Wednesday, May 21 – 7:30 P.M.
POSTER UNVEILING COCKTAIL RECEPTION
Vicenta Casañ, Artist - Biography
Spanish Cultural Center, 800 Douglas Rd., Suite 170, Coral Gables
Information: 305. 445-8877
Co-sponsored by Spanish Cultural Center, The Place of Miami, Caldas Rum & Cristal
(By invitation)

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Tuesday, July 15
FREEDOM TOWER
600 Biscayne Blvd
Miami

A Tribute to Spanish Golden Age Playwright
Pedro Calderón de la Barca in Miami

Spain’s Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior (State Corporation for Cultural Action Abroad) and Museo Nacional de Teatro (National Theatre Museum), Miami Dade College, the City of Miami, Teatro Avante, and the Spanish Cultural Center in Miami are sponsoring a tribute to classical Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca that includes an exhibit of theatrical costumes and performances of his allegorical play Amar y ser amado, o la divina Filotea (To Love and Be Loved, or the Divine Philothea).

The exhibit Cien años vistiendo a Calderón (100 Years of Dressing Calderon) opens July 15 at the Freedom Tower, and performances of La divina Filotea are scheduled for July 17 and 18 at the Carnival Studio Theater of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts as part of the XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, presented by Teatro Avante, American Airlines and the Adrienne Arsht Center.

The plays of Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681), one of Spain’s best known and most frequently performed dramatists, lend themselves as few others to innovative revivals. This project continues a theatrical tradition started by Spanish theater companies in the 19th century.

Exhibit: 100 Years of Dressing Calderón

Curated by Andrés Peláez, this unique exhibition includes 40 costumes and 10 sketches of costumes used in actual performances and provided by the National Theater Museum of Spain’s National Classical Theater Company and Cornejo Tailors. The purpose of the exhibit is to show, through the display of theatrical attire, how the staging of Calderón de la Barca’s plays has evolved over the last 100 years, from the earliest avant-garde styles brought from Central Europe by Burman, Cortezo and Emilio Burgos, to the Baroque innovations of Nieva and Puigserver, to the latest designs of Miguel Narros and Andrea D’Odorico.

According to its curator, the exhibit seeks to illustrate the role of costume at the forefront of artistic movements. There is no longer any question that costume, for the theater or not, is an artistic expression in its own right, witness the major exhibits of stage and film costumes that have been mounted with great success at prestigious museums around the world.

Play: To Love and Be Loved or the Divine Philothea

Written in 1681, La divina Filotea adheres faithfully to the canons of the “sacramental” or allegorical religious play. It deftly balances the communication of doctrinal content with the dramatization of a story. In this case, the subject is the storming of a castle where a maiden courted by two suitors is confined, a plot inspired by the literature of chivalry. The events that take place on stage are of course allegories of the theological concepts to be conveyed, namely that the maiden is the soul, which dwells in the castle that is the body.

In brief, this is a marvelous allegorical play, one that, in portraying man’s moral life as a struggle against the enemies of the soul, combines action typical of a chivalric tale with a synthesis of the principal dogmas of the Catholic faith.

The music composed by José Nebra is characterized by joy, vitality and feeling. Apparently light and amiable, it is full of nuances and contrasts that recall the sensitive and sentimental styles of Central Europe, but it retains the local color typical of the popular music genres of 18th century Spain.

Cast, in Order of Appearance

• The Devil: Pedro María Sánchez
• The World: Carlos Pulido
• Lust: Vladimir Cruz
• The Five Senses

Hearing: Victoria Zazo
Touch:  Lucía Ortega
Sight: Gemma Solé / Olga Mata
Smell: Alicia Cabrera
Taste: Raquel Ramos

• Filotea: Ana Hernández Sanchiz
• The Three Theological Virtues

Faith: Inma Ochoa
Hope: Teresa Vallejo
Charity: Sonsoles Benedicto

• Prince of Light

Voice: Flora María Alvaro
Presence: Uriel Lakshmi 

• Atheism: Luis Bondía
• Heathenism: Jesús Prieto
• Judaism: Antonio Medina
• Apostasy: Enric Benavent
• Reason: Víctor Álvaro 

Credits

Presented by:
Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior – SEACEX
Centro Cultural Español
Miami Dade College
City of Miami
Teatro Avante
Museo Nacional del Teatro

With the cooperation of:
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación de España
Ministerio de Cultura de España - Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música
Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico
Compañía de Pedro María Sánchez
Sastrería Cornejo
Consulado General de España

Curator
Andrés Peláez, Director, Museo Nacional del Teatro

Project Director
Andrea D’Odorico

Stage Director
Pedro María Sánchez

Coordinators
Diana Jiménez and Marisol Pérez (SEACEX)

Content
40 costumes and 10 costume designs

Venues and dates
Costume exhibit: Freedom Tower, July 16 to August 30, 2008
Play: Carnival Studio Theater of the Adrienne Arsht Center, July 17 & 18, 2008

Pictures available at www.seacex.es
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