The Mountain Girl From La Vera

This edition presents The Mountain Girl from La Vera (1613) for the first time in English. The extraordinary protagonist, Gila, calls herself a man, takes pride in doing things men do, and falls in love with a queen. Her betrayal by an army captain who she has humiliated leads to tragedy. Gila has been described as feminist, lesbian, queer, and transgender. It is a vibrant, relevant play and a great piece of theatre.

This edition presents The Mountain Girl from La Vera (1613) for the first time in English. The extraordinary protagonist, Gila, calls herself a man, takes pride in doing things men do, and falls in love with a queen. Her betrayal by an army captain who she has humiliated leads to tragedy. Gila has been described as feminist, lesbian, queer, and transgender. It is a vibrant, relevant play and a great piece of theatre.

In the first in-depth study of the interconnected relationships among public theatre, custodial institutions, and women in early modern Spain, Margaret E. Boyle explores the contradictory practices of rehabilitation enacted by women both on and off stage. Pairing historical narratives and archival records with canonical and non-canonical theatrical representations of women’s deviance and rehabilitation, Unruly Women argues that women’s performances of penitence and punishment should be considered a significant factor in early modern Spanish life. Boyle considers both real-life sites of rehabilitation for women in seventeenth-century Madrid, including a jail and a magdalen house, and women onstage, where she identifies three distinct representations of female deviance: the widow, the vixen, and the murderess. Unruly Women explores these archetypal figures in order to demonstrate the ways a variety of playwrights comment on women’s non-normative relationships to the topics of marriage, sex, and violence.

'Staging and Stage Décor: Perspectives on European Theater 1500-1950' is a compendium of essays by an international array of theater specialists. The Introduction provides an overview of theater décor and architecture from ancient Greece through the Renaissance and beyond, while the articles that follow explore a variety of topics such as the development of lighting techniques in early modern Italy, the staging of convent theater in Portugal, performance spaces at Versailles, the reconstruction of the Globe theater, and Shrovetide plays in Germany. This volume also offers insight into little-studied subjects such as the early productions of Brecht and the spread of Russian theater to Japan. The focus on performance and performance space across centuries and continents makes this a truly unique volume.

This collection of original new essays focuses on the many ways in which early modern Spanish plays engaged their audiences in a dialogue about abuse, injustice, and inequality. Far from the traditional monolithic view of theatrical works as tools for expanding ideology, these essays each recognize the power of theatre in reflecting on issues related to social justice. The first section of the book focuses on textual analysis, taking into account legal, feminist, and collective bargaining theory. The second section explores issues surrounding theatricality, performativity, and intellectual property laws through an analysis of contemporary adaptations. The final section reflects on social justice from the practitioners’ point of view, including actors and directors. Social Justice in Spanish Golden Age Theatre reveals how adaptations of classical theatre portray social justice and how throughout history the writing and staging of comedias has been at the service of a wide range of political agendas.

Shakespeare and the Spanish Comedia is a nearly unique transnational study of the theater / performance traditions of early modern Spain and England. Divided into three parts, the book focuses first on translating for the stage, examining diverse approaches to the topic. It asks, for example, whether plays should be translated to sound as if they were originally written in the target language or if their “foreignness” should be maintained and even highlighted. Section II deals with interpretation and considers such issues as uses of polyphony, the relationship between painting and theater, and representations of women. Section III highlights performance issues such as music in modern performances of classical theater and the construction of stage character. Written by a highly respected group of British and American scholars and theater practitioners, this book challenges the traditional divide between the academy and the stage and between one theatrical culture and another.

This is the first book on staging and stage décor to focus specifically on early modern Spanish theater, from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. The introduction provides an overview of Spanish theater design from the 16th century, with particular attention to the corral theater and Lope de Vega. The scope of the book is vast. Some of the articles deal with early modern stagings, while others deal with contemporary productions. The collection contains articles by an international array of specialists on topics such as scenography and costuming, lighting, and performance space. It also broaches little-studied areas such as the use of alternative performance spaces, most notably prisons. The book provides in-depth analyses of particular archetypes - the melancholiac, the queen, the astrologer - and how they were, and are, staged. The focus on performance and performance space, costuming, set design, lighting, and audience seating make this a truly unique volume. This book is designed for students of Spanish literature and theater, researchers interested in theater history and early modern Spain, as well as theater professionals.