‘La Diferencia’: Literature for the Little Ones : Theater: Actress Elizabeth Pena is relishing her cultural appreciation project for Latino children.

Husky-voiced Elizabeth Pena, whose varied acting credits range from the sultry maid in “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” to the title role in the American Conservatory Theatre’s recent production of “Antigone,” is relishing her latest role--as the creator/director of a project that puts others in the spotlight and aims to give Latino children an expanded vision of their world.

With her star-studded “Celebrando la Diferencia, a Latino Literature Series for Children” playing Sundays at the MET Theatre in Hollywood, Pena hopes that it will not only entertain and enlighten, but inspire as well.

Brooke Adams, Sonia Braga, Lou Diamond Phillips, Richard Dreyfuss, Hector Elizondo, Edward James Olmos and Alfre Woodard are among the many celebrity performers who will be featured on a rotating basis in the program, free to children ages 10 to 16 through such youth organizations as L.A.’s Best, Para Los Ninos and the YMCA.

Most of the tickets already have been given out, but limited seats are available to individuals through the theater box office on a first-come, first-served basis. The series will run consecutive Sundays through June 27.

“If I can get a couple of kids turned on to reading, to exploring their culture--to being an American, but exploring the fact that they come from a very long history--and use it to empower them . . . I would be a very happy person,” Pena said.

The wholehearted celebrity response has “flabbergasted” Pena. “They not only say yes, they say, what time, what date, I’m there, give me the literature and tell me what else I can do. Everybody’s working completely for free.”

The point, however, is not “a movie star thing,” she said, adding that the exact dates each artist will perform will not be publicized. “That takes away the whole purpose. The children are the stars.”

In each weekly program, the celebrity readers will be accompanied by live musicians under the direction of Bobby Rodriguez and two dancers in silhouette, choreographed by Dorian Sanchez.

“I wanted to turn kids on to their own literature, doing it in English with role models,” Pena said. “I know kids turn off quickly, so I decided to visualize it, with dancers and musicians. I didn’t want to visualize it literally. I wanted to provoke the senses, keep their eyes busy observing something and their ears forced to listen to the words, titillated by the sounds.”

Pena stressed that the program, drawing from many Latino cultures, will not be a “kiddie” show. “The literature I’ve chosen includes folk and religious tales, Gabriel Garcia Marquez--a bunch of writers who don’t write for children. The purpose is to get them to turn on to literature.” After each performance, Pena plans to “have a rap session with the kids” about what it takes to put the show together “and give them an idea of what they could do.

“My ultimate aim,” she added, “would be to turn it into a bus and truck company where kids themselves produce and direct it themselves, do the readings, the music, everything.”

The New Jersey-born Pena said that her commitment to the series stems from her belief that a command of language can open doors to anyone.

“If you never get a college education, even--God forbid--if you drop out of high school, if you know how to speak well you’ve got a chance. You could have a masters degree and if you’re talking jive, people aren’t going to listen or will assume you are stupid.”

Pena, who recently finished shooting the made-for-TV movie “Roommates” with Eric Stoltz and Randy Quaid, unabashedly points a finger at television and movies as a reason children don’t read.

“I was so privileged as a child that I did not have a TV set,” Pena said. “My father being a writer, my mother a teacher, we were encouraged to read. I love words. Education is so liberating. I’m trying to communicate that even if you never use it, if you have knowledge of how something works, you are automatically powerful.

“I think . . . ignorance creates fear and fear makes us stop moving. If we can stop being ignorant, we’ll be so much more liberated and kinder to each other.”

Veteran actor Hector Elizondo, who has made a point of turning down roles that feed into Latino stereotypes and has earned kudos for his work in such films as “Pretty Woman” and for dramatic roles on Broadway, said he was eager to be involved in the project.

“I get asked to do things in terms of helping the community,” he said, “and they seem a little bit amorphous when I consider the effect they will have, a little abstract, not one on one. But there’s nothing abstract about children.

“This program in particular appealed to me because of the intimacy of it. Reading--in my life being read to, the oral tradition was very important. All the grown-ups I knew could recite poetry and tell stories . . . It inflames the imagination, passion and possibilities and it makes the listeners participants, as opposed to submissive couch potatoes.”

Although the limited space in the 99-seat theater means that there probably won’t be room for parents, Pena said that “books, books-on-tape and a bunch of literature” will be available to encourage parents to support the program’s efforts at involving children in reading. “It’s hard to turn kids on to literature and then have them go home and have somebody discourage it because of their own fear and lack of education,” she said.

If the program takes off, Pena added, she hopes to do it again on a larger scale next year and include parents. (Funding for the series is being provided by ARCO, Bank of America, Nestle, Southern California Edison, Wells Fargo Bank and Anheuser Busch.)

Elizondo said that parents can help now by “the usual--getting involved,” and by “monitoring television carefully, that’s the biggest influence, the most detrimental influence out there. . . . Read, if you can’t read, bloody learn how. But more than anything else, pull the plug on that one-eyed monster and teach them to be self-sufficient, independent thinkers.”

* For information on how youth groups or individuals can receive tickets, call the MET Theatre at (213) 957-1152.