Children’s Theater Production Workshop: Diversifying the Classics and LA Librería

Abstract: UCLA’s Diversifying the Classics project (DTC) recently partnered with LA Librería, a bookstore that promotes children’s literature in Spanish and holds cultural events, to present a theatrical adaptation for children of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna. As readers will no doubt remember, Lope’s play presents a community of villagers who band together to overthrow their tyrannical overlord, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, in the town of Fuente Ovejuna, near Córdoba, in 1476. For this workshop, various activities were offered in preparation for the play itself: rehearsing lines, decorating the stage, and the well of Fuente Ovejuna; painting T-shirts and cardboard daggers; and learning to sing ¡O Peor!, an original song composed for the play. This article will explain how the authors communicated with their partner organization, the planning and execution of the workshop itself, and the overall responses from both the participants and audience members.