Labyrinth at The Sor Juana Project at UCSD by Bretton Rodríguez

On October 17, 2024, more than five hundred members of the UC San Diego community attended a staged reading of Love is the Greater Labyrinth by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. In his introductory remarks before the performance, Manuel Vargas, a professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego, mentioned that he never would have believed five years ago that such a large audience would come out for a play by a seventeenth-century Mexican nun at what has long been considered a STEM-focused institution.

The performance was the most recent installment of the Humanities Event Series— organized by the Humanities Program at Revelle College—which seeks to showcase the power and continued relevance of the humanities to UC San Diego students and the broader community. Working with the new translation of the classic play produced by UCLA’s Diversifying the Classics Project, a mix of graduate students, undergraduates, and recent UC San Diego alumni were able to bring the words and music of the Mexican playwright and poet to life for a new audience.

Along with the staged reading, the Humanities Program included the new translation of the play as an assigned reading in many of their courses for the Fall 2024 quarter. Despite having read the play for class, however, many students who attended the play went into the experience with little idea of what to expect.

In their reflections on the event, some students admitted that they had never seen a play before. Others revealed that they only watched musicals, or that they had only seen plays by Shakespeare. Most students were more impressed by Sor Juana after the production than when they had only read her words on the page. Students spoke about how bold and exciting the play seemed. They also described the female characters as being fierce and outspoken. Many students described how the play seemed to have a modern touch and to engage with contemporary ideas. They also commented on the fact that it was funny and made them laugh.

One comment that came up repeatedly was that the students were surprised at how much they enjoyed the show. One student stated he was afraid that he would be obliged to like it, but then found that he actually enjoyed the performance. Students were also struck by how much more they understood than when they had read the play for class. By embodying their characters on the stage, the actors succeeded in transforming Sor Juana’s words into an immersive and engaging experience for the students.

This ties into one of the larger goals for the Humanities Program, which is to bring the humanities to life for UC San Diego students. The humanities include stories that people tell and retell to try to make sense of their lives and their place in the world. Through a staged reading of Love is the Greater Labyrinth, UC San Diego students, as well as other members of the community, were able to see one such story brought to life on the stage and to glimpse the continuing power of the humanities.

Photos courtesy of Brian Masse – Triton Television