Red Bull Theater's 2021-22 Season to Kick Off With HISPANIC GOLDEN AGE CLASSICS | SOR JUANA

RED BULL THEATER today announced that the 2021-'22 Season will kick off with HISPANIC GOLDEN AGE CLASSICS | SOR JUANA, a four-part series of online events that will focus on Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz, the playwright, poet, and nun who was writing in Mexico in the latter half of the 17th Century.

The program's centerpiece is the New York premiere of a brand new English-language translation of Sor Juana's play Amor es más laberinto - Love is the Greater Labyrinth in English, presented by Red Bull Theater on Monday, September 27th at 7:30 PM EDT. Repertorio Español will present Sor Juana's play in its original Spanish on Monday, September 20th at 7:30 PM EST. Both online readings will be presented with subtitles.

The Hispanic Golden Age offers one of the most vibrant theatrical repertoires ever produced. At the same time that England saw the flourishing of Shakespeare on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage and in the decades that followed, Spanish-speaking playwrights including Lope De Vega, Tirso de Molina, Ana Caro, and Calderón de la Barca flourished on the continent and in the New World. Many of the works created during this time have still not been translated into English. Red Bull Theater is committed to expanding our repertoire by seeking out and sharing lesser-known texts that stand the test of time. Love is the Greater Labyrinth (Amor es más laberinto) by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz - one of the Hispanic Golden Age's most accomplished female playwrights - is just such a play.

Artistic Director Jesse Berger elaborates: "All of us at Red Bull are excited to announce programs for our upcoming Hispanic Golden Age Classics program, as part of our ongoing mission to revitalize the classics for today's audiences. We're delighted to be partnering again with UCLA's Diversifying the Classics, supporting their efforts to expand the canon of classical plays from a variety of cultures and promote their wider production across the field. And we're thrilled to welcome Repertorio Español to our collaboration, as we celebrate and explore this play by Sor Juana, a fantastic female playwright writing in the 17th-century. This brand new translation of the play - for the first-time in English - is wonderful, and we can't wait to share it online with audiences far and wide. We hope this endeavor uncovers the timeless theatrical playability of Sor Juana's play and provides a point of entry into the broader classical canon of plays produced in theaters throughout our country and beyond."

Love is the Greater Labyrinth (Amor es más laberinto), is a madcap take on Greek mythology by famous Mexican author Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, now translated into English for the first time. A swashbuckling adventure, romantic farce, and morality tale all rolled into one, the play follows Teseo as he goes to meet his fate in the jaws of the monstrous Minotaur. Little does he know that his greatest test will come when he escapes one labyrinth and heads straight into the even more disorienting complications of love. Princesses Fedra and Ariadna pull him in two different directions-which path will he choose? In a love triangle that somehow keeps adding sides, love gets all the blinder with masked balls and secret nighttime trysts. Meanwhile, mad King Minos's insatiable desire for revenge threatens to turn this into a tragedy after all. Sor Juana explores the epic consequences of emotion run amok through increasingly knotty entanglements and witty metatheatrical play, as the heroes of myth find themselves helpless against the power of Cupid.

The Diversifying the Classics | UCLA working group responsible for the translation includes Marta Albalá Pelegrín, Paul Fitzgibbon Cella, Barbara Fuchs, Sarah Grunnah, Richard Huddleson, Rafael Jaime, Saraí Jaramillo, Rachel Kaufman, Robin Kello, Laura Muñoz, Javier Patiño Loira, Amanda Riggle, Rhonda Sharrah, Cheché Silveyra, Aina Soley, Samantha Solis, and Elizabeth Warren.

This series is supported by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain.

ABOUT THE EVENTS

ONLINE READING | Amor Es Más Laberinto

by Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz

Livestream Premiere: Monday September 20th | 7:30 PM EDT

Sor Juana's play presented in its original Spanish, with English subtitles

Directed by Leyma López

Reservations available at Repertorio Español's website, www.Repertorio.nyc; for free access use code: AMOR.

ONLINE DISCUSSION | Diversifying The Classics

Livestream/Webinar: Thursday September 23rd | 7:30 PM EDT

An interactive discussion about the Diversifying the Classics project and its mission to promote Hispanic classical theater in translation and performance with scholars Barbara Fuchs, Laura Muñoz, and Marta Albalá Pelegrín.

ONLINE READING | Love Is The Greater Labyrinth

by Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz

Livestream Premiere: Monday, September 27th | 7:30 PM EDT

Sor Juana's play presented in English, with Spanish subtitles

Directed by Melia Bensussen

A new English-language translation by Diversifying the Classics | UCLA

Featuring Juliana Aiden-Martinez, Carson Elrod, Ryan Garbayo, Ismenia Mendes, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Amelia Pedlow, Tony Roach, Timothy D. Stickney, Chauncy Thomas and more to be announced.

This benefit reading is "Pay What You Can." All of Red Bull Theater's current online programs are FREE. If you're able, please consider making a donation with your registration to support RBT's online activity and return to in-person programming.

Presented in English with Spanish subtitles available.

ONLINE DISCUSSION | Love Is The Greater Labyrinth / Amor Es Más Laberinto

Livestream/Webinar: Thursday September 30th | 7:30 PM EDT

An interactive discussion of Sor Juana's Love is the Greater Labyrinth (Amor es más laberinto) and its history and themes with directors Melia Bensussen and Leyma López; scholars Barbara Fuchs, Rhonda Sharrah, and Aina Soley; and members of the companies. The conversation will be held in both English and Spanish.

Red Bull Theater wishes to express its gratitude to the Performers' Unions: Actors' Equity Association, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, and SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear in this program.

All the events are free, but donations are suggested and appreciated.