Preview: Grumelot’s Amar por ver amar

On Tuesday, April 23, Diversifying the Classics welcomed Carlota Gaviño, Iñigo Rodríguez-Claro, and José Pablo Polo of Grumelot Teatro for an online roundtable about their new production, Amar por ver amar o recuperar lo perdido. At the event, Grumelot performed a preview of their work-in-progress, an exploration of love and loss inspired by Lope de Vega’s comedy, El perro del hortelano. After the preview, we held a Q&A about Grumelot’s process and their next steps as they prepare to bring the production to LA Escena, DTC’s biennial theater festival taking place this September. Thank you again to Hispanex for making this production possible!

Setting A Precedent Takes Courage: Directing the first bilingual production at a PWI by Sylvia Cervantes Blush

Producing comedias is often a challenging discussion amongst my Latiné community  because of the irreparable harm brought on by Spanish colonialism, especially when  producing them at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Yet by not doing them we are silencing the collection of progressive works by artists like Ana Caro, who challenged political agendas, religious  ideologies, and societal norms and whose plays encourage present-day artists and patrons to look inward for personal and communal change. So, when Professor Margaret E. Boyle (specialist in Hispanic women’s literature and comedia history) invited me to work with her and her colleagues Professor Ireri Chávez-Bárcenas (musicologist in the early modern period) and Professor Germán Cárdenas-Alaminos (scenic designer) on Valor, agravio y mujer, the first bilingual theatrical  production in Bowdoin College’s 230-year history, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. Their passion and kindness jumped beyond the Zoom screen with a joyous welcoming spirit that promised a rewarding creative adventure.  

READ MORE

PREVIEW: Coming to LA Escena 2024: Grumelot’s Amar por ver amar o Recuperar lo perdido 

Please join Diversifying the Classics on April 23 from 12:00-3:00 pm PST for an online roundtable with Madrid-based Grumelot Theater Company! We will be discussing their exciting new production, Amar por ver amar o Recuperar lo perdido, which will be performed at LA Escena 2024, Diversifying the Classics’ biennial theater festival.

READ MORE

Projects in the Works: MEX-Clásicos Spanish-Language Adaptations

In 2023, Diversifying the Classics received an Alianza-MX grant to expand our mission of
promoting Hispanic classical theater to collaborate with Mexican artists and educators. With this
grant, Diversifying the Classics partnered with Professor Gabriela Villanueva of the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to create MEX-Clásicos with a team of UCLA graduate
students including Saraí Jaramillo, Rachel Kaufman, Galo Lopez, Rebecca Smith, and Sofía
Yazpik and postdoctoral fellow Isaac Giménez.

READ MORE

The Marvelous Puppet Show: An Illuminated Lecture

In this illuminated lecture, Professor Barbara Fuchs addresses Miguel de Cervantes’s surprisingly timely take on the trustworthiness of media. How does who we are shape what we see and believe? And how do the purveyors of media manipulate those distinctions?

READ MORE

“Don Quixote” on stage at UCI and now online!

Diversifying the Classics’ latest translation has been out adventuring from coast to coast, from Red Bull Theater in NYC to UC Irvine here in Southern California. Don Quixote de la Mancha—Guillén de Castro’s theatrical adaptation of Cervantes’ classic novel—recently delighted audiences for two nights at UCI, in collaboration with the New Swan Shakespeare Center and Brown Bag Theatre Company. 

READ MORE

“The moment the play is in our hands, it is ours”. A conversation with Oscar Rodríguez Quiroz

“When I studied Theater as an undergrad, we would cover Molière, Shakespeare, Goldoni, and so forth, but no Hispanic author” said Óscar Rodríguez Quiroz, director of Sor Juana’s Love Is the Greater Labyrinth for Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre. First as a drama teacher in Honduras and now as an Artist-Educator and MFA Acting Candidate at Michigan State, Quiroz decided to explore the rich Hispanic tradition and turned to the famous Mexican writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, known for her protofeminism as well as her remarkable poetry and plays.READ MORE

“They Crack Open a New World”: Ana Caro’s Courage at Skidmore College By Sarah Grunnah

Reimagining ‘Love is the Greater Labyrinth’ through Set and Costume Design by Emilia Mendez

Love is the Greater Labyrinth, written in 1698 by the Mexican nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, is a retelling of an Ancient Greek myth. This project, completed during my final year in the BA of Theatre Design program at Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, relocates the story to the rich cultural and geographic landscape of Mexico. This design aims to introduce the audience to elements of Mayan culture and theatrical sustainability, two themes I feel strongly about and am interested in exploring further in my work.READ MORE

The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs at CSU Bakersfield

On Oct. 26, part of the Diversifying the Classics team attended the opening night of The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs at CSU Bakersfield, in a production directed by Professor David Melendez. Javier Patiño, Marta Albalá, and Barbara Fuchs led a pre-show discussion with an enthusiastic audience. We wish the company a very successful run this weekend!

READ MORE