UCLA is the site this week of the largest gathering of Chicana/o teatro actors, playwrights, scholars and students since the 1980s.

The School of Theater, Film and Television is hosting the Festival of Chicano Theater Classics today through June 30, an event that is uniting a new generation of actors who will perform Chicana/o theater classics with the original directors and actors of these pioneering plays.

"We are trying to pass the torch to the younger generation and the tradition of Chicano theater," said Jose Luis Valenzuela, professor of theater and a stage and film director. "We want them to continue with this ideology that theater is culture, and it is a place that allows discussions and conversations about the social structure."

Performing these five classic plays, part English and part Spanish, will be theater students from 11 colleges, universities and community-based theater groups. These include UCLA, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, Cal State Los Angeles, Rio Hondo College and El Teatro Campesino.

Among those coming from across the nation and from Mexico to participate are Culture Clash, the popular Chicano/Latino comedy performance troupe; actors Evelina Fernandez, Lupe Ontiveros, Tony Plana and Robert Beltran; Jorge Huerta, one of the leading authorities in contemporary Chicana/o theater and a UC San Diego professor; and scholar/activist Jose Montoya.

The festival also features workshops on street theater, Chicana/o art and culture, and "veinte pasos," which UC Santa Barbara professor Yolanda Broyles-Gonzales described as "a method of performance and life training developed by Teatro Campesino." Panelists will also discuss such topics as the history of teatro and playwriting.

The opening night play, "La Victima" ("The Victim"), takes place tonight. Directed by Valenzuela, the docudrama play covers the struggles and injustices experienced by three generations of a Mexican family who immigrate to the United States during the Mexican Revolution.

All evening plays will start at 8 p.m. at the Freud Playhouse. Tickets will be sold before each evening performance. They are $5 each. For a schedule: go to www.tft.ucla.edu/chicano-theater.