SAN ANTONIO – A group of San Antonio high schoolers from CAST schools are bringing to light common issues adolescents face including fear, anxiety, community violence, and more.
Students will perform a stage adaptation of the book “Tafolla Toro: Three years of fear”, written by San Antonio native, Lorenzo Gomez III.
The book details the author’s middle school years in one of the city’s most crime riddled neighborhoods and includes letters the author wrote to his younger self.
Gomez partnered with CAST schools to transform the book into a play that will be performed for incoming freshmen from CAST Med, CAST Lead, CAST Tech, CAST Stem and Advanced Learning Academy.
“When you write a book, you never know how it’s going to be received. And to watch these students sort of internalize the stories, to put themselves in the stories and actually feel safe enough to tell their version has just been the most rewarding experience of them all,” Gomez said.
Bigger audiences in San Antonio could soon see the play.
The current adaptation focuses on the first three chapters of Gomez’s book. CAST schools says more donations are needed to adapt all nine chapters.
CAST aims to complete and co-publish the play and obtain a designation for it to be performed in Texas UIL one-act theater competitions.