Latinx/é

Theater
TA 300
Days: Tues & Thurs
9:30am-10:50am

Instructor:

Robert Ortega Milz

Email: robertmilz@gmail.com
Cellular: (760) 547-3182
Office Hrs: TTH 11-1130AM
Course Description
This course attempts to introduce students to Latino/x/e theatre through critical consideration of
and engagement with a variety of plays, criticism, and theories. Unfortunately, we will not be
able to cover all of Latinx theatre; therefore, I have done my best to select important and
influential practitioners, plays, playwrights, and ideas to offer a pathway to this practice.

Theatre is not only meant to be read, it is meant to be seen, heard, and engaged with. As such, a
portion of each class will be dedicated to practicing what we read. That is, in addition to
discussions, we will employ playwriting techniques, idea formation, individual and group
exercises, collaboration, and other methods used both by the playwrights and practitioners we
will study as well as their contemporaries. The goal of this engagement is to offer you a fuller
immersion into the world of both Latinx theatre and theatre overall.

Most weeks are divided into themes. These themes should be considered guideposts rather than
all-encompassing. As the semester progresses, it will become obvious that themes overlap and
plays will address and/or examine multiple ones simultaneously. As you read the plays each
week, use the respective themes as a general framework for engaging with the material. This
should not preclude you, however, from approaching the play through a lens (or lenses) that
diverts from the theme. Make note of where the play both reinforces and differs from the
suggested framework.

Course Objectives
This course investigates Latinx plays and playwrights in (generally) North America from the
mid-twentieth century to today. Through engagement with plays, theory, and criticism some of
the questions we will explore are:

What is Latinx theatre?

Why study Latinx plays and playwrights?

What does it mean to identify as a Latinx playwright?

How do Latinx plays and playwrights contribute to and challenge traditional understandings of
Western theatre?

How have emigration-immigration, dominant-subordinate/majority-minority cultural existence,

and “outsiderism” influenced Latinx playwriting?

Grading
Personal Experience Essay (5%): Tell me about your experience and engagement with Latinx
theatre. Some questions to consider: What plays have you seen and/or read? What practitioners
do you know and/or are familiar with? When you think of Latinx theatre, what comes to mind?
Have you participated in any way with a play by a Latinx author? What was that experience like?
What do the terms “Latin (x) or (e)” mean? How do you feel about these terms. 200-400 words.
Attendance & Participation (30%): This is the crux of the class and I place great emphasis on
it. Adequate participation relies on informed contributions to classroom discussion, enthusiastic
input to group work, and courteous attention and response(s) to your peers’ comments.** Come
to class having carefully read the plays, with discussion points and questions prepared in
advance. I know participation can be difficult for some, but please consider this a safe
environment. Remember: there is rarely a right or wrong answer, just answers that are thoughtful
and well supported and those that are not.

**We may not share the same views, opinions, and ideas as our colleagues, and that is okay! The
goal of discussion is illumination, not degradation. While disagreements can happen, and
vociferous defenses of positions occur, it is imperative that at all times you remain respectful,
considerate, and open-minded.

Presentations: 30% (15% each): It is impossible to cover all of Latinx theatre in one course;
therefore, twice a semester you will have the opportunity to present on a topic not covered in
class. This might be a practitioner (or practitioners), a group, a movement, a first and/or historic
production, or another aspect of Latinx theatre. Under certain circumstances, you may present on
a topic we cover in class.

Quizzes: (15%): Random quizzes over the semester. 5, worth 3% each. They cover the writings
or articles, so ensure you read them each week.

Final Project (20%): This is your chance to apply the course material to a project of your
choosing. You may create a presentation; write a research paper; interview Latinx theatre
practitioners; devise a project; write and/or perform a creative work such as a scene (or series of
scenes), a short play, songs, poems, a performance piece. Perform in a Latinx play scene or
monologue and write a short 2 page essay on it’s importance and themes.

