Chapter 5: La Comedia of Errors by Lydia G. Garcia and Bill Rauch
This is an excerpt from Latinx Shakespeares: Staging U.S. Intracultural Theater (2023) by Carla Della Gatta. To read it in its full context, click on the link. The book can be purchased on all major sites that sell books and it is FREE to download.
NEW MAPS OF HEALING: LA COMEDIA OF ERRORS AT OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
In 2007, Bill Rauch became artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), beginning a trajectory that would change the face of American theater, including Latinx Shakespeares. Rauch, who had previously cofounded the community-based theater company Cornerstone, commissioned an internal audit of OSF by Carmen Morgan and ArtEquity, with a focus on the theater’s commitment to diversity. In 2008, OSF created a Festival Latino, whose offerings included bilingual backstage tours, Spanish captioning for six plays, and other cultural activities and performances. This one-time event helped shape a broader cultural outreach program, heralding a dramatic shift toward Latinx plays at OSF. Before the Festival Latino, OSF sporadically engaged with Latinx playwrights or Spanish-themed plays. Every season under Rauch’s tenure (2008–19) included a Latinx or Latinx-themed production, with these offerings beginning to feature Latinx Shakespeares starting in 2011. According to Trevor Boffone, “OSF has shown more of a commitment to supporting the work of Latinx theatre artists than have most regional theatres.” In fact, in the last several years of his time at OSF, Rauch hired Latinx directors to direct non-Latinx-themed Shakespearean productions, marking a Latinx integration into the pool of Shakespearean directors that did not require them to represent, or be representative of, their cultural backgrounds (such a level of integration is unfortunately still rare across American theater). For Rauch’s last season at OSF, the mainstage season featured three shows that embraced and reflected Latinx aesthetics, culture, and dramaturgy: a new play from Octavio Solis (Mother Road), a Latinx-directed but non-Latinx- themed Macbeth, and the bilingual La Comedia of Errors. For the first time in OSF’s history, it staged both a Latinx-authored play and a Latinx Shakespearean play in a single season (both directed by Rauch himself, in his final send-off to OSF). (p.136-37)