LA Escena 2024 - Diversifying the Classics
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September 12-17, 2024
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The LA Escena Festival of Hispanic classical theater will be back September 12–17, 2024. The fourth edition of Diversifying the Classics’ biennial festival will bring fresh takes on the comedia to UCLA’s newly renovated Nimoy Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles.

LA Escena is Los Angeles’ first Hispanic classical theater festival, organized by UCLA’s Diversifying the Classics, which is part of the Division of Humanities. Since the inaugural edition in 2018, LA Escena has brought the best of Southern California theater together with acclaimed performers from around the world to celebrate the comedia in performance and adaptation.
This year LA Escena will offer productions at the Nimoy Theater by the internationally recognized Spanish theater company Grumelot, three new adaptations from our popular Golden Tongues series, and a new performance of our translation of Sor Juana’s Love is the Greater Labyrinth by director Sarah Grunnah. We will also be premiering our latest initiative, Mex-Clásicos, with three new versions of comedia by renowned Mexican theater artists, along with Pedro Osuna’s musical transformation of Ana Caro’s The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs, and theatre dybbuk’s “illuminated lecture” of Cervantes’ The Marvelous Puppet Show. To conclude the festival, Red Bull Theater will present a virtual reading of Diversifying the Classics’ latest translation, Lope de Vega’s The Beast of Hungary, as a part of our ongoing collaboration, Hispanic Golden Age Classics.
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Thursday, September 12
7 PM | VALOR, excerpts from an opera by Pedro Osuna and Amanda Hollander, directed by Peter Kazaras
Summoning all her courage, Leonor crosses geographical boundaries and defies social expectations of gender in order to bring her fickle lover, Don Juan, to justice and restore her lost honor.
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MEX-CLÁSICOS
8 PM | La última gran aventura de la Monja Alférez, by Ismael Rojas and Tamara Garduño Pacheco
Erauso sets out on one final journey, accompanied by his loyal donkeys. As he faces death under a fiery sun, he has one last conversation with his many selves. 
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Friday, September 13
GOLDEN TONGUES
7 PM | I Put a Spell on You, by Rosie Narasaki
Based on Ana Caro’s El Conde Partinuplés
Rosaura, Queen of Constantinople, needs to marry in order to keep her throne. Can magic conjure the perfect suitor?
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9 PM | Amar por ver amar (o recuperar lo perdido), by Grumelot
A theatrical lecture by Grumelot on the recovery of joy after loss, based on El perro del hortelano by Lope de Vega.
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Saturday, September 14
4 PM | Love is the Greater Labyrinth, by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Directed by Sarah Grunnah, translated by Diversifying the Classics
The Greek hero Teseo is ready to face the deadly Minotaur inside Crete’s labyrinth in order to quell its king’s insatiable thirst for vengeance. But soon, Teseo will discover that the labyrinth of the heart is a far greater challenge.
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MEX-CLÁSICOS
7 PM | Diálogo entre el amor y un viejo, by Rodrigo de Cota (Los Colochos)
What would you say to Love, if you had it face-to-face? And what might Love have to say back to you?
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MEX-CLÁSICOS
9 PM | La tinta de mi honra, by David Gaitán
A close-knit community is rocked by the appearance of a mysterious new technology that may not be as helpful as it seems. Written in prose and streaked with wit, this play by Mexican playwright David Gaitán explores the sinister underbelly of human creation. 
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Sunday, September 15
GOLDEN TONGUES
1 PM | Flickers, by Diana Burbano
Based on Juan Ruiz de Alarcón’s La cueva de Salamanca
A director aims to succeed in early 20th-century Hollywood by adapting a centuries-old comedy written by his ancestor. While conjuring marvels and mischief, he ignores the all-too-real perils that surround him.
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GOLDEN TONGUES
3 PM | Fling, by Zharia O’Neal
Based on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Los empeños de una casa
Who are we, truly, in the dark? Four young beauty-pageant contestants trapped during a blackout are forced to reckon with their own ambitions, bare their secrets, and come together.
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5 PM |The Marvelous Puppet Show, by theatre dybbuk
An illuminated lecture on Miguel de Cervantes’ El retablo de las maravillas
How does who we are shape what we see and believe? And how do the purveyors of media manipulate those distinctions?
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Tuesday, September 17
RED BULL THEATER and DIVERSIFYING THE CLASSICS present Lope de Vega’s
4:30 PM | The Beast of Hungary, directed by Nadia Guevara

STREAMING PREMIERE ONLINE

The Beast of Hungary tells the story of a queen forced into the wilderness by her power-hungry sister. The fallen queen steals her niece and raises her as a feral girl, but when that girl falls in love, she must confront human society for the first time…
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Parking at The Nimoy

The entrance to the parking lot is on Glendon Avenue, directly to the left (north) of the Los Angeles Public Library, Westwood Branch. The actual address for GPS is 10866 Wilshire Blvd. As you exit the parking structure, it is just a short walk to the venue along Wilshire Blvd or Wellworth Avenue.

 

Enter through either of the two entrances marked VISITOR. Upon arrival, take a ticket from the automated booth, enter and park anywhere in the structure that is not marked RESERVED.

 

Patrons can pay their ticket at the pay station as they are exiting the lot or pay at the exit gate. However, you are encouraged to pay as exiting the structure to save time after the performance.

 

*Please Note: The surface lot immediately behind The Nimoy is not open on evenings and weekends and is not operated by CAP UCLA. Be advised that we can’t be responsible for any cars that may be towed or ticketed outside of the lot designated for The Nimoy.

$3 parking will be available:

  • 9/12: 5:30–11:30pm

  • 9/13: 5:30–11:30pm

  • 9/14: 2:30–11:30pm

  • 9/15: 11:30am–8:30pm

CONFERENCE INFORMATION

The International Association of Spanish and New Spanish Theater of the Golden Age (AITENSO) and the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater (AHCT) will hold a conference in conjunction with LA Escena.

MORE INFORMATION HERE

Festival Credits:

Members of Diversifying the Classics: Marta Albalá Pelegrín, Diana Echeverria, Barbara Fuchs, Isaac Giménez, Saraí Jaramillo, Rachel Kaufman, Laura Muñoz, Javier Patiño Loira, Victoria Rasbridge, Cristian Reyes, Rhonda Sharrah, Rebecca Smith, Aina Soley i Mateu, Sophia Yazpik

Artistic Coordination and Production in Spain: Lorenzo Pappagallo

Administrative Support: Lena Hoang

Graphic Design: Todd Lynch

Supported by:

UC Alianza-MX
Hispanex
Acción Cultural Española
Spain-USA Foundation
Pine Tree Foundation 
UCLA Division of Humanities
UCLA Department of English
UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese
UCLA CMRS-Center for Early Global Studies
UCLA Center for 17th- &18th-Century Studies