Enacting Gender: A Virtual Conference

This past month, several members of Diversifying the Classics participated in Enacting Gender: Women on Stage and Page in Early Modern Spain, a virtual conference cohosted by Victoria Rasbridge from University of College London, Annabel Rowntree from University of Oxford, and Sarah Grunnah, who was an Ahmanson-Getty fellow at UCLA in 2021 as part of the “Resituating the Comedia” core program.. The conference featured many exciting presentations on femaleagency and performance in early modern Hispanic theater, including from past and current collaborators Richard Huddleston, Marta Albalá Pelegrín, Robin Kello, and Rhonda Sharrah. 

Rhonda and Robin’s presentation, “Performing and Translating Amor es más laberinto,” discussed our group’s latest completed translation, Love is the GreaterLabyrinth, by 17th-century Mexican poet and playwright Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. The play transforms the myth of Theseus and the Cretan Minotaur into a comedic romp, filled with misplaced romance and unpredictable adventure. Rhonda and Robin spoke about the complexities of translating comedic and cultural information , as well as the group’s recent experience with digital performance. The presentation also featured a scene from the play  directed by Sarah and specially recorded for the conference. Just like the online reading of the play last September, the scene helps the group refine our translation given actors’ experience of it, whilereaching new audiences through virtual theater.