2016 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival

Mujeres y Criados by Lope de Vega and produced by Fundación Siglo de Oro will be at the International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival.

The Siglo de Oro Drama Festival has been held at Chamizal National Monument continuously since 1975. The festival features the Golden Age of Spain through plays and soliloquies. These productions help us understand a culture which has had a significant impact on our own in the United States southwest and in México.

Theatrical production companies and other groups that produce Siglo de Oro plays are brought to El Paso by the Chamizal National Memorial for the five-day festival. A different play is presented each night. Some productions are also presented in Ciudad Juárez.

Mujeres y Criados

• On Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 7 pm.
• By Lope de Vega. Directed by Rodrigo Arribas Fontela and Laurence Boswell.
• Performed in Spanish by Fundación Siglo de Oro, Spain.

A comedy about two sisters in love with men in service and without status while courted by rich men of status. This play was referenced as being written by Lope de Vega, but the manuscript was not included in any published volumes. The only manuscript that has survived was copied by hand by a theater director in 1631 but was marked as being by Lope de Vega. It wasn’t until modern technology helped put the pieces together that its identity was discovered. This performance will be its debut in U.S.

Entremeses Cervantinos

• On Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 7 pm.
• By Miguel de Cervantes. Directed by David Mills and Hector Serrano.
• Performed by Eden Enterprises, El Paso, Texas.

3 entremeses performed—2 in Spanish,1 in English. 2016 marks 400th anniversary of Cervantes’ death.

La Celestina

• On Friday, April 1, 2016 at 7 pm.
• By Fernando de Rojas (adaptation by Guadalupe de la Mora). Directed by Daniel Miranda
• Performed in Spanish by Telón de Arena, Ciudad Juárez, México.

The story tells of a bachelor Calisto who uses the old procuress Celestina to start an affair with Melibea, an unmarried girl kept in seclusion by her parents. Though the two use the rhetoric of courtly love, sex not marriage is their aim. When he dies in an accident, she commits suicide. The name Celestina has become synonymous with procuress, especially an older woman used to further an illicit affair, and is a literary archetype of this character, the masculine counterpart being Pandarus.

El Príncipe Ynocente

• On Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 7 pm.
• By Lope de Vega. Directed by Ana Lilia Herrera and Allan Flores.
• Performed in Spanish by EFE Tres Teatro, D.F., México.

Two convicts who are unjustly imprisoned pass the time by making up stories. This is one of them. The two actors personify around 16 different people. This is one of Lope de Vega’s lesser-known works.

A workshop organized by AHCT (The Association for Hispanic Classical Theater) will take place on Monday, March 28 and Tuesday, March 29. This workshop is the culmination of a translation project that involves AHCT members from the U.S., Puerto Rico, and England, in collaboration with members of FuSO (Fundación Siglo de Oro.)