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  • 2015 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival Coordinated by Anna-Lisa Halling
  • Anna-Lisa Halling

In 2015, the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, Texas, celebrated forty years of Golden Age productions as it hosted both professional and student troupes from Spain, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States. The festival ran from Wednesday, March 18, through Sunday, March 22, and featured five unique performances by four very different companies. Performances by these groups ranged from the recreation of a baroque celebration (¡Fiesta!) to theatrical adaptations of both a novel and a novella (El buscón and El coloquio de los perros), as well as a pastoral play (El amor enamorado) and a tonadilla (Villa y Corte—The Music of Goya). Far from the usual comedia fare, these productions not only include a wide variety of genres, but also artistic vision, thus creating a rich and diverse experience for the spectators.

  • ¡Fiesta!
  • Emily Tobey

It is not without reason that Morfeo Teatro has recently become a perennial presence at the Chamizal National Memorial’s Siglo de Oro festival. In this production, the company’s minimalist approach to sets and scenery, attention to visual detail, incorporation of a variety of genres of early modern theater, and clear respect for the texts that they bring to life all demonstrate a production approach that aligns well with the stated objective of the festival. In his opening statement in the event program, Fernando “Gus” Sanchez, the park superintendent, indicated that the purpose of the event was to increase the public’s awareness and appreciation of “the rich tradition of the drama from Spain’s Golden Age” through “a significant encounter with the performing arts.”

Each member of this small company shoulders a variety of roles, and the quality of the production demonstrates the success of their cooperation. The artistic decisions of the company’s director, Francisco Negro (who also played the role of the lead actor in the majority of the pieces presented), paralleled rather than duplicated those of a comedia production in a corral theater. Scenery and props consisted of such basic items as a chair, a few pieces of rope, a fan, and a semitransparent scrim. The use of lighting changes and fog added a modern touch to the production and effectively augmented the audience’s [End Page 235] response to emotionally charged scenes. Each of these staging techniques drew audience focus to the actors and the dramatic texts themselves. The actors took advantage of and heightened this attention through the very deliberate, considered physicality of their interpretations. The combination of these elements was particularly apparent in the selected scene from Lope de Vega’s El caballero de Olmedo. Dim lights, enough fog to initially obscure a dancer portraying a physical representation of the death omen that Alonso sees, and a musical adaptation accompanying the lines all combined to make Alonso’s death a particularly frenetic and emotionally draining scene.

The attention to detail paid to the various visual representational elements speak to the talent and precision of Mayte Bona (who also portrayed a variety of female characters) as a costume designer. The masks worn by the actors at various moments throughout the production were a beautifully detailed nod to the influence of the commedia dell’arte tradition. At the outset, they contributed to the element of mystery created by the cast as the actors stepped onto the stage in front of the main curtain, speaking while the audience wondered what lay behind the curtain and ahead in the play. Rather than relying on costume changes to mark scene transitions, each actor maintained a single costume throughout the production. To adjust for dramatic differences in character types, the costumes incorporated added elements like a manto, a hat, an eyepatch, a tucked-up skirt hem to make a respectable lady’s dress short and revealing, and a particularly memorable tied-on apron that transformed a galán into a nagging wife. All of the costumes were period authentic and beautifully constructed; the designer clearly researched extant examples of Golden Age clothing and made an effort to align the company’s wardrobe accordingly and in a way that would help to visually orient the spectators...

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