatro de la Luna performed in a special Primary School Gathering on October 12. Part of Lowell’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, students were treated to the story of “El Gato y La Gaviota,” or “The Cat and the Seagull,” based on the book by Chilean Louis Sepúlveda. 

The play opened with a trio of playful cats. They leaped across the gym, slunk into the crowd of students, and asked for help learning what humans eat. “Pizza! Pasta!”—they were relieved to hear “gatos” weren’t on the menu. 

As the play progressed, the cats encountered a “gaviota enferma,” who was ill from an oil spill. In her dying wish, she asked one cat to look after her egg and raise her seagull chick. True to his word, he kept the egg safe until it hatched, relying on some help from the encyclopedia (a recognizable cognate that all students could remember!) After some humorous growing pains, the cats grew to love the seagull chick, Afortunada, as she flourished into a beautiful bird. The seagull began to wonder why other animals thought she looked different from the rest of her cat family. The cats tell the seagull her history and promise to teach her to fly. The play concludes with the triumphant moment when Afortunada spreads her wings and flies across the sea.

Students followed along with the dialogue, performed almost entirely in Spanish. Every student at Lowell studies Spanish beginning in Pre-Primary School. Several students and faculty are native Spanish speakers, meaning that some audience members understood more vocabulary and grammar than others. Engaging facial expressions and superb physical comedy from the actors, along with a musical soundtrack, underscored the words so that everyone in the audience could follow the action on stage. 

Thank you to Teatro de la Luna for sharing this heartwarming story with our students!