MAY 13th at 7PM
Dándole Voz:
An Exploration of Shakespeare in Spanish
Una Exploración de Shakespeare en Español
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During this year of the pandemic, anti-racist theater training, and remote learning, the Acting department at Yale School of Drama has had an opportunity to experiment with the curriculum and the canon. Inspired by a cohort of Spanish-speaking students -- including international and U.S.-born actors, some Latinx native speakers and some who learned Spanish as a secondary language – Cynthia and Daniela offered a 4-week elective, Shakespeare in Spanish/Shakespeare en Español.
They invited their students to center imagination and identity, and asked: what may happen at the encounter of your imagination, your lived experience, your body, and Shakespeare – in Spanish? Playing Shakespeare in translation raises political, philosophical, psychological and personal questions, including questions around universality, specificity, cultural identity, and access.
This evening, Cynthia, Daniela, and their students will discuss what they discovered, and the actors will share some of their scenework from Macbeth. The conversation will be primarily in English, the scenes in Spanish, and the Q&A in either or both languages.
The primary translation is by Agustín García Calvo, in the Penguin edition of the Tragedias (Obra completa Shakespeare 2) and a translation by Jorge Plata, El Áncora Editores, Bogotá 1988.
Meet Cynthia Santos- DeCure
Cynthia Santos-DeCure is a bilingual actor, voice and dialect coach. She is an Assistant Professor Adjunct of Acting at Yale University, School of Drama, certified in both Knight-Thompson Speechwork® and as an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Voice and dialect coach credits include Orange is the New Black (Netflix), The Affair (Showtime), El Huracan at Yale Rep, I Come from Arizona at Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis, In The Heights at Phoenix Theater and Chance Theater, Shelter at Center for New Performance/CalArts, and The Long Road Today/Diálogos at South Coast Repertory. Shakespeare work includes The Tempest at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Henry V at Knightsbridge Theatre, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and The Tempest at Long Beach Shakespeare.
Cynthia is amember of AEA, SAG/AFTRA. Her credits include The Mambo Kings, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Days of Our Lives, The Bold & The Beautiful, General Hospital, All My Children, and numerous commercials. Cynthia co-edited Scenes for Latinx Actors: Voices of the New American Theatre. Her chapter, “La Voz de Shakespeare: Empowering Latinx Communities to speak, own and embody Shakespeare’s texts,” is included in the upcoming book, Shakespeare and Latinidad (Edited Carla Della Gatta and Trevor Buffone) Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
Find out more about Cynthia…
Meet Daniela Varon
Daniela Varon is a New York-based director and acting teacher, and a long-time member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. She was Associate Director and co-founder, with Kristin Linklater, of The Company of Women, which presented all-female Shakespeare productions and workshops for women and girls, and co-producer, director and moderator of Conversations with Shakespeare, which played three seasons at Symphony Space.
Daniela’s productions of Shakespeare, contemporary, and new plays have been seen at some 25 theaters around the country, and she has developed new work with another 25 companies. Fellowships and residencies include the Drama League, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Shakespeare Society, and Voice & Vision. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, a LCT Directors Lab alumna, and a member of SDC.
Daniela is a Lecturer in Acting at the Yale School of Drama, where she teaches Shakespeare and advises Shakespeare productions. She is on the faculty of the Linklater Center for Voice and Language, and is a Shakespeare specialist with Lincoln Center Theater’s Education department. She has taught and directed at Barnard, Bennington, Dartmouth, Emerson, Purchase, and Smith Colleges, Columbia University, NYU/Stella Adler, and U. Conn., and taught Shakespeare workshops in Bulgaria at the Sfumato Theatre Laboratory and the Plovdiv National Drama Theatre.
Meet Moderator Chantal Rodriguez
Chantal Rodriguez (she/ella) is the Associate Dean of Yale School of Drama and an Assistant Professor Adjunct in the School's Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Department. From 2009–2016 she was the Programming Director and Literary Manager for the Latino Theater Company, operators of the Los Angeles Theatre Center. She is a co-editor of Seeking Common Ground: Latinx and Latin American Theatre and Performance (Methuen Drama, 2021), and Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater (Northwestern University Press, 2019); and the author of The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers, published by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center in 2011, nominated for three Latino Literacy Now International Book Awards. Her scholarly work has also been published in Theatre Journal, Theatre Magazine, Latin American Theatre Review, e-misférica, and Theatre Research International. She is a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee, and the National Advisory Board for the 50 Playwrights Project. Chantal holds a Ph.D in Theater and Performance Studies from UCLA and a B.A. in Theater and Spanish Studies from Santa Clara University. She lives in New Haven, CT with her husband, Stephen and their dog, Bailey.
