Theatre department gears up for ‘Sueño’

Shakespeare meets the Matrix in a sword-waving, action-packed production beginning Nov. 18. The GCSU Theatre Department will present José Rivera’s “Sueño,” an English-language adaptation of the 17th-century Spanish play “Life is a Dream.” This is the third production of the semester that ties in the season’s theme, “Dreaming Global Justice.”

“This play asks big questions about justice with a prisoner locked in a castle,” said Karen Berman, theater department chair and director of the play.

The play has been adapted for this production by changes in the setting and choreography. Instead of being set in 17th century Spain, it takes place in a fantastical steampunk world. Steampunk is a mélange of Victorian era industrialism and modern technology. Berman also implemented ideographs, which are slow-motion movements that are like dance and evoke emotion.

“The themes of fate and God in the play suggested that there were gears running our lives, and the gears matched with that Industrial Age feel,” Berman said.

“Sueño” has been touted as “Spanish Hamlet,” because of the elaborate fight scenes and its similarity to Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet.” The original play by Calderon de la Barca was written soon after “Hamlet,” and has similar themes such as the son seeking revenge on his father, and a woman scorned.

Senior Nick Thompson plays King Basilio, who condemns his son by locking him in a tower after finding out through a horoscope that his son will be a monster who destroys the kingdom. To get into his role, he had to do work outside of rehearsal.

“It’s my senior capstone so I did lots of research on astrology and numerology,” Thompson said.

New faces to GCSU theater are featured in this production. Four freshmen play major roles. Freshman Leah Keelan plays Rosaura, whose gender-bending character posed a challenge for her.

“I have to be a boy and a girl. She’s a boy because she wants to fight,” Keelan said. “Getting the boy character was a little difficult.”

The fight scenes were choreographed by Kelly Martin, and senior Bren Thomas was the fight captain who helped practice the scenes, in addition to playing Basilio’s son Segismundo.

“I love fighting,” Thomas said. “The fight choreography is so much fun.”

The production was an effort across multiple departments. While the theater department is most prominent, Dr. Myron Avila of the Modern Foreign Languages department retranslated the entire play back into Spanish to ensure the accuracy of the depiction. When “Sueño” is performed, there will be Spanish supertitles that will give the Spanish language interpretation, much like an opera.

“It should be very fun, unique, scary at parts and funny at parts,” Berman said.

“Sueño” will run Nov. 18-21 at 8 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Nov. 22 in Russell Auditorium. Tickets are $5 for GCSU students.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 13 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry