{"id":5061882,"date":"2024-05-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walatinonews.com\/?p=5061882"},"modified":"2024-05-27T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T08:00:00","slug":"spanish-language-on-the-seattle-stage-a-look-at-making-live-theater-authentic-and-accessible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/waln\/2024\/05\/27\/spanish-language-on-the-seattle-stage-a-look-at-making-live-theater-authentic-and-accessible\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish language on the Seattle stage: A look at making live theater authentic and accessible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alvaro Saar Rios\u2019 \u201cLuchadora!\u201d<\/em> is a colorful, vibrant retelling of the story of Hua Mulan, a Chinese folk heroine who pretends to be a man in order to take her father\u2019s place in war. The play follows Lupita, a young Latina who trains to take her father\u2019s place in a lucha libre competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLuchadora!\u201d <\/em>was performed by Seattle Children\u2019s Theatre<\/a> earlier this year. The show was infused with Latinx actors in every aspect of its production and was generally well-received by critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Seattle and elsewhere, creators of Latinx theater like this face a difficult challenge in bringing their productions to a largely monolingual community while also serving the Spanish-speakers whose cultures and language are being represented onstage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe majority of the time, the theaters that I\u2019m writing for don\u2019t usually have a large Brown population or even a diverse population,\u201d said Texican playwright Alvaro Saar Rios, the writer of \u201cLuchadora!\u201d \u201cAs much as I love for the Latino community to be there, I also have to be aware of who that theater traditionally presents stories to, and I want them to feel welcome too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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A sign for the play\u201cLuchadora!\u201d hangs in front of the Seattle Children\u2019s Theatre on April 29th, 2024. Although targeted to a young audience, the production was deeply rooted in Mexican culture and has been enjoyed by many adults and children alike. (Photo by Connor Zamora)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Seattle Children’s Theatre awaits theater-goers on April 29, 2024. Their current production, \u201cA Tale of Peter Rabbit\u201d, opened on April 25 and will run until May 19. (Photo by Connor Zamora)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to 2022 census data<\/a>, only 4.8% of Seattle residents speak Spanish at home. Portraying language in a manner that is both true to its origins and understandable to diverse audiences becomes a delicate balancing act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve seen many bilingual theaters where they’ll say the word, and they’ll say the sentence in Spanish, and then they’ll say it in English,\u201d said Rios. \u201cFor bilingual people, you’re just hearing this thing double all the time. I think that’s a wasted opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI integrate Spanish and English,\u201d continued Rios. \u201cI think there’s a way that you can be able to write, and use different languages, and even if someone’s not familiar with the language, to be able to still understand it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because almost all live theater in Seattle is primarily in English, even shows like \u201cLuchadora!\u201d that are centered around Spanish-speaking characters may be inaccessible to Spanish monolingual audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have quite a large population of Latine audiences who don\u2019t speak English, and so are not going to come to the theater to see a play in English,\u201d said Julieta Vitullo. Vitullo is a resident playwright and dramaturg at eSe Teatro<\/a>, a Seattle theater organization for Latino and Latina artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a struggle for everybody in Seattle to bring people to the theater as is, and then add on the language barrier, and it makes it harder,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, progress is being made to bring more languages to live theater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of theater companies in town have made great strides towards figuring out how to make their shows accessible to people in lots of different ways,\u201d said Beth Pollack, a Chicana actress who played Lupita in Seattle Children\u2019s Theatre\u2019s \u201cLuchadora!\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of places are looking into captioning and other interpretive services. Spanish is a very big part of that,\u201d said Pollack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 12 Ave Arts on Capitol Hill is where Washington Ensemble Theatre hosts their productions.  Their productions of \u201cDreamhou$e\u201d (which ran from Sept. 8-25, 2023) and \u201cOur Dear Dead Drug Lord\u201d (which ran from April 28 – May 15, 2023), offered Spanish-captioned performances. (Photo by Connor Zamora)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People at the forefront of these efforts include Maria Manness, Washington Ensemble Theatre<\/a>\u2019s managing director. In 2022, Manness managed a Spanish-captioning initiative<\/a> that brought translations to Book-It Repertory Theatre’s “In the <\/em>Time of the Butterflies\u201d<\/a> and Sound Theatre\u2019s \u201cCloud Tectonics.\u201d<\/em><\/a> She has since overseen the captioning of Washington Ensemble Theatre\u2019s most recent productions, translated by production manager Antonieta Carpio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s about access. It’s not really about the language at all,\u201d said Manness. \u201cIf you’re going to tell a story about a certain audience or demographic, you’re also welcoming them into that space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to caption a show in Spanish, theater companies must first obtain the rights to translate that show. They must then work with a translator to translate the text in a form that preserves the playwright\u2019s intended meaning. Finally, the captions are organized and displayed on a screen facing the audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no excuse to not try it,\u201d said Manness. \u201cI think that it’s super accessible. There’s support for it in the city. There’s a small team of people who have all experienced it and done it before now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Manness and Carpio believe the future of Spanish captioning is bright, as more companies have offered the service in recent years. But progress doesn\u2019t stop there, and advocates are already looking forward to even more inclusive theater spaces that aim to offer more languages and new ways to experience translations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love resources around audio captioning,\u201d said Carpio. \u201cTo hire Spanish speakers to perform the play in an audio format\u2026 where you can experience theater in the same way instead of having to actively be reading captioning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carpio said that theater-goers have a role in supporting the development of Spanish-language captioning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur constituents are in charge of the type of work that we produce in the long term,\u201d said Carpio. \u201cBeing able to voice what they’re interested in seeing, or what they need to be able to see it, is king. That only makes a more collaborative theater escape that is more reflective of the actual seat of the Seattle community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there\u2019s still work to be done, advocates say the benefits of experiencing live theater should be shared with members of all cultures and backgrounds, regardless of language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really is an extraordinarily meaningful community and it can be a very cathartic space to be in,\u201d said Pollack. Live theater is a place to feel big feelings in a safe way, to explore versions of our lives that we may not be able to have as an everyday part of our lived experience, and to meet other people who value the same things that we do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Cover Photo: Actors perform in Washington Ensemble Theatre\u2019s 2023 production of \u201cOur Dear Dead Drug Lord.\u201d The play follows a group of teen girls who meet in a treehouse to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar, and this production offered two Spanish-captioned performances. (Photo by Marcia Davis)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Connor Zamora<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Connor Zamora is a third-year student at the University of Washington pursuing a degree in Journalism and Public Interest Communications with minors in Drama and Environmental Studies. He feels passionately about storytelling, and has a particular interest in environmental, art, and social justice stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher\u2019s Notes: Washington Latino News and a class in the Journalism and Public Interest Communication program<\/a> at the University of Washington<\/a> <\/strong>are partners in best serving the Hispanic and Latino communities.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creators of Latinx theater face a difficult challenge in bringing their productions to a largely monolingual 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