This letter is in response to the article in the Sun’s Volume 57, Issue 5 “Por que no hay plays en espanol?”
Mayan Hall theatre has produced over 45 percent of is productions in the past 8 years in Spanish-English, written by and for Hispanic audiences. These plays were performed by bilingual students utilizing both of their languages. Just a month ago at a department meeting we were discussing the fact that possibly too many of our productions are selected for a Spanish speaking audience and we should be doing more plays addressing the concerns of other cultures and other groups.
The faculty cultivates bilingualism in performance classes and encourages its students to celebrate their bilingual skills. Bilingual performers at SWC unilaterally want to perform in English and to work on their enunciation so that they won’t face a future of being type cast.
The article proposes that SWC perform Caridad Svich’s adaptation of Marquez’s, Love in the Time of Cholera. Impossible. 1. The play is a tome of talking talking talking 2. The play has received nothing but lukewarm to horrid reviews. 3. The play tries to put an expansive epic novel into a tiny zip lock bag 4. SWC’s administration will not allow the theatre department to mount a play with Cholera’s 4 characters …or 8 …or 10. Our administration censures us from mounting 85% of the world’s dramatic literature because we must have 18-26 performers in every production.
