Like most soap operas, this one has all the trappings of real-life drama.
There’s corruption. There’s greed. And of course, there’s love.
But what distinguishes this telenovela, which is Spanish for soap opera, is that it has the potential to reach both Spanish- and English-speaking audiences.
The characters, Cesar, Margot, Marco Antonio, Julia, to name a few, are bilingual.
Over the next few weeks, soap opera producers plan to start filming a pilot here for “Love Without Boundaries,” or “Amor Sin Fronteras.” They believe it to be the first Latino-themed soap opera to employ subtitles, which they hope will make it appealing to audiences who speak Spanish, English or both.
And they said this is the first telenovela set entirely in the Chicago area.
Most Spanish-language soap operas are produced in Mexico or other parts of Latin America and then aired in the U.S. on such Spanish-language networks as Univision and Telemundo.
The backdrops for this soap opera will include Chicago neighborhoods, such as Logan Square, Pilsen and Little Village, and area suburbs.
“They key is we want to show Chicago, from Buckingham Fountain and the Sears Tower to Little Village,” said Karyn Suarez, the talent director for the project. “We also are going to film scenes in Winnetka and Oak Park.”
For now, the producers plan to air the pilot on a local cable television channel. They are trying to secure financing for national or international distribution.
“What they are trying to do is bring the Latino soap opera to a different level,” said Takumi Iseda, communications manager with Chicago Access Network Television, the cable channel that plans to air the soap opera. “It’s about community members taking their own initiative on an issue they feel has not been represented well in other media.”
“The fact that it is a bilingual soap opera makes it unique,” said Meris Zittman, owner of International Artists Group Inc. in Miami Beach, who has sent a synopsis of the telenovela to prospective investors.
A widely known star of telenovelas, Karen Senties, who has appeared in such Mexican soaps as “Con Toda El Alma” (“With All of the Soul”), and “Muchachitas” (“Little Women”), also has expressed an interest in the Chicago project.
“This will open doors to a completely different market,” said the young actress, who now resides in Chicago and attended a recent audition for the project. “It has a lot of possibilities.”
The local auditions, held at nightclubs, restaurants and dance halls, have drawn many hopefuls, from high school students to police officers in training.
Under bright lights in an old dance hall in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, Angel Goyco and Vanessa Lizano, read recently from two scripts, first in English and then in Spanish.
They were auditioning for the lead roles of Cesar, a hard-working public high school teacher, and Margot, an ambitious woman who coordinates political campaigns for a local politician.
“Cesar” moves in close to “Margot” and wraps his arms around his wife’s shoulders. He tells her about an upcoming dance at the Aragon ballroom.
“If you want, you can go by yourself or go with your friends,” she snaps and pulls away from him. “They never seem to do anything else but go dancing!”
“And you never do anything but politics,” he shouts back at her. “You don’t do anything but chase after Marco Antonio and his little cronies.”
“Cut!” yells the talent director.
Producers hope the story lines and characters will appeal to all soap opera fans.
“There is a Latino market of more than 28 million in the U.S.A., and most of them are bilingual,” said Fernando Fernandez-Barcena, producer of the project, snapping photos of actors during a recent talent audition. “And many English-speaking Americans are already watching and enjoying soap operas in Spanish.”
The popularity of telenovelas has been well documented. For example, “Mi Querida Isabel” (“My Darling Isabel”), a soap opera shown locally on Univision’s WGBO-Channel 66, ranked third, after NBC’s “Seinfeld” and ABC’s “Home Improvement,” among all 18- to 34-year-olds in the Chicago Nielsen Station Index for October.
The Chicago telenovela also reflects an increase in marketing to Latinos, whether they are recent immigrants or have been here for generations, observers said.
“I am seeing a trend in media toward bilingualism in general,” said Octavio Nuiry, president of ON Marketing in Long Beach, Calif., noting several new bilingual magazines and entertainment programs. “The English-language media is trying to attract the Spanish-speaking audiences, and the Spanish-language media is trying to attract English-speaking audiences.”
Marta Flores, assistant director of programming with Telemundo’s Chicago station, WSNS-Channel 44, noted that in many households there are Spanish-speaking parents whose children are more comfortable speaking English.
“The children born here are going to speak more English than Spanish,” Flores said. “There is definitely a market for this kind of program.”
The independent producers of the soap opera hope to appeal to more of a Latino middle-class audience. Besides a schoolteacher and campaign manager, other characters in the soap opera include a college student and doctor.
This is a departure from many Spanish- and English-language soap operas that depict Latinos as maids, gang members or drug dealers, producers said.
Wearing a zebra-striped scarf and black pant suit, Suarez, the talent director, collected photographs from and thanked the auditioning actors, among several hundred locals hoping to land a part.
“I never really acted before, and I thought, `Why not start now?’ ” said Goyco, 28, of the Northwest Side, who is training to become a police officer.
Even for theater and music student Lizano, the audition represented a new challenge.
“I’ve never auditioned for anything in Spanish before,” said the 23-year-old from the Andersonville neighborhood. “I am hoping to broaden my horizons.”
David Monroe, 24, leaned toward the camera, slid off his leather jacket and flexed his muscles as hip-hop music boomed from a portable tape player. Other actors and models at the audition cheered him on during his screen test.
“I’m Colombian, and this project is a way for me to express my pride in being a Latin American,” said Monroe of the Northwest Side.
Producer Fernandez-Barcena plans to assemble a diverse cast, including Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and other Latinos.
The characters will not be without their problems, from lost love to money lost. But the message of the soap opera will be simple: Love has no boundaries.
