Comedia Performance Journal of the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater
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Comedia Performance Journal of the Association For Hispanic Classical Theater Barbara Mujica, Editor Box 571039 Georgetown University Washington, D. C. 20057 Volume 7, Number 1 Spring 2010 ISSN 1553-6505 Comedia Performance Editorial Board Barbara Mujica – Editor Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Box 571039 Georgetown University Washington, D. C. 20057-1039 [email protected] Susan Paun de García – Managing Editor Dept. of Modern Languages Denison University Granville, OH 43023 [email protected] Sharon Voros – Book Review Editor Department of Modern Languages US Naval Academy Annapolis, MD 21402-5030 [email protected] Darci Strother – Theater Review Editor Department of World Languages & Hispanic Literatures California State University San Marcos San Marcos, CA 92096-0001 [email protected] Michael McGrath – Interviews Editor Department of Foreign Languages P.O. Box 8081 Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA 30460 [email protected] Editorial Staff Mariana X. McCormick – Web Page [email protected] Heather Bamford – Editorial Assistant [email protected] Editorial Advisory Board Isaac Benabu Donald Dietz Susan Fischer Donald Larson Dakin Matthews Susan Paun de García Ángel Sánchez Christopher Weimer AHCT Officers Robert Johnston, President Susan Paun de García, First Vice-President Ángel Sánchez, Second Vice-President Donald Larson, Recording Secretary Sharon Voros, Treasurer Donald Dietz, President Emeritus Barbara Mujica, President Emerita Editorial Policy Comedia Performance is the journal of the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, an organization devoted to the study of the come- dia and other forms of early modern Spanish theater. Comedia Performance publishes articles on diverse aspects of performance of the Span- ish comedia and other theatrical forms. Appro- priate subjects for articles include, but are not limited to, historical or modern staging of the comedia, translating the comedia for the stage, performance theory, textual issues pertaining to performance, historical issues such as audience composition, corral design, costuming, block- ing, set design, and spectator response. Comedia Performance does not publish text-based liter- ary studies. Comedia Performance publishes interviews with directors and actors, theater reviews and book reviews in special sections. Purchase Information Comedia Performance is distributed without ad- ditional charge to members of the AHCT at the an- nual conference in El Paso, Texas. Individual copies may be purchased for $20. Non-members of AHCT may subscribe for $50 for three issues. Library rates are $30 per issue and $75 for a three-year subscrip- tion. Please contact Susan Paun de García, Managing Edi- tor, at [email protected], for additional informa- tion. Send other queries to Barbara Mujica at [email protected]. Advertising Rates Comedia Performance accepts advertisements for books, plays, festivals, and other events related to theater. Rates are $100 for a full page and $50 for a half page. Send checks made to AHCT to Sharon Voros and camera-ready text to Barbara Mujica. Submission Information All submissions must be original and unpub- lished. After publication, authors may solicit permis- sion to reproduce their material in books or other journals. Articles may be in either English or Span- ish and should be submitted electronically. No paper submissions will be accepted. Articles should use MLA style and not exceed 25 double-spaced, typed pages, including notes and bibliography. Comedia Performance is a refereed journal. All submissions will be read by a committee of experts. Please submit articles to the appropriate editor. E- mails of editors are listed under Editorial Board. Guidelines for theater reviews: 1. Reviews should be between 3 and five pages long, in- cluding pictures. 2. Reviews should not include endnotes and bibliography. 3. Reviews should not include a detailed description of plot. For canonical plays, no plot summary is necessary. For lesser known plays, a two- to three-line synopsis should suffice. 4. Avoid minute descriptions of action, costume, lighting or sets. Avoid constructions such as, “And then Don Lope comes out and says...” Instead, comment on the efficacy of the blocking of particular scenes or the effect caused by costume and decor. Do not describe details of the per- formance unless you are going to comment on them. 5. Avoid structures such as “This reviewer thinks...” Re- views are by definition subjective. 