A family traveling, suffering from poverty will be arriving in March to Cerritos College at the Burnight Center Theatre.

The Grapes of Wrath, a novel published in 1939 by John Steinbeck, is being presented by the Cerritos College theater department, directed by John Zamora.

It is a story of a family traveling from Oklahoma to California, and along the way they suffer many tragedies that the unfortunate heart must overcome.

Olivia Hulett, English Literature major, loves to act and is very excited to be in her very first play.

“I’m playing a woman who plays the guitar and I really do play the guitar, so not only am I able to act but I also get to embrace my musical side as well” she said.

Hulett is also a classical trained pianist and has been playing since the tender age of five.

The two day audition was held in December of 2009. It made the actors a little intimidated with the outcome of the amount of people auditioning.

Hector Garcia, undecided major, had nervous butterflies at the audition.

“I haven’t been in a play in almost ten years. I have a small role as The Proprietor. I am a Weed Patch Camp Director.”

There are a few different camps that the family encounter along their journey, although they are more like concentration camps that they must subject themselves to due to the poverty stricken era.

Hugo Martinez, undecided major, is portraying Uncle John.

This is Martinez’s fourth play and he particularly a little more enthusiastic about this play. “It’s a very good piece to display what could very well be. The economy is falling apart and this play is a little taste of reality” he said.

The play is set in such a diverse atmosphere that will keep stage hand Steven Soto, undecided major, pretty busy.

Although Soto is not in this presentation, he still wants to stay connected with the theater. He has performed in the past and he says, “I’m not comfortable with close person to person contact with unfamiliar people but I absolutely love performing for them.”