Entre actos: Dialogos sobre teatro espanol entre siglos

Abstract

Entre actos: ditlogos sobre teatro espanol entre siglos. Eds. Martha T. Halsey and Phyllis Zatlin. U Park, PA Estreno, 1999. 398 pages. Entre actos consists of 42 papers presented at the International Symposium on Spanish Theatre held at Penn State University in September, 1997. The first of five sections begins with essays by five distinguished Spanish playwrights. Luis Araujo, for example, explores 6 of his own works illustrate how selection of the right form of play best brings out its content. Also analyzing his own theatre, Benet y Jornet expresses his hopes of giving his audience small measure of inspiration carry on in the face of life's vicissitudes, while Lopez Mozo offers useful history of avant garde writers in the post-Franco era. We discover more of the human side of Paloma Pedrero as she talks of her struggles overcome the handicaps of being woman in man's world. Rodriguez Mendez illustrates how his plays closely reflect the history of post-Civil War Spain and how he was personally involved in that history. Women playwrights are the subject of the second section. In plays by Teresa Garcia and Lourdes Ortiz, Wendy-Lyn Zaza discusses the courage of women characters condemned post-war concentration camps and later, their disillusionment with the failure of the Spanish socialist government implement promised reforms. Carolyn Harris in politically correct interpretation of Concha Romero's Juego de reinas, sees Juana la Loca's choice of love over duty as refusal to accept the values of the patriarchal order and the reason for her being declared insane. Possibly anachronistic in Romero's play, is Juana's defense of the Jews, Moors and Gypsies who were expelled from Spain by her mother Isabel la Cat6lica. Thus, Juana says, they were denied the right to think, pray or love in freedom. Iride Martina-Lens' study of Female Rage is the most optimistic in this section. After analyzing three American films (Thelma and Louise, Waiting Exhale, and First Wives Club) in which wives in their forties and fifties are abandoned by their boomer husbands, Martina-Lens points out that the only good coming out of their rage is bonding among the women. In contrast, Ana Diosdado's Camino de plata and Pedrero's Locus de amar, portray women victims who are able reconstruct their lives, gain insight into themselves and find a balance between love and independence. In the third section, under the title Estudios generates, Francisca Vilches de Frutos seeks define the Generacion Simbolista, and then describes the trials of these writers in the post-Civil War period and their comeback in the nineties. Ursula Aszyk of the University of Warsaw offers an analysis of the Vanguard theatre in the transition period and shows how European Vanguard writers and directors including Brecht, Stanislavski, Artaud and Grotowski influenced Spanish theatre. There are essays on Postmodernism by Wilfred Floeck and by Peter Podol who also treats metatheatre and the theme of exploitation in the contemporary theatre. Three studies on Buero Vallejo conclude this section: Victor Dixon sees Buero's La Fundacion as re-creation of La vida es sueno. …