Quixote Nuevo

I fell in love with Octavio Solis’s Quixote Nuevo when I was asked to direct a very early version in 2017. Alas, I was unavailable as my two children were navigating the vagaries of middle school and I couldn’t quite get away. To my delight, Quixote Nuevo came back to me and was, in fact, the first story I had the great privilege to tell live coming out of Covid. That production was at the Round House Theatre in Fall 2021. What a story to tell at that moment in time! What a gift to create a piece filled with everything live theatre at its best has to offer: raucous performances, live music, puppets, masks, and a story whose resonance had only deepened during the pandemic. Quixote Nuevo is the story of a man chased by death seeking to redeem himself before he transcends this plane into the next. In 2021 I think we all felt chased by death. Quixote Nuevo is also the story of a man trying to manifest a nobler world. As our nation continued to divide and our online rhetoric became increasingly coarse, Quixote’s question “Where is honor?” rang true. Finally, Quixote Nuevo is the story of a man trying to remember how he lost his first love. For the romantics amongst us, that pursuit is evergreen.

A rollicking comedy filled with music and theatrical magic, our initial production of Quixote Nuevo has evolved over four more iterations at the Denver Center, South Coast Rep, Seattle Rep, and Portland Center Stage to land here in Ashland, the very home of its author, Octavio Solis. The story takes place on three planes of reality. The first is that of Quijano (Quixote)’s family and friends = trying to care for their loved one who has what on our plane would be called dementia. The second is that of Quixote’s fantasies – vibrant, adventure-filled and fiercely alive. The third is the plane of Papa Calaca (Father Death) who, with his band of Calacas (skeletons), seeks to inspire Quijano/Quixote to remember and atone for failing his first love and thereby be redeemed. It’s a triple layer cake of a story that asks finally “how do we transcend?” We are thrilled to share this tale with you as part of OSF’s 90th Anniversary Season!

—Lisa Portes