Think of the present day Arab Spring. In 1868 Spain, public dissent was in the air. The revolutionary fervor, called La Gloriosa (Glorious Revolution) led to the overthrow of Queen Isabella II and outcries for a government that spoke for the people. Real life events inspired composer Federico Moreno-Torroba who collaborated with librettists Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernandez Shaw in 1932 to find parallels and address bigger themes in Luisa Fernanda, now considered one of the most beautiful, and challenging zarzuelas of the 20^th century.  [Read more...]

“I’ve been dying for a drink,” says Young Woman (Daniela Alvarado). That’s scene one’s startling first line that unreels Venezuelan playwright Enrique Salas’ glib dialogue. When one drink becomes one drink too many, the results can be high hilarity (pun intended) or a desperate search for dignity and recovery. [Read more...]

We could all be going through airport security instead of being ushered onto a black box stage where we are about to become part of an art-making process. “Please come in. Leave your belongings on the seats. You can leave your keys, your purses. It’s a secure zone…. Put your cell phones on silent mode, take off your shoes and come into the area where I am…,” actress/playwright Teresa Hernandez says. [Read more...]

Ecuadorean Peky Andino sheds new light on the Greek myth of Medea as the child-killing mother who gets away with murder. The playwright/poet changes Medea into a sympathetic, blind saint from Ecuador and skillfully creates a hauntingly surreal, dramatic monologue about all emigrants who seek a better life by leaving their homeland. [Read more...]

Denise Duncan, a new voice from Costa Rica, knows the issues of immigration first-hand. Her play, Latinas, premiering in Teatro de la Luna’s International Festival of Hispanic Theater, is about the frustrations and anguish that immigrants in the Spanish-speaking world face when trying to get citizenship in a foreign country. [Read more...]

Love! How do you define it? An insane passion kept Lope de Vega (1562-1635) churning out plays, sometimes a play a day. Nothing could stop this 17^th century genius, once called “a monster of Nature,” from writing so truthfully about what he observed. [Read more...]