GRADING SCALE*

Grade Minimum Grade Minimum

A 93% C 73%

A- 90% C- 70%

B+ 87% D+ 67%

B 83% D 63%

B- 80% D- 60%

C+ 77% F 0%
 CALENDAR (subject to change)

Week One: Course introduction and Origins

Watch Video:

Performances by Culture Clash: A Bowl of Beings

Culture Clash, Bowl of Beings

Read

Writings: Paul Drake and Lisa Hilbink, “Latin American Studies: Theory and Practice” (1-27)

Alvarez, Arias, and Hale, “Re-visioning Latin American Studies.” (225–246)

Charles Hale, “The Future of Latin American Studies.” (81-83)

Week Two: Early works and movement

Read

Play: Virgilio Piñera, False Alarm

Writings: Victor Turner, “Liminality and Communitas,” (94-130)

Helpful video to understand liminality:

Performance Studies: An Introduction - Liminal and Liminoid

Augusto Boal, “Aristotle’s Coercive System of Tragedy” (1-50)

To help understand Boal:

https://eduindex.org/2021/07/10/agusto-boal-and-aristotles-coercive-system-of-tragedy/

Week Three: Early works and movement cont’d

Read

Plays: Luis Valdez, Los Vendidos

Video: Lost Pilot "Los Vendidos" (Start 5:57)

Writings: Luis Valdez, “Notes on Chicano Theater” (1-4)

Luis Valdez, “The Actos” (5-6)

Yolanda Broyles-González, “El Teatro Campesino and the Mexican Popular Performance
Tradition” (3-77)

Optional

Peruse El Teatro Campesino website

Week Four: Foundations

Read

Play: María Irene Fornés, Fefu and Her Friends

Video: Fefu & Her Friends @ Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House

Writings: Anne García-Romero, “Maria Irene Fornes: The Fornes Frame (25-54) (from The
Fornes Frame: Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of Maria Irene Fornes)

Optional

Peruse The Fornés Institute website

Week Five: The “Other,” Borders

Read

Play: Guillermo Verdeccia, American Borders

Writings: Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez, “No More Beautiful Señoritas: Latina Playwrights’

Deconstruction of Beauty Myths and Gender Stereotypes,” (150-169)

Week Six: Machismo

Read

Play: Rick Najera, The Pain of the Macho

Week Seven: Immigrations

Read

Play: Nilo Cruz, Anna in tropics

Video: ANNA IN THE TROPICS ACT 2 EVENING 11 17 18

Writings: Theresa Delgadillo, “Another Cubanidad, another Latinidad: Latinx African diaspora
in Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics” (341-360)

Week Eight: Magical Realism

Read

Play: José Rivera, References to Salvador Dali Make me Hot

Writing: Tamás Bényei, “Rereading ‘Magical Realism,’” (149-179)

Week Nine:

SPRING RECESS

Week Ten:

Presentations

Week Eleven: Disruptions and Retellings

Read

Plays: Cherríe Moraga, Shadow of man

Catherine Wiley, “Cherrie Moraga's Radical Revision of Death of a Salesman” (32-46)

Optional: Death of a Salesman

Week Twelve: Disconnected Communities

Read

Play: Tanya Saracho, El Nogalar (rewrite of the Cherry Orchard)

Writing: Diana Taylor, “Memory as Cultural Practice: Mestizaje, Hybridity, Transculturation”

(79-109)

Optional: Play: The Cherry Orchard

Week Thirteen: Gentrification

Read

Plays: Christin Eve Cato, Stoop Pigeons

Week Fourteen - Intergenerational Trauma and Conflict

Read

Play: David Davila, Mesquite Tree

Writing: Homi Bhabha, “Introduction” in The Location of Culture (1-27)

Week Fifteen:

Presentations

Week Sixteen

Dominant-subordinate/majority-minority culture

Read

Play: Coco Fusco and Nao Bustamante, Stuff

Video: https://vimeo.com/240194730
Writngs: Teresa Marrero, “Scripting Sexual Tourism: Fusco and Bustamante's "Stuff",
Prostitution and Cuba's Special Period” (235-249)

Watch Video in class:

Stuff: Click here to watch a performance

Week Seventeen

Final Projects

Other possible plays to investigate. You can choose these for any of your presentations. You may
also find any other Latinx plays.

Luis Alfaro, Mojada SFSU MOJADA 2018

Karen Zacarías, Native Gardens

Pedro Monge-Raful, Trash

Quiara Alegría Hudes, Water by the Spoonful

José Rivera, Marisol

Elena Garro, A Solid Home

Luis Valdez, No saco nada de la escuela