For the third time in four years students have had the opportunity to participate in a theater production in which only Spanish is spoken. The brainchild of José Delgado, Spanish instructor, the productions are open to the public. Even if your understanding of Spanish is limited or nonexistent, it is entertaining and enlightening to attend the Spanish theater. The printed program always presents a brief synopsis of the three miniplays in English, so that it is easy to follow the meaning of the action, if not the dialogue.
Dr. Delgado, who has taught in the Department of Modern Languages since 1991, said he became interested in producing Spanish-speaking theater because it helps teach the language. "Acting in a play is the right vehicle for learning language," Dr. Delgado said. "It involves four skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. I always ask my actors to write something about their particular character. The best comment I've heard from one of the actors was that he was thinking in Spanish."
The plays Dr. Delgado presents touch on aspects of life he strongly feels should be explored in theater; the lives and concerns of women, minorities, and gays often are depicted in productions he chooses. "The second year we performed El público, a surreal play as well as an openly gay play, by Federico García Lorca," Dr. Delgado said. "In order to advance social causes one must embrace not only one's own concerns but also everyone else's. The idea of a nongay director doing a gay play was precisely that. I would hope that maybe a black director would do a play about Jewish people, or vice versa. The possibilities are endless."
This past spring the production was billed as Noches de amor efimero (Nights of ephemeral love) and included three miniplays: Esta noche en el parque (Tonight at the park), La noche dividida (The divided night), and Solos esta noche (Alone tonight). The one-act plays were linked by the common themes of love and time at nighttime.
Auditions and rehearsals are held during winter quarter, with the production held during spring quarter. In the past Dr. Delgado has played a part, as have other faculty members. He hopes to get enough interest from students to have most actor roles filled by them. "I demand some linguistic competence, but they can be in any grade level, from undergraduate to graduate students," he said. "I invite other professors to try out too, so we have a nice mix. The students can learn more from having some actors who speak Spanish very well." Stage hands and scenery construction crews are also selected from applicants.
"The response from students has been tremendous," Dr. Delgado reported. "They come to my office and ask when the next play will be and remind me that they want to be in it. And they bring me plays to review and possibly use."
The interdisciplinary aspect of the endeavor is particularly important to Dr. Delgado. "More and more departments are getting involved," he pointed out. "The School of Theater has been terrific in helping with costume design, lighting, and scenery. They have also been very gracious in letting us use both the Forum Theater in the Radio and TV Building and the Virginia Hahne Studio Theater in Kantner Hall. I can visualize getting more of the international community-not just language students-to participate. This collaborative effort gets a number of talents together and reminds us how talented we are and how well we can work together."
Dr. Delgado said he always takes a hand in the stage design because the company takes their productions on the road. "We have to keep in mind that our stage will travel," he said. "The first year we traveled to Kansas and performed La farsa del am or compradito, a farce by Puerto Rican novelist and playwright Luis Rafael Sánchez, at an International conference on Latin American theater. We took our second play, El público, to the University of Kentucky. And this year we took our three miniplays to the University of Kentucky. We either rent a van from Ohio University or a local moving company and also use our cars. We usually stay with local people who are kind enough to host us, since we are traveling on a budget."
Initially, funding for the theater productions and travel was provided by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Modern Languages. But the second year Dr. Delgado received a grant from the Spanish embassy. "The embassy is interested in promoting Spanish culture and they were very generous with their contribution," Dr. Delgado said.
Dr. Delgado, who was born in Puerto Rico, studied theater at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico and at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He teaches Spanish language and literature at all levels. He said he plans to create a Tier III course on Spanish theater. "It is my hope to have a course where students prepare for a theatrical production for ten weeks during fall quarter. The climax of the class would be the production of the play. Then in the spring we would have another play, so there would be some theater production year-round.