6. One reviewer may not publish more than two reviews in a single issue. CONTENTS Performance Studies Embodying Rape & Violence: Your Mirror Neurons & 2RC Teatro’s Alcalde de Zalamea Catherine Connor-Swietlicki 9 The Influence of the Target Audience in Two Productions of El perro del hortelano Christopher D. Gascón 53 The Metadramatic Function of the Aside in La traición en la amistad Michael J. McGrath 86 On the Bricks: The Terra Nova Consort, Greenshows, and the Spanish Jongleuresque Bruce R. Burningham 103 The Transformation of La prueba de los ingenios Into the Labyrinth of Desire: Adapting Lope de Vega for a Contemporary American Audience DeLys Ostlund 143 Designed for an Experience: The Natural Architecture of Corrales Elizabeth M. Petersen 170 Interviews Karen Berman: Still Dreaming Barbara Mujica 200 From Castelvines y Monteses to Capulets and Montagues: Dakin Matthews Translates Lope Susan Paun de García 209 Entrevista a Sandra Sampayo, Elvira en El mejor alcalde, el rey Gladys Robalino 229 The Yenque Acting Tradition: An Interview with Teresa and José Yenque Darci L. Strother 240 Theater Reviews 266 Book Reviews 307 Performance Studies EMBODYING RAPE & VIOLENCE: YOUR MIRROR NEURONS & 2RC TEATRO’S AL- CALDE DE ZALAMEA CATHERINE CONNOR-SWIETLICKI University of Vermont Introduction There are many reasons why Rafael Rodríguez’s theater company is rapidly becoming recognized as one of Spain’s most innovative young theater companies. A key factor in Rodríguez’s lea- dership is his performance-based sense that real embodiment is more than just what actors do on stage. That is, his company, the 2RC Teatro (2RCT), can persuade us to call into question the essentially metaphorical approach to performance embodiment that we theater scholars and critics have traditionally relied on. For example, perhaps we would normally discuss in our classes or in our publications how actor Javier Collado of the 2RCT so embodies the principal role of the Alcalde de Za- lamea that he becomes tantamount to Pedro Crespo for us. In that case we would be explaining how well he realizes his role, elaborating on how the en- 9 10 Comedia Performance Vol. 7, No. 1, 2010 tire 2RCT performance represents our individual notions of what Calderón’s play communicates. Of course actors embody their roles and even the the- matic material of entire plays in that conventional sense. But what more and more humanists, per- formers and other artists are beginning to under- stand is that, as spectators, our bodies do much more than functionally process sights and sounds in what we commonly consider our immaterial minds and their invisible thoughts. We now have much greater understanding that, as scholars and ordinary spectators, we necessarily and truly embody what we observe actors doing. That is, as we are observ- ing their performances we are actually, physically re-making their every movement and sound inside our own tissues, connecting them within us dynami- cally in processes we usually call everything from absent-minded watching to feeling and thinking. These terms “embodiment,” “embodying” and “embodied mind” have been the subject of a few major books by key scholars across the humani- ties and sciences in recent years. If they have not all produced precise, encapsulated definitions for these terms, it is simply because everything we attribute to our minds is necessarily all-inclusive. That is, our minds are always dependent on our bodies, their brains and on our individual capacities to experi- ence and interact with everything outside us. In ef- fect, we always embody those absolutely interactive major components of ourselves, the ones we hu- mans used to try to separate into enormous catego- Connor–Swietlicki 11 ries called culture and biology. And so it is that the most authoritative scholars and researchers taking on the huge task of studying our embodied minds must necessarily work in specific and more man- ageable areas of inquiry. But at the same time, their findings attract widespread interest from perform- ance and plastic artists as well as scholars of litera- ture, drama and all the arts. And because the arts, particularly performance arts, are so inclusive of our body-minds in all aspects of life, my study of per- formances and embodiment must necessarily in- clude whatever creates and dynamically interacts with performances and spectatorship. That means I need to rely on and to integrate what I have learned from major researchers and scholars in order to pass on the benefits of our inquiries to my readers. The performances I have seen of 2RCT’s Alcalde struck me as a striking performance example for sharing embodiment studies with others.1 Few performances of classical comedias are able to heighten our awareness of our normal em- bodying of actors’ actions, faces, voices, gestures, etc. as do 2RCT’s uncensored versions of the Al- calde de Zalamea (Alcalde). We spectators have no choice but to enact in our own body-brains what the body-minds of the performers are stimulating within us. That is, each spectator’s very own bodily tissues are incited to experience what her body-mind is see- ing and hearing outside her own body. But each one can only bring from the outside to the inside self what she is capable of resonating among all the con- 12 Comedia Performance Vol. 7, No. 1, 2010 tributing “citizens” of her “society of mind.”2 She can only embody as much or as well as her particu- lar and multiple connections are able. And for those connections to be set in motion—i.e. for her to comprehend the art outside her—she is dependent on how well her mirror neurons stimulate all her potentially networked motor-sensory, emotionally and aesthetically remembered relationships we commonly call feeling and thinking.