Meet the Actors
* denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association
Patrick Falcón*
Patrick Falcón (el, him, they) As a Venezuelan / French actor, by way of Miami, Patrick, a 2nd-Year MFA Candidate at the Yale School of Drama, is ecstatic to be a part of such an important and culturally expansive workshop, with such a talented cast of creatives. Favorite regional credits include The Hammer Trinity (House Theatre), The Wild Party (Bailiwick), and an all LatinX production of A View from the Bridge (Teatro Vista) in Chicago, where he received his BFA. Patrick can be seen starring in the independent films Still Light and Looking For.
Alexandra Maurice
Alexandra Maurice is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she was seen in Luna Gale, YELL, How to Get Over Fuckbois Vol. 1, Measure for Measure, and The Tempest. Other credits include Schoolgirls, We Are Proud to Present, and No Dead Thing (Yale Cabaret). She holds a BFA in Theater Arts from Howard University,and has trained at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York City.
Maia Mihanovich
Maia Mihanovich was born and raised in Argentina. She trained in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Caliban (Norman Briski) and at the Yale School of Drama (2018-current). She’s recently been seen in GIRLS by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins (Yale Rep.), YELL by Jeremy O. Harris (Yale School of Drama), and HAMLET (Yale School of Drama).
Julian Sanchez*
Julian Sanchez is a third-year M.F.A candidate at the Yale School of Drama, where he was seen in YELL: a “documentary” of my time here (by Jeremy O. Harris) and Alice. Other credits include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Girls (Yale Repertory Theatre); Burn Book, Lenny’s Fast Food Kids Gang (Yale Cabaret); The Swallow and the Tomcat (Yale Summer Cabaret); Hand to God (Live Arts); A Chorus Line, Middletown, Violet, Monty Python's Spamalot (Heritage Theatre Festival);Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus (RADA). He holds a B.A in English literature from the University of Virginia, where he was seen in The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, The Comedy of Errors, Wonderful Town, Richard II, among others, and studied abroad at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.
Jackeline Torres Cortés*
Jackeline Torres Cortés is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has been seen in Girls (Yale Repertory Theatre), Alice, Swimmers, YELL: a “documentary” of my time here and Luna Gale. She holds a B.F.A. in acting from University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, where she performed in Yerma, Waiting for Godot, and Ofel. Instragram: @jackemates.
Anthony Holiday*
Anthony Holiday also known as “Holiday” has been seen in productions of; ‘Ain’t no dead thing’ (Charles) by a.k. Payne, ‘Mr. Burns’ by Anne Washburn (Homer, Marge), ‘Measure for Measure’ (Claudio), ‘Locust’ (Amos) by Chris Gabo, ‘Lenny’s Fast Food Kids Gang’ (Walter) by Angie B. Jones. Holiday is also a recent graduate of the Atlantic “Full Time” Conservatory with a certificate in acting wherein he has been seen in the production “Last Day’s of Judas Iscariot” (El Fayoumy) by Stephen Adly Guirgus. Upon graduation, he was a part of “This girl laughs, this girl cries, this girl does nothing” (Fleeing Villager/City Man 1) by Finnegan Kruckmeyer. Holiday is from New Jersey born and raised and also a graduate of Brookdale Community College of wherein he received his Associates Degree in acting/humanities.
Nefesh Cordero Pino
Nefesh Cordero Pino is currently in her third year at Yale School of Drama. She has performed in the Carlotta Festival, Yale Cabaret, Summer Cabaret, Iseman Theater and Langston Hughes Festival. Some of her credits include Novios: part one, Hamlet, Bakkhai, Locusts, The conduct of life, Red Speedo, How do black girls get over fuckbois, You will get sick and In-Between Bitches. From Isabela, Puerto Rico, Nefesh graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras where she completed a doble major in Theater and Public Relations. Other credits include: The Maids, Hand to God, Juala de Pájaros, Menecmos, Pecados Mínimos, The crucible and Ofel an adaptation of Hamlet.
Tyler Cruz
Tyler Cruz is a second-year actor at the Yale School of Drama. Recent past credits include Yale Cabaret's productions of In Between Bxtches, UNCUT, Daughters of the Confederacy and Littleboy/Littleman as well as YSD's production of The Salt Women. IG: @tylerrcruz
Sola Fadiran
Sola Fadiran is a Nigerian-American actor, singer, and writer, currently working on his MFA in Acting at the Yale School of Drama. He has performed as an Artist with the Cincinnati Opera, as well as "Opera Fusion: New Works" with the Canadian Opera Center, with the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Work Commission, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra among others. He has also performed as a Festival Artist with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater, and as a Festival Artist at the Virginia Arts Festival Duffy Institute for New Opera. He is a founding member of Cantos Para Hermanar al Mundo, an annual concert series and cultural celebration in Coahuila, Mexico. Sola is also co-founder of Midnight Oil Collective, a creator-led arts investment, development, and production collaborative. He is dedicated to the narrative expansion of marginalized storytelling, especially stories from the colonized world. https://www.midnightoilco.com/
Thank you to the Performers’ Unions through Theatre Authority, Inc.
for their cooperation in permitting the following Artists to appear on this program
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION ~ AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS
AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS ~ SAG-AFTRA
