Golden Tongues: Adapting Hispanic Classical Theater in Los Angeles

A first-of-its-kind anthology that explores adaptations of 17th-century Hispanic comedia within contemporary Los Angeles theater.

Performed outdoors for audiences of all classes and genders, comedias questioned orthodox ideologies and power systems of the 17th-century Hispanic world: 400 years later, these stories are still being used to call for change, but within modern-day America.

Golden Tongues: Adapting Hispanic Classical Theater in Los Angeles explores how adaptations of source texts by authors such as Lope de Vega, Calderón, and María de Zayas harness their energy and themes. Touching on key modern issues like the intersection of power and sexuality, gentrification, and Black identities, this anthology bridges the gap between the classical and the contemporary.

Featuring seven plays, each with an introduction that situates the adaptation in relation to its source and contextualizes its performance, this play collection both highlights the longevity of Hispanic classic theater and celebrates the diversity of modern day performance.

Barbara Fuchs (Distinguished Professor of Spanish and English, UCLA) is founder and director of Diversifying the Classics, its Golden Tongues adaptation initiative, and the LA Escena festival of Hispanic classical theater. Her most recent book is Theater of Lockdown: Digital and Distanced Performance in a Time of Pandemic (Bloomsbury/Methuen 2021).
Robin Alfriend Kello is a Ph.D. candidate in English at UCLA. His teaching and research focus on early modern drama in English and Spanish, adaptations of Shakespeare, and the theater of migration. He has been part of Diversifying the Classics since 2016, and served as a Golden Tongues dramaturg in 2020.
Aina Soley Mateu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA. Her dissertation considers representations of historical memory in 21st-century Catalan Literature. She is a long-term member of Diversifying the Classics, and has worked as a dramaturg for Golden Tongues since 2020.