If love saved Richard Cabral, it can save anyone, anywhere.
This is the message at the heart of “Fighting Shadows,” an autobiographical one-man show that opens Saturday (following a preview performance tonight) and runs through May 8 at the Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts in Los Angeles. It tells the story of Cabral’s journey from gangbanger to Emmy nominee.
“This is my life’s story, but it isn’t a story of East L.A. or gang culture in Los Angeles,” he says. “It’s a story of humanity.”
“Fighting Shadows” is a theatrical event that plays out through storytelling, poetry and a musical mix of urban R&B and traditional Mexican ballads (in collaboration with Rocio Libertad Mendoza).
During the course of the show, the 32-year-old actor also performs scenes in which he encounters different people in his life, including the Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle. Boyle’s Homeboy Industries, which helps gang members get a new start and produced this show in association with actress Jami Gertz, took Cabral in and gave him the support and confidence to pursue a life in the arts.
“All he did was love and mentor me when nobody else would,” says Cabral, speaking by phone from the L.A. home he shares with his wife and two of his three children. “Nobody succeeds on their own. Someone has to be there to show them the way, and if you give that experience to a person on the street — a gang member, a prisoner — he might succeed. That’s how it was for me.”
A second-generation Mexican-American, Cabral was raised by a single mother in East L.A. He said his family had been involved in gangs since the 1970s, so nobody was concerned when at age 13, Cabral turned to gang banging or that he spent a dozen years in and out of jail.
At 20, while facing a possible 35-year sentence for shooting a man, he had an epiphany.
“There’s comes a point when people who have lived a life of crime get tired and want to change,” he says. “I believe God talks to us in mysterious ways. I knew if I did not pay attention to his message, I was going to do life in prison or I was going to end up dead.”
Cabral took a plea deal, which reduced his sentence to five years.
When he was released from prison, he was introduced to Father Boyle through some friends working at the Homeboy Bakery. It wasn’t long until Cabral was washing dishes and mixing up dough there, too.
The program also introduced him to Central Casting, and soon the former gang member was trying out for different parts in movies and television. His big eyes, sharp features and a body covered in tattoos quickly grabbed the eye of casting directors for NBC’s “Southland,” who invited him to Warner Bros. Studio to audition for a speaking part.
“I spent my life behind bars, and what people don’t know is getting out of prison is really nerve-racking — you’re not used to society, you’re not used to the world going by so fast — so to step on that lot was quite overwhelming,” Cabral says. “Ten of us went on that audition and we were just like aliens. But knowing we were going through it together helped, and so I stuck it out — and I got the part.”
Cabral has since appeared in more than a dozen roles, most memorably in Chris Weitz’s “A Better Life,” David Ayer’s “End of Watch” and Ridley Scott’s “The Counselor,” starring Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Michael Fassbender. His big break was portraying a dealer on ABC’s “American Crime” (created by Scott), which earned the streetwise actor an Emmy nomination in 2015.
Recently completing a second season of “American Crime,” he went against type in his role as a computer-hacking vigilante. He will next appear in Jean-Francois Richet’s action-packed thriller “Blood Father,” starring Mel Gibson.
None of this surprises Robert Egan, director and co-writer of “Fighting Shadows” whose credits also include artistic director and producer of the annual Ojai Playwrights Conference and president and CEO of RHEgan Productions and Eye Street Media.
“Richard has got amazing gifts,” says Egan, describing Cabral as a “warrior” of storytelling, poetry and art. “He’s a very gifted actor, he’s that rare. As long as he keeps growing and learning, he’s got a big life ahead of him in this world.”
