To make their language study come alive, students in Introduction to Hispanic Literature produced a staged reading of La casa de Bernada Alba.
Marcela Garcés, Ph.D., associate professor of Spanish, has taught the course before, but wanted to try something new this semester. She enlisted the aid of Krysta Dennis, Ph.D., producer of creative arts, and the two worked with the 15 students on language, acting, voice projection and directing to share the story of a newly-widowed matriarch and her five unmarried daughters.
There are 10 acting roles in the play, written in 1936 by Federico Garcia Lorca, a renowned Spanish playwright and poet. The other five students took on directing, costuming, and graphic design, and worked with faculty members Denise Massman, Mike Lounello and Obi Savage for technical guidance. All students self-assigned their positions.
“I hope the students will remember this when they look back on their college studies,” Garcés said. “I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to get students engaged with the course material.”
The staged reading was presented December 6 in Foy Hall to a small audience.
"I believe that the experience of participating in a staged reading allowed us to bring what we are studying into the present. We oftentimes read a literary work and only observe the characters through an external window. This lets us, the students, directly address the situation present within that window and express the emotions, desires and needs of each character inside."
Drew Califano '22
“We stepped out of our comfort zones and were able to tap into another version of ourselves. All of the readers did an outstanding job; they took on the roles as if they were actually those characters and it livened the performance. In addition, those who worked behind the scenes really showed off their skills as well."
Justin Monserrate '21
"Seeing that you'll be doing a play in a syllabus is for sure a scary sight. However, Dr. Garcés always has amazing ideas. It turned out to be an incredible experience where we learned to actually speak with emotion in another language, something that can often be difficult."
Meghan Lemelin '20
