By David Downey | Contributing Writer
For the first time in about a century of “Ramona” pageants, a Native American will be directing the outdoor play that spotlights how Native Americans were treated in California’s early days as a state.
Based on Helen Hunt Jackson’s 1884 novel of the same name, the play is held in spring at the 5,000-seat Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre near Hemet.
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This year, its 102nd season, will feature some history.
“In 1998, we really made a conscious effort to have Native American actors, especially in the roles of Alessandro and Ramona, when we can,” said Dennis Anderson, the artistic director since 1995 who has now stepped down. “And we have stayed pretty true to that since 1998.”
Now, one of several Native American men who have appeared in the play is taking the helm.
The new artistic director is Duane Minard, a 64-year-old Oceanside resident, professional actor, choreographer and playwright of Yurok and Paiute heritage.
Minard, who starred as Alessandro from 2009 through 2013, also performed stunts for Alessandro for 15 seasons and played another character eight times. He was assistant director in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Gerald Clarke Jr., a UC Riverside ethnic studies professor and special adviser to the UCR chancellor on Native American relations, called Minard’s promotion to director “very interesting” and said he is “hopeful” it will build upon recent efforts to more accurately portray Native people.
Minard is aiming to do just that.
He wants “the story about Native American struggle, and all the things that Helen Hunt Jackson put into her novel and later on were put into scripts, (to) come alive through all the characters that are involved.”
Audiences can see Minard’s touch starting in late April.
Six weekend performances are scheduled this season, for Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27; Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4; and Saturday, May 10 and Sunday, May 11.
“Ramona” is a love story set in mid-19th Century California featuring Alessandro, a Native American sheep shearer, and Ramona, a woman of mixed Scottish and Native American descent. Their romance unfolds against a backdrop of cultural clashes and injustices exacted upon Native people.
While fictional, parts of the storyline reflect actual events and people in what was part of San Diego County and would become Riverside County.
“People fell in love with the book,” said Clarke, who likened the story’s impact to a viral video, saying it fueled a tourist boom.
Director seeks cultural accuracy
The timeless tale will see some changes under Minard.
Minard said he cut Señora Moreno lines that portray inaccurate stereotypes.
Among those are lines in which she says she hates Indians because they attack wagon trains — something that was exceptionally rare in Southern California.
Meanwhile, Minard is maintaining a longstanding tradition of children in Native American costumes descending hills on the giant outdoor stage from behind rocks and joining Alessandro in a colorful “elder blessing” scene.
The participants have been known for decades as “rock Indians.” The blessing is a celebration for Eyes of the Sky, Alessandro’s and Ramona’s baby.
“It’s a unique tradition,” Minard said. “It’s just one of those feel-good moments that we have in the play, and we want to keep it that way.”
“As a Native American, do I find it offensive? Absolutely not,” he said, adding that gone are the days when brown makeup was applied to participants’ skin to make them appear dark.
Minard said he is working closely with dancers and drummers to ensure their performances accurately reflect the traditions of California Indians.
Action will take center stage
Another change repeat play goers will notice is the almost continuous movement.
That was made possible by a set of microphones brought in two seasons ago, Minard said.
“This new generation of wireless mics eliminates a lot of that swooshing sound that people hear whenever someone moves with the microphone,” he said.
So rather than recite lines from static positions, actors will move as they speak, he said, adding that “you’ll see that throughout the whole play.”
The audience will notice heightened tension between Ramona and Señora Moreno, the woman who raises the play’s namesake on a sprawling Southern California ranch because of a promise she made to a sister.
Minard said he is bringing back a feature of earlier seasons in which Señora Moreno — played by Anderson’s wife, Kathi — sharply slaps Ramona.
Minard even added a second slap. That confrontation was on vivid display in the season’s first dress rehearsal Saturday, March 22, when Shirley Casillas, in the role of Ramona, blocked Señora Moreno’s hand in midair.
“I catch her and I stop her,” said Casillas, a 28-year-old Los Angeles resident.
Opposite her, Alessando is being played this year by Eli Santana, 45, from Oceanside.
“You’ll see a stronger Ramona and a meaner Señora,” Minard said.
That stronger Ramona also will be evident in a new physical altercation during a heated exchange of words between Ramona and Jim Farrar, one of the villains. Farrar lays hands on her while demanding to know where Alessandro is — and she fights back, Minard said.
