Spanish Comedy Theater Project

During Spring 2018, students enrolled in Nation and Identity in Spanish Theater (SPN 340) performed original fifteen-minute scripts in Spanish that they had drafted with visiting comedy playwright Emilio Williams. During his workshop, students wrote an original script to parody a canonical scene from one of four plays from the semester dated between 1806 and 1933. On stage, icons from the Spanish literary canon like Don Juan and the Maiden were reinterpreted with humor in order to poke fun at the social norms that defined individuals in matters of love, courtship and marriage. Paradigms from the plays that students gently mocked included triangulation and male honor, marrying for money, blind love, seduction at any cost, as well as rigid constructs of female identity. Through self-expression and professionally-guided techniques in humor, the students' performances shone comic light on gender biases and dynamics in today's world.