La Comedia of Errors represents several firsts for OSF: the first
staging of a Play on! translation, the first fully bilingual production
and the first time a play is presented on OSF’s campus and in
community centers in the Rogue Valley. “Presented,” though, is not the
right word for those off-campus experiences. In this Q&A, Community
Liaison Alejandra Cisneros and Community Producer Antonio David
Lyons discuss their work partnering with up to 18 organizations within
30 miles of Ashland to create a “community-hosted experience”—and
what exactly that means for everyone involved.
Julie Cortez: How do you describe La Comedia of Errors and
the hosted experience when you’re reaching out to potential
partners, and what have the conversations been like with various
organizations so far?
Alejandra Cisneros: I say La Comedia of Errors is a truly bilingual
experience in Spanish and English. It’s a tale about a family that has
been split at the border and that doesn’t know each other exists, and
this one casual day they all end up at the same place at the same
time wearing the same clothes and find each other at the end. What
I get in return is always so much joy, so much joy of being seen,
and this is slightly what makes me sad, but what makes me excited
about the work is that most organizations are so excited and happy
just to be included in the conversation, that OSF would be interested
in bringing this kind of work to them.
Antonio David Lyons: I’m very excited about saying we’ll do it for
free, and we want to have time to break bread with community. We
want to have some food after the show. And they’re like, really? But
people lean into the opportunity to engage in a way that’s authentic.
When Alejandra and I go out to meet with community partners,
we authentically bring ourselves because we believe that the work
is important, and we believe that we can create an experience in
both directions, where there is an opportunity for learning and
community building.
The magic that will happen in these very unique spaces, in these
very specific communities, is something that you can’t just quantify.
JC: What do you look for in partner organizations?
AC: We look for organizations that have a social justice mission,
that are already activated and doing this work within their
communities, that have a constituency, that are primarily Latinx based,
that are 30 miles or less from OSF and that have access to a
community space, meaning something like a multi-purpose room or
cafeteria. Something very intentional is that we’re not doing these
performances in traditional theatre spaces.
JC: What are your roles in this process?
AC: My part of the puzzle is I am the outward-facing producer in
the sense that I’m connecting with the community members, the
organizations that have already been thriving and doing work in
the Rogue Valley, and seeing how we can, as OSF, connect with them
and bring this program to their community centers. A huge part of
this full endeavor has been getting to know your neighbor, to some
degree, and OSF has been in the Rogue Valley for such a long time
that now it’s about reaching out, as opposed to having our partners
come here and experience OSF.
ADL: As community producer, my job is to really solidify all the pieces
and parts that help us present this work within the community as
part of engagement. It’s a bridge between what is happening here
on campus, so we’ve had the opportunity to engage within the
rehearsal and workshop process, and helping to shape the work on
campus in letting them know what is it going to look like to take
this out into the community, and what are the things we have to be
sensitive about in translating from one space into the other.
And then it’s about taking it on the road, so everything from
transportation to figuring how we’re going to fit into these spaces, to figuring out how do we continue this relationship with the
communities and the partners that we’re involved with to give
them a show that is meaningful, that is intentional, that is able to
reach the audiences in the ways that we would like the show to
reach them. And part of what we want to happen is that people see
themselves reflected in this work, and that the relationship with
OSF is not one that is foreign or distant.
JC: Why did you each want to be part of this project?
AC: For me, it really does align with my core values and the art I
do, and the kind of work I want to put out. It’s important to be a
connector within Latinx communities, and getting to know this
Latinx community in the Rogue Valley. We’re all different; we all come
from different countries. So there was a lot of fun getting to come
do this work here because, selfishly, I get to go out and meet other
Latinx people in the community doing this work, and just connect
on a very personal level and bring my true, authentic self. I do think
community engagement, partnerships—it has many titles right now
in American theatre—is at the core of what American theatre should
be, and I think community work should also be both outward and
inward. So I think this project hit all those checkmarks, and I was very
excited to participate in it.
ADL: It’s been a delight, it’s been eye-opening, it’s been so informative
to watch Alejandra do her work and to connect in a very personal
way with communities that are her own and not her own. As a
person who is Afro-Caribbean—I am not Latinx—I don’t think
that my work would have been able to proceed in the way that
it has without Alejandra being competent in the language, being
competent in culture, being very knowledgeable about the spaces
that we’re inhabiting and having a different kind of connection.
I said yes to this project because, from my very early childhood, I
watched my mother doing community development work, and that
has been such a core theme in my work as a professional artist. This
isn’t about, can we bring a show to you, but can we bring this show
to your community together?
JC: Could you share a bit of your process so far in getting this ready
to go out into the communities, and who has been involved in it with
you? I’m particularly interested in sharing with folks out there what
the “community dramaturgs” are bringing to the table.
AC: The community dramaturgs was an idea I think I had since I first
got here because, originally, the project was we would do a rehearsal
in the community. So, we would pick a partner and then take the
show there and read some stuff, and then get feedback from our
partners. And I was like, no, primarily because we have such a rich
fountain of folks here on campus who are already invested in OSF
and work here and do all the unseen work that actually makes this
machine move, who are Spanish speakers, who love comedy, who
are from this area, who are literally within this 30 miles of OSF. So, I
remember pitching the project when I first met with Bill, and I was
like, “I would love to be able to talk to our own Spanish-speaking
workforce and invite them into the rooms where usually only artists
have access.” I think the show is 100 times better because we’ve
done this.
ADL: In addition to that aspect of the process, when we go out into
the community there’ll be a pre-show engagement, the performance
will happen, and then there will be a post-show around a shared
meal. And even getting started with some of our community
partners, some of those relationships, we were introduced to them
by Audience Development, and so that’s been really critical, just
acknowledging the longstanding work that Audience Development,
particularly under the direction of Freda Casillas, has done in building
deep relationships within the community. And the Education
Department has been really critical in helping us and partnering
with us to develop the pre-show engagement. Alejandra was very
insistent from the very beginning—there has to be joy. There has
to be joy. There has to be joy. And to find a way to sort of bridge the
needs that both of us have to prepare audiences to see this play,
to delve into the work of Shakespeare, to inhabit language that is
bilingual yet lyrical and musical at the same time—because Lydia
Garcia has done a really great job of making sure that the language
is reflective of Shakespeare’s language and storytelling style, but
also making sure that it was specifically centered within Latinx
communities and cultures.
JC: What do you hope the audiences who will take part in these
community-hosted performances will take away from this experience?
ADL: That Antonio’s bad Spanish, or lack thereof, does not mean that
it’s not going to be a good time. We can build a trust across barriers
of language.
AC: For a lot of people, this will be their first interaction with OSF, and
I hope that their first introduction to OSF is that you might want a
second date with it. Whether that works out in the long run, I don’t
know. But if this is a great first date in a public place, maybe we’ll
have a second date, maybe a third, maybe I might commit, maybe
I might not. There are no hard feelings because I think that’s part
of the beginning of the conversation. We met one partner who’s
wonderful, and they were talking about bridge building. And you
can’t get to the bridge if there’s no road. With this tour, we’re trying
to do both. We’re trying to find a road that is going to lead us to the
bridge to connect us to OSF.
JC: What would you say to the folks out there who may or may not be
thinking about buying a ticket to come see this on campus?
ADL: What I will say is that if you are a predominantly English
speaker, that this show will be just as engaging, just as fulfilling.
You will learn, you will be able to lead with your heart, you will
laugh joyously with your sides aching, that you will have a unique
experience and a night out in theatre that you will be able to tell
friends about and that you will remember for a long time to come.
For tickets and information, visit La Comedia of Errors.