It’s a Wednesday afternoon at Patchogue-Medford High School and students are in the school auditorium rehearsing the pair of one-act plays they’ll be performing on April 5.

The director, Margarita Espada, keeps a watchful eye on the rehearsal, prompting the cast if they forget a line or gently suggesting how a line should be delivered.

What makes this rehearsal different is that the back-and-forth between Espada and the students is all in Spanish.

As are the two plays they’ll be performing next month, a comedy called “Se Vende una Mula” (“A Mule for Sale”) and “El Delantal Blanco” (“The White Apron”), a drama by Chilean playwright Sergio Vodanovic that addresses issues of social class by showing what happens when a rich woman and her maid switch identities.

It will be the first production for Pat-Med’s new Spanish-language theater club, many of whose members are relatively new arrivals to the U.S. and for whom Spanish is their primary language.

Pat-Med already stages a popular musical each year in English. School officials were looking for a way to offer a theatrical experience to its Latino students, who make up about half of the district’s students.

About 20 percent of Pat-Med District students are English-as-a-new-language students for whom English is not their first language, said Michelle Marrone, director of ENL, World Languages and Bilingual Programs for grades 6-12 for the Pat-Med School District.

“This is a way for [students] to express theatrical talents that would otherwise go unnoticed,” Marrone said

Nathan Brinkman, director of art, music and cultural arts for the Pat-Med School District, helped bring the program to Pat-Med after learning of a program Espada runs for students at Brentwood High School.

Two Pat-Med teachers, Olga Villacis-Mora and Cristina Molina-Duarte, are working with Espada and about 20 students on the production. In addition to performing, students are also doing a variety of backstage roles like lighting and costumes.

They’ll do two performances on April 5: a daytime performance for students and an evening performance that is open to the community.

“I’m happy to see how they’re really getting connected,” said Espada, the founder and executive artistic director of Teatro Yerbabruja in Bay Shore and adjunct professor of women and gender studies at Stony Brook University. “They don’t really know one another. One of the objective values of this program is to create a sense of community in school as they’re coming from other places, other countries.”

Christian Llivicura, an 11th grader, plays the role of Panfilo Pascual, a farmer, in “Se Vende una Mula.”

He’s enjoying being part of the cast and said, through an interpreter, that the idea of performing came to him in a dream.

Ciara Lamour, 10th grader, who was born in Haiti, plays the role of Luz Maria in “Se Vende una Mula.”

She describes Luz Maria as “a very feisty, sassy” woman “who thinks she owns the world.”

Lamour, who came to the U.S. at age 7, speaks four languages and taught herself Spanish by watching Spanish-language telenovelas on TV.

She’s acted in plays before and wants to pursue a career in the theater.

“It’s a very amazing experience,” she said of being part of the production. “The cast members are lovely. We have a good interaction with each other.”

Espada said the students are looking forward to producing another play next year.

“They’re excited already,” she said. “They’re asking, what’s next?”