A crowd of 30 people filled the Cultural Awareness Center on April 16 for a performance of !X Speaks Out, a collection of original scenes, monologues and dance routines by the City College Ethnic Theater Workshop.

Instructor Angela-Dee Alforque says the workshop, a transferable course in Theatre Arts, is an important creative outlet for students who are bogged down with academic courses.

“This class gets students thinking about issues,” Alforque said. “They can practice talking about things that are important to them, but are not considered polite topics.”

Sexually transmitted diseases, genetically engineered food, the environment and gay marriage, among others, were issues addressed by the students. Using minimal props and set pieces, the students used dance, music and pantomime to accompany some of the scenes.

Each class member wrote and performed a scene to express his or her perspective on current social issues.

One young woman morphed into Fidel Castro and presented an imagined address by the aging dictator. Another monologue dealt with the sexual relationships of slaves and their masters in the South. A book of first-person accounts of slavery inspired the student writer, Steven “Hurrikane” Clark.

“I wanted to know what colorful stories might be missing because they were too racy to print,” Clark said.

The audience gave a standing ovation to student David Lopez after he performed a chilling monologue as the voice of AIDS, entitled, I Am All Powerful.

The name “!X” is not a word. It is a diphthong, or linguistic device in which two vowels are pronounced as one syllable. Students chose the name when the workshop was formed in fall 2005. There is no definition, but the students liked the sound and originality of the name.

The Ethnic Theater Workshop holds a showcase each semester. They performed at Luna’s Café in downtown Sacramento on May 1.