He added: “Señora Moreno and Farrar will earn the boos they get.”
Play will be shorter, more dramatic
The conclusion, too, will be more dramatic.
As always, tragedy strikes at the end when Alessandro mistakenly hops on a horse belonging to Farrar. Farrar charges after Alessandro, then shoots him dead in front of Ramona.
This season, however, instead of firing a couple shots, Minard said, “Jim Farrar is going to empty his revolver.”
And instead of rolling down a hill, Minard said, Alessandro will fall through the roof of the hut he and Ramona live in with their infant child.
From a big-picture standpoint, Minard is aiming to shorten the roughly two-and-a-half-hour show by about 10 minutes.
“We’re going to tighten some things up,” he said.
Influential story led to pageant
This year’s cast features about 160 people in all, including 22 “rock Indians,” 14 additional people in the blessing scene, 38 village children, 42 ranch children, 17 people in speaking roles, 22 Spanish dancers and four extra cowboys, Minard said.
The two who play Ramona and Alessandro earn paid salaries, Minard said, while their backups, or “understudy” actors, receive much smaller stipends. Everyone else is an unpaid volunteer.
“Ramona” is more than a novel and a play and features a story that’s influenced the region and nation.
Lori VanArsdale, a Ramona Bowl board member and former Hemet city councilmember, said the story called attention to the plight of Native Americans who were pushed off their land and treated differently than other people by the early California justice system.
VanArsdale said the author, Jackson, published a book titled “Century of Dishonor” a few years before “Ramona” that detailed how seven tribes across the United States were treated.
Jackson traveled to the nation’s capitol with numerous copies in hand.
“She handed ‘Century of Dishonor’ to every congressman and senator,” VanArsdale said. “They did nothing.
“And she decided to write a book that would move hearts and minds around the country.”
Where her detailed historical account failed to move hearts, her sweeping romantic drama was a big hit — and changed attitudes.
‘Ramona’ inspired names of streets, towns
“People went crazy over that book,” VanArsdale said.
Names of streets, towns and schools across the region were inspired by “Ramona,” she said.
For example, Alessandro Boulevard, a key east-west thoroughfare that connects Riverside and Moreno Valley, was named for the character Alessandro, according to local historian Steve Lech, who co-writes a history column for the Southern California News Group.
The San Diego County town of Ramona was named for the novel’s star character, a San Diego newspaper reported.
So was Riverside’s Ramona High School, Lech said, citing a Feb. 9, 1955, article in the then-Riverside Enterprise.
The story, while fictional, strongly hints at real history.
The forced removal of Alessandro’s village mirrors the September 1875 eviction of Native Americans living along Temecula Creek in what is now southern Temecula. Those uprooted families relocated a few miles away to what became the reservation of the Pechanga Band of Indians.
The death of Alessandro is based on the fatal shooting of Juan Diego in the San Jacinto Mountain foothills near Anza, after Diego mistakenly hopped on someone else’s horse — instead of his — in March 1883.
The name Ramona has been attributed to Diego’s wife, Ramona Lubo. Following her husband’s death, Ramona Lubo moved to, and spent the rest of her life on, the Cahuilla Indian Reservation near Anza, Lech wrote in 2020.
“I’m a relative of Ramona,” said Clarke, the UCR ethnic studies professor, adding that she was a great-great aunt.
“But I have a confession to make: I’ve never seen the play,” said Clarke, who lives on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation. “I’ve read the book.”
A few years ago, Clarke created a California Native Cultures course for UCR students that is offered in spring. The class weaves in a discussion of the “Ramona” novel and play, he said, adding he may create an entire course “around the Ramona legacy and myth.”
As for the woman who plays Ramona this season, Casillas was introduced to the pageant while attending Hemet’s Tahquitz High School.
“The first time I saw it, it was just unlike anything I had ever experienced or seen before,” Casillas said.
“It’s truly an honor to be part of something so special and historical.”
‘RAMONA’ SHOWS
What: The 102nd anniversary season of “Ramona”
Where: Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre, 27400 Ramona Bowl Road
When: Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27; Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4; Saturday, May 10, and Sunday, May 11
Ticket information: 951-658-3111 or www.ramonabowl.com/ramona-2025
Additional information: www.ramonabowl.com/
