Spotlight on Contemporary Spanish Theater: Back to Live

The third edition of this series is back to the stage presenting works by contemporary Spanish playwrights Luis Fernando de Julián, Lucía Carballal y Jordi Casanovas directed by U.S. directors.

Spanish theater is a reflection of the land where it is created: culturally rich, and diverse. Rooted in a strong tradition of theater coming from the XVI century, contemporary Spanish theater is a blend of voices and styles exploring the issues of our time.

Spotlight on Contemporary Spanish Theater is a initiative organized by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain, in collaboration with Estreno Contemporary Spanish Plays and AENY – Spanish Artists in New York to provide a platform for unheard stories to D.C. audiences.

An American Life

• On Monday, November 8 at 6:30 pm.
• Directed by Jason King Jones.
• Original title: Una Vida Americana by Lucía Carballal. This translation by William Gregory was originally commissioned by the London Spanish Theatre Company at the Cervantes Theatre, London.
• Free, RSVP required. Stage reading in English.

Camping on the outskirts of Minneapolis in an old, rented camper van, is 28-year-old Linda, with her mother, Paloma, and her sister, Robin Rose. They are the Clarksons, a Spanish family. They have come all the way to the U.S. to find Warren: the American with whom Paloma had fallen in love in Madrid in the ‘80s, and who was Linda and Robin Rose’s father. The man who promised them an American life, but who left when Linda was 10 years old to return to his home country, leaving no trace but a memory and an Anglo-Saxon surname.

After their idea of family that came with the American dream was truncated, things started to go adrift for the Clarkson family, who had now become an emblem of queer modernity in a popular neighborhood of Madrid. But to what extent was their destiny still determined by this absent American, even twenty years after he had left?

White on White

• On Tuesday, October 5 at 6.30 pm.
• By Luis Fernando de Julián.
• Directed by Reginald Douglas and translated by Iride Lamartina-Lens.
• Original title: Blanco sobre blanco.
• Free, RSVP required. Stage reading in English.

White on White poignantly depicts the threatening ecological effects of global climate change on the Arctic’s majestic polar bears, and humankind’s stubborn ineffectiveness to relieve their impending doom.

Three alpha characters, two humans and a female polar bear, tentatively interact and clash as they stake their claim on a shared space that is slowly melting and vanishing. Three viewpoints color this blinding canopy of white but only one dark fate awaits them.

More stage readings will be announced soon. Stay tuned.