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Hi! I'm Phil Esparza, Operations Manager at the World Theater.
Operations Manager means on a day to day basis I'm supposed to keep everything running with regards to the World Theater,
as well as other aspects of our new division called University Presentations and Special Events.
But yes, I keep everything going at the World Theater.
The World Theater was part of the development of Teledramatic Arts and Technology, which was founded by Luis Valdez
who is my partner and who I've been working with for over 42 years in San Juan Bautista.
.
If you don't know who Luis Valdez is, shame on you.
This was the old Hansen Theater. There were 3 movie theaters on the base, Fort Ord. This was a 900 seat barn.
The military pretty much just made utilitarian types of buildings, so their movie houses were just barns.
For the most part if you go inside you can still see the cinder block.
That's the way it was in circumference; 900 seats, slope, no stage, screen, and the projector's upstairs.
Luis and a number of us, we did a tour and we got this building, the TAT building, which was a chapel,
and we secured some of the early funds to get this renovated.
and we secured some of the early funds to get this renovated.
The World Theater. Actually I was reminded recently by our visionary, Luis Valdez, with a story.
Before the Fort Ord was the Fort Ord, before the Old World came and… Spanish, and the Yankees and we came and took over,
there were Native Americans living here.
This was a ceremonial cite.
And they would dance, as we understand it, out here in the background - in the back area.
And it was where they did their dances and ceremonial things and they called it, the dancing was, the location that they referred to this as was
'Dancing on the Rim of the World'
That's kind of a long name, so rather than calling it the Dancing on the Rim of the World Theater,
We're calling it the 'World Theater'
Now it fits a lot of other aspects. A lot of people think, 'Oh you're talking about the cultures of the World' and all that, but those are all secondary
The primary reason is in homage to the Indian ceremonial space.
We're dancing on the rim of the World.