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Come Find Us at PAMLA 2024!

Join us as members of Diversifying the Classics meet for a panel discussion titled “Reaching New Audiences Through Translation and Adaptation.” The panelists will present on a variety of projects currently underway at DTC, including the adaptation series Golden Tongues, which invites local playwrights to adapt Hispanic classical theater to a modern Los Angeles, and MEX-Clásicos’ children’s book project, which focuses on developing materials for young audiences. Moreover, the panel will explore the role of technology and multimedia platforms in expanding the reach of classical works to broader demographics, particularly younger audiences. We hope to see you there as we discuss best strategies for embracing the richness of diverse perspectives and narratives so that we can ensure that classical literature remains vibrant and relevant in an ever-changing world.

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Love is the Greater Labyrinth at UVA Nov. 8-10 and Nov. 14-16

DTC is delighted to share Anna Rebek will direct our translation of Love is the Greater
Labyrinth by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz at the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama. The production will take place November 8-10 and 14-16 in the Ruth Caplin Theatre.

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Fuente Ovejuna at Loyola Marymount University, Oct. 31-Nov. 2 and Nov. 6-9

We are thrilled for Loyola Marymount University’s production of Lope de Vega’s Fuente Ovejuna, directed by our valued collaborator Melanie Queponds. From October 31-November 2 and November 6-9, LMU Theatre Arts will perform Adrian Mitchell’s translation of Lope’s play. On Nov. 7, Professor Barbara Fuchs will lead a talk-back after the performance. Come watch as the villagers of Fuente Ovejuna join together against an authoritarian who uses his power to prey upon the women of the town.This production asks us to consider the political message of the play: that no government should offer any man “the opportunity to gratify his greed for power.” We look forward to all the drama, love, humor, and history that this play has to offer!

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The Beast of Hungary at BHSEC Bronx by Andrés Orejuela

DTC Celebrates LA Escena 2024 by Rebecca Ogden Smith

From September 12-17, 2024, LA Escena held its fourth biennial festival at UCLA’s historic, recently renovated Nimoy Theater, the festival’s largest venue yet. This year, LA Escena brought together artists from all over the US, Spain, and Mexico to perform 11 cutting-edge productions, the most in the festival’s history. An extraordinary joint conference of the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater (AHCT) and the Asociación Internacional de Teatro Español y Novohispano de los Siglos de Oro (AITENSO) took place at UCLA in conjunction with the festival. LA Escena artists participated in roundtables and other presentations at the conference, while comedia scholars were able to attend LA Escena performances.

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Golden Tongues Redux: Unhappily Married in Valencia

Laurel Ollstein’s Unhappily Married in Valencia, originally commissioned for the second Golden
Tongues festival in 2014, will have a staged reading on Saturday, November 2 at 2:30 pm, at the
Broadwater Theatre (6322 Santa Monica Blvd). Drinks to follow at the Broadwater Bar!

Laurel’s hilarious farce is inspired by Guillén de Castro’s Los malcasados de Valencia (1618).

Laura Muñoz and Veronica Wilson subsequently translated the original for DTC.

Hope to see you there!

Get Your Tickets to LA Escena 2024 Today!

Diversifying the Classics will be hosting LA Escena 2024 from September 12th to 17th at the newly renovated Nimoy Theater in Westwood. Come see original presentations of classical Hispanic works by acclaimed artists from LA, NYC, Mexico City, and Madrid. Tickets are free but space is limited, so reserve today! READ MORE

Congratulations to Golden Tongues Playwright Lina Patel on Receiving the Cornelia Street American Playwriting Award!

The annual award is named for Cornelia Street in New York’s West Village, which has hosted some of the nation’s greatest playwrights. It recognizes an emerging playwright “of exceptional work ethic, character, and talent.”

We couldn’t be prouder! We are honored to have collaborated with Lina on Traces of Desire, her marvelous adaptation of Lope de Vega’s The Widow of Valencia, commissioned for the 2022 LA Escena festival and soon to be published by Bloomsbury in our forthcoming Golden Tongues anthology.

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RSA Grant for Collaboration with Red Bull Theater

DTC has received a Renaissance Society of America grant for Public Engagement Projects in Renaissance Studies, supported by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation. The grant, under the direction of Prof. Javier Patiño, will support our next collaboration with our long-term partners, Red Bull Theater of New York. As part of LA Escena 2024, Red Bull will present—in person in NYC and online—a staged reading of The Beast of Hungary, our brand-new translation of Lope’s exploration of female sexuality, the nature/nurture question, and what truly makes a family. Stay tuned!

Annotating Performance by Barbara Fuchs

Theatre dybbuk’s illuminated lecture format, which weaves together a scholarly lecture and performances by actors, recently offered me the opportunity to present Cervantes’ El retablo de las maravillas/The Marvelous Puppet Show to an audience unlikely ever to have encountered the text. Known for its deep dives and carefully considered productions under the able direction of Aaron Henne, theatre dybbuk uses the format as a research tool, and also makes the resulting recordings available through their podcast. Their most recent full production, The Merchant of Venice (Annotated) or In Sooth I Know Not Why I Am So Sad (2023), relied on a similar combination of text and commentary, with wonderfully inventive annotations offered by actors breaking the fourth wall, audio clips, and so forth.

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