New Perspectives Theatre Company Presents COUNT PARTINAPULES as Part of its ON HER SHOULDERS Programming

On Her Shoulders will present a virtual reading of El Conde Partinuplés (c. 1640) by Ana Caro, translated by Hardley Eardman, and directed by Lynn Marie Macy, via NPTC's YouTube Channel: NewPerspectivesTC. Melody Brooks provides dramaturgy via The Play in Context, which situates the script in its historical time and place.

The broadcast begins at 2:00pm on Saturday, October 23rd and will be available through midnight on October 27th, 2021.

Admission is by Donation. Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/182910027817.

ANA MARÍA CARO DE MALLEN was born between 1590 and 1600 and is one of the first professional women writers in Europe as records exist of payments to her for specific pieces. Her birth year is unknown as she was a morisco slave (child of parents who had been forcibly converted to Christianity from Islam)and was likely 9 or 10 when she was adopted by Gabriel Caro de Mallén and his wife Ana María de Torres. Her adoptive family was a prominent one; they were hereditary Councilors to the Court and thus were able to give Caro a first class education and an elite lifestyle, regardless of her beginnings. With few exceptions, de Mallén published only under the name Ana Caro; her first book of poetry and some "relaciones" (commentaries on major public events considered to be a precursor to journalism ) were published from Seville in 1628. She later moved to Madrid and established her reputation as a writer of note. Many of her male counterparts, including Juan de Matos Fragoso and Luis Vélez de Guevara, praised her works. Caro was also a close friend of novelist Maria de Zaya. El conde partinuplés (Count Partinapulés) and Valor, agravio y mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs) are the only two full-length plays by Caro that are still known today. She died of the plague in November 1646 and was buried in Seville.

COUNT PARTINAPULES was written sometime around 1640; it was first printed in 1653 after Caro's death. The script uses an "invisible-mistress" plot as a parody (and subversion) of certain elements of the typical "wife-murder" drama popular at the time. The script is part of the Spanish comedia tradition - one of the defining features of Spain's legendary Golden Age of literature - which grew out of the more improvisational Commedia dell'Arte but these were more artistically rigorous works. The play is further classified as a comedia de apariencias or a "play of appearances", a genre calling for magical happenings and special effects.