2024 Conferences

AHCT / AITENSO & ACH Conferences

AHCT & AITENSO Conference at LA ESCENA

Los Angeles, September 2024

In September 2024, Siglo Latinx had the opportunity to visit Los Ángeles, California, to participate in the congress organized by AHCT in collaboration with AITENSO and LaEscena. This visit to LA involved daily presentations by diverse artists, conversations, and discussions with academics and researchers, as well as a theater festival that assembled a series of Golden Age plays staged by Diversifying the Classics and some Mexican theater companies.

Our project director, Glenda Nieto-Cuebas, with our research assistants Lorena Rojas and Natalia Soracipa, presented "Collaboración interdisciplinaria para un teatro de siglo de oro vigente. " In their presentation, they mentioned the different takeaways from working in a collaborative environment and how connecting with artists from various backgrounds has nurtured their careers and research interests. On the one hand, Lorena highlighted the work of Ana Zambrano in La traición en la amistad and how the use of reggaeton in the narrative intertwines contemporary audiences with those of the past. On the other hand, Natalia expressed that the work she carried out in 2024 with the Mexican non-binary actor Mariano Ruiz helped her understand her role as an artist in academia, which aims to create a "third space" where the arts and academia work concurrently. This and other conferences by colleagues such as John Slater, Bruce Burningham, Carmela Mattza, and many others exposed the fantastic work that it is being done to keep Golden Age text alive in the classroom and on stage.

But this congress not only brought together academics but also actors and directors, who, by the end of the day, showed their plays at the iconic Nimoy Theater at UCLA. Some of those we had the chance to watch were Diálogos entre el Amor y un Viejo, staged by Los Colochos theater company, Amar por ver Amar by Grumelot, and Put a Spell on You by Rosie Narasaki as part of her work in Diversifying the Classics.

This trip to Los Angeles undoubtedly enriched the Siglo Latinx perspectives on what others are doing in their fields and how Golden Age texts are being presented to different audiences and levels.

July 17-19, 2024. GEMELA (Puebla, México)

“María de Zayas from the Siglo de Oro to Siglo Latinx: Paola Izquierdo’s Transtemporal Adaptation of the Desengaños amorosos.”

Georgina Rivero, Ashley Bernal & Paola Izquierdo

This talk focused on how Paola Izquierdo’s one-person adaptation Historias amorosas reimagines María de Zayas’s tales through Cristina, a witty seventeenth-century servant recounting the stories and rumors she overheard at a sarao. Blending period elements with music, humor, and contemporary references, the production connects Zayas’s critiques of women’s restricted lives to ongoing questions about gender, freedom, and reproductive rights. Through its inventive dialogue between early modern Spain and the contemporary Latin American world, Historias amorosas embodies the creative mission of Siglo Latinx.

ACH Conference / Montreal June 1-2, 2024

Among the activities undertaken with our research assistants, we had the opportunity to present at the ACH Hispanic Studies conference in Montreal, held from June 1-3, 2024. A roundtable discussion was held to present the project, its activities, and the experiences gained over the past year. Each student presented on the work of an artist they collaborated with and discussed their experiences participating in the project. This experience proved invaluable for all involved, offering a unique opportunity to engage with a pivotal academic event in Hispanic studies, interact with leading scholars, and showcase our work to a broader audience. This not only facilitated the acquisition and reinforcement of essential academic and professional skills but also fostered a sense of collective growth and accomplishment.

The following excerpts, drawn from the students' own words, offer a glimpse into the personal impact of this experience:

April 18-20, 2024. KFLC Conference

Erin Colwing. “Rewriting the Limits on Gender, Sexuality, and Identity in Early Modern Spanish Theatrical Adaptations.”

In this talk, Cowling examined how contemporary adaptations of La monja alférez reinterpret the gender identity, sexuality, and colonial legacy of Catalina de Erauso, particularly following Germán Vega García-Luengos’s attribution of the play to New Spanish playwright Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. Comparing Elaine Ávila’s adaptation of Erauso’s autobiography, the Compañía Nacional de Teatro de México’s textually faithful staging, and Teatro Círculo’s transtemporal New York production, Cowling considered how different approaches to adaptation shape contemporary understandings of this complex historical figure.

Glenda Nieto-Cuebas. "Contemporary Adaptations of Spanish Golden Age Theatre: Approaching Gen Z through Digital Media."

In this presentation, Nieto-Cuebas discussed how the Mexican company EFE TRES Teatro’s El merolico desde su balcón, Los habladores and La firmeza en el ausencia, combined the digital abilities of Gen Z with the timelessness of classical theatre and show diverse possibilities that can be achieved through digital theatre. The objective was to grasp how this Latinx company is able to revise/appropriate/adapt/create these classical theatre by placing themselves at the forefront of digital media creations classified as: digitally distributed, digitally mediated and digitally located theatre.

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