GALA Hispanic Theatre presents the World Premiere of CABARET BARROCO Interludes of Spain’s Golden Age by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Luis Quiñones de Benavente, Jerónimo de Cáncer, Agustín Moreto, Francisco de Quevedo and Francisco Bernardo de Quirós Adaptation by Mar Zubieta and Francisco Rojas Music composed by David Peralto and Alberto Granados Dramaturgy and Direction by José Luis Arellano García English Translation by David Johnston Produced in collaboration with Acción Sur S.L. from Spain Washington, D.C. [CapitalWirePR] September 10, 2013- GALA opens its 38th Season with the World Premiere of Cabaret Barroco: Interludes of Spain’s Golden Ageby Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Luis Quiñones de Benavente, Jerónimo de Cáncer, Agustín Moreto, Francisco de Quevedo and Francisco Bernardo de Quirós. Directed by José Luis Arellano García from Madrid, Cabaret Barroco runs September 12 through October 6, 2013 at GALATheatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010. Parking is available at a discount in the Giant garage on Park Road, NW. “I am thrilled that we are producing Cabaret Barroco as part of a binational collaboration with Acción Sur, a collective of artists from Madrid,” states Hugo Medrano, GALA’s Producing Artistic Director. “In previous seasons we collaborated on the staging of the acclaimed ¡Ay, Carmela! by José SanchisSinisterra and El caballero de Olmedo by Lope de Vega. Now we are offering an evening of entremeses, dramaturgical delights that provide the flavor of the era, a peek into the underside of Spain’s 17th century society. Like culinary feasts that cleanse the palate for the next course, the entremeses, or interludes, were short pieces that entertained audiences between acts of a major work.” “The entremeses were first performed in the streets by multi-disciplinary artists,” continues Medrano. “While their themes and content often satirized and subverted social norms, they eventually became an integral part of royal performances. Cabaret Barroco retains the original dramaturgical framework used in performances in the corralas of the Golden Age, but in our production the selected interludes are performed as the major pieces and other brief scenes are performed in between. These bawdy, playful, and insightful works will whet the appetite of patrons for Spanish classical drama and introduce this rich and vibrant genre to a new generation of theater lovers.” “We chose to stage the interludes,” adds director José Luis Arellano García, “because I wanted to explore pieces by great Spanish writers other than the more widely recognized entremeses of Cervantes, many of which were staged by GALA in 2003. I was seduced by the lively language of the pieces and the colorful characters who exuded a joy of life. Here actors are part of a troupe of troubadours who play scoundrels, whores, dunces, ladies, rogues, slackers and matadors, and with music, dance and song speak to us of love. Cabaret Barroco is performed in Spanish with English surtitles Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm. (Please note that Sunday matinees are now at 2 pm.) The Noche de GALA and Press Night is Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 8 pm, followed by a reception under the honorary patronage of the Ambassador of Spain to the United States, His Excellency Ramon Gil-Casares. Student matinees for Cabaret Barroco are September 19, September 20, September 26, September 27, October 3 and October 4 at 10:30 am. For more information about the Student Matinee Program, please call 202-234-7174. This is the fifth international collaboration between GALA and Acción Sur that involves artists from the United States and Spain. The project is made possible with support from the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC, Spain Art and Culture, Spain-USA Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. ABOUT CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA, BENAVENTE, CÁNCER, MORETO, QUEVEDO AND QUIRÓS Pedro Calderón de la Barca was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age, widely recognized for his signature work La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream). At the age of 23 he began a fruitful playwriting career with his first play, Amor, honor y poder (Love, Honor, and Power), and developed an exemplary reputation as a writer, particularly for his lyricism. He eventually became a Court Poet. Extremely prolific, he wrote over 300 plays, only of which a few remain extant, and like many of his contemporaries, he spent his later years as a priest before dying at the age of 81. Luis Quiñones de Benavente was a close friend of Lope de Vega and became known for his interludes. He was the first to write interludes that were performed partly in song. His first collection of plays, entitled Jocoseria. Burlas, veras o reprensión moral y festiva de los desórdenes públicos, was published in 1645. He wrote more than 900 short pieces, and was one of the most copied and imitated writers of his time. Jerónimo de Cáncer was acclaimed for his burlesque comedies and interludes, of which some of the best known include Este lo paga, El cortesano and Los Putos. He collaborated with other writers of his time, including Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Agustín Moreto and Luis Vélez de Guevara. In 1651, he published Obras varias de don Jerónimo de Cáncer y Velasco, dedicadas al duque de Medina-Sidonia, a collection of poems, which includes the interlude La Garapiña. Agustín Moreto y Cabaña was considered an equal of his great near-contemporary Lope de Vega and his plays were extremely popular in his time. Moreto was born in Madrid in 1618 to parents of Italian descent. He attended the University of Alcalá de Henares, where he studied logic and physics and received a degree in 1639. By the middle of the century, Moreto was a recognized literary figure and a member of the Academia Castellana. He was the author of more than 100 plays, of which two of his comedies have become part of the classical canon: El lindo Don Diego and El desdén con el desdén, which GALA produced last season. Francisco de Quevedo was a Spanish nobleman, a politician and one of the most important writers of the entremeses, along with Miguel de Cervantes, Luis Quiñones de Benavente, Francisco de Quirós, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and Agustín Moreto. He and his rival, Luis de Góngora, were considered two of the most prominent poets of their time. Quevedo’s style was known as conceptismo, which was characterized by “a rapid rhythm, directness, simple vocabulary, witty metaphors and word play.” Francisco Bernardo de Quirós was acclaimed in his time by his contemporaries but is less-known than other Golden Age writers. He wrote interludes for palace festivities that were performed by renowned theater companies of the era, such as those of Osorio, Bartolomé Romero, and Tomás Fernández. Quirós’ Works of Francisco Bernardo de Quirós and Adventures of Don Fruela was published twice in the same year and widely praised. ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Featured in the cast are guest artists Chani Martín from Madrid, Spain; Gonzalo Bouza and Carmen Cabrera from New York; and Jimmy Navarro from Puerto Rico. Appearing for the first time at GALA is Luz Nicolás, who is from Spain and now resides in Baltimore, Maryland. GALA company members appearing in the cast are Carlos Castillo and Natalia Miranda-Guzmán, who appeared in El desdén con el desdén and La casa de los espíritus last season, and Menchu Esteban, who appeared in Divorciadas, evangélicas y vegeterianas, among other GALA productions. José Luis Arellano García is a theater, opera and television director from Spain, and is the director of the Drama School of the City of Parla, Spain. His most recent productions that he directed at GALA include the acclaimed ¡Ay Carmela! by José Sanchis-Sinisterra and El caballero de Olmedo by Lope de Vega. He also directed Fuente Ovejuna at the 2009 International Festival of Classic Theatre of Almagro, featuring youth from Parla. This production was subsequently presented at the Shakespeare Theatre and GALA in April 2009. In 2011 he directed an adaptation of Cervantes’ Numancia that was also presented by the Youth Theater of Parla at GALA, and this year he directed Mostra de Espanh in Portugal. Other directing credits include La bruja Azafrán for Teatro Real, and Cinderella, an opera by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, which toured throughout Spain. Last year, Arellano García debuted as director at the María Guerrero National Theater with the production La piel en llamas by Guillem Clua, which was nominated for a MAX Award in Spain for best script. Most recently, he directed Invasión by Guillem Clua, a world premiere at Teatro Conde Duque in Madrid, and Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill for the Young Company of Parla at the International Theatre Festival for Young Companies in July of this year. Currently, he is Assistant Director to Gerardo Vera, who directed Platónov by Anton Chekov, Woyzeck by Büchner, Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht and Agosto by Tracy Letts at the María Guerrero National Theater, and Maribel y la extraña familia by Miguel Mihura at Teatro Infanta Isabel. Scenic design is by Giorgos Tsappas, who designed sets for ¡Ay Carmela! and Bodas de sangre at GALA and most recently The Rocky Horror Show at Studio Theatre Second Stage. Light and Sound design are by Manuel Roca from Madrid, Spain, and Costumes are by Ivania Stack, who designed La casa de los espíritus last season at GALA. Properties are by Alicia Tessari Neiman, who designed for Puerto Rico...¡fuá!.Music composition is by David Peralto and Alberto Granados (a member of the Youth Theater of Parla that performed at GALA in 2009 and 2011. Artemis López is Stage Manager; Andoni Larrabeiti is Assistant to the Director and Movement Coach.. Anna Bate is Production Manager in Washington, DC; Olga Reguilón serves as Production Manager in Spain; and Andrés Luque is Technical Director. For this binational collaboration, Mr. Peralto is the Producer in Spain and Hugo Medrano is Producer in Washington, DC. Mar Zubieta (Adaptation)has worked on plays from the Spanish Golden Age for more than 20 years. She is the former Director of the Department of Publications and Events at La Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico in Spain. She holds a doctoral degree in Spanish Literature from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, and wrote and edited collections for La Compañía Nacional that relate to the Spanish Golden Age, such as Cuadernos de Teatro Clásico and Textos de Teatro Clásico. With Francisco Rojas she adapted El caballero de Olmedo for GALA’s production. Franciso Rojas (Adaptation)graduated in acting from the Real Escuela Superior de las Artes Dramáticas in Madrid, and has worked for many years as verse coach for La Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous classical plays by Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, and Tirso de Molina. He has collaborated with Mar Zubieta in other adaptations of plays directed by José Luis Arellano García, including Fuente Ovejuna and El caballero de Olmedo. ON EXHIBIT IN THE KREEGER ARTWALK Ariel J. Klein was born in Washington, DC and studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Bellas Artes. After returning to the United States from Spain, he produced his Baltimore Series in which he applied the palette and style of Spanish art to contemporary scenes in Baltimore. Mr. Klein’s first solo show in 2013, “Following the Thin Woman”, was a retrospective of his work from Madrid, Baltimore and Silver Spring, where he currently works in his studio. “Madrid Cotidiano”, the exhibition of Mr. Klein’s works at GALA, focuses on the concept of daily life in Madrid. TICKET INFORMATION Single tickets are $38 on Thursdays and Sundays, and $42 Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets for senior citizens (60+) are $26, and for students and military are $20. Additional discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. Tickets for Noche de GALA and Reception are $50 per individual, $90 per couple, and $15 per subscriber.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 14:02:35 +0000
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