Artist, Scholar & Student Collaborations
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Feb 2024 @ Ohio Wesleyan University: Creative initiative for OWU's SPAN 499: Women and Power in Early Modern Spain course (Spring 2024). This collaboration brought together OWU students with our Siglo Latinx research team: Erin Cowling, Glenda Nieto-Cuebas, Natalia Soracipa, and Lorena Rojas.
As part of this initiative, students had the opportunity to engage directly with Mexican theatre director and playwright Paola Izquierdo, who presented a live performance of her adaptation of María de Zayas's seventeenth-century novellas, Less Exemplary Love Stories, or What Happens at the Soirée Stays at the Soirée. Siglo Latinx scholars also explored the play's historical, literary, and social contexts, fostering meaningful conversations about gender, power, and social justice in both the early modern and contemporary worlds.
Feb 24-28, 2024 @ Ohio Wesleyan University: Theater Techniques in Teaching Spanish and Culture (TTSC): Teaching María de Zayas and Ana Caro through Theater Techniques.
Instructor: Natalia Soracipa
Over the course of six hours, students participated in a series of performance-based workshops designed by Natalia Soracipa to explore Spanish Golden Age theater through contemporary acting practices. Prior to the workshops, students read the play and wrote an original monologue from the perspective of an assigned character.
The workshops began with ensemble-building games and physical exercises that fostered trust, collaboration, and body awareness. Students then engaged in vocal training, experimented with character development through animal archetypes, and applied the method of physical actions to analyze character objectives, conflicts, and movement. In the second half of the workshops, participants reimagined the characters and their conflicts within contemporary contexts, connecting the themes of the play to their own experiences and communities through collaborative performance activities. Finally, students revised their original monologues, incorporating new insights into character, voice, and language while refining their use of the Spanish subjunctive to construct hypothetical scenarios and deepen their characters' inner lives.
OWU Student participants: Lilly Colbeck, Emerson Freas, Elisabeth Johnston, Karla Ledesma, Madelin Lundin, Allyson Maya, Luke Miller, Mason Myers, Frida Ramirez, Amaya Rojas, Elizabeth Sumoza, Kaia Vorenkamp.
Jan/Feb 2024: The Divine Narcissus/Adaptation
In January 2024, the Siglo Latinx met with Mariano Ruiz, Olivia Barrera, and Ramón Márquez in a series of classes and workshops where our research assistants had the opportunity to exchange ideas on literary and artistic analysis of the play El Divino Narciso. The goal was to understand the harmony of the characters and find different ways to stage them for a contemporary audience. Queer elements and inclusive language were a primary requirement when creating and rethinking the aesthetics of the story. During the last session, everyone had the opportunity to visually show the concept of the play and ideas that Mariano would consider when rewriting the play. This collaboration, which continued until February and then resumed in June for the reading of the first draft of their adaptation, was an excellent opportunity for everyone to connect with Mexican artists and learn about their ways of staging golden-age plays.
This play premiered in October in commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Oct/Nov 2023: Teatro Círculo- Last week of rehearsals for La monja alférez (The Lieutenant Nun)
On October 29th, 2023, our research assistant, Natalia Soracipa, traveled to New York with our interns Elizabeth and Madison to present the pre-premiere rehearsals of La Monja Alferez. For a week, under the mentorship of Israel Franco, the production director, they learned about lighting management in the theater and costume design. In addition, they interviewed the actors and creators of this production, which was documented on our social media platforms. This trip "was a great opportunity for these students to nurture their perspectives and own research," as they mention in their testimonies.
August 2023: Teatro Círculo / First week of rehearsals for La monja alférez (The Lieutenant Nun)
August 2023: Teatro Círculo / First week of rehearsals for La monja alférez (The Lieutenant Nun)
In August 2023, PI Erin Cowling spent the week in New York City to observe and document the first week of rehearsals of La monja alférez by Teatro Círculo. Among the highlights were the explanation of the lighting and set design by Israel Franco Müller, seeing scenes move from read-thru to blocking, getting a sneak peak at costuming and make-up during the company's first photo session, & hearing how the director Daniel Alonso de Santos and the company's verse coach Karmele Aranburu help the performers find their character's voice.
¡Muchísimas gracias a todos los miembros de la compañía por su colaboración y la acogedora bienvenida a su sede en NYC!
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