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En esta entrevista, hablamos con la dramaturga Julie Taiwo Oni, autora de la obra The Woodingle Puppet Show, presentada virtualmente como parte del festival de teatro clásico LA Escena en noviembre de 2020. Woodingle es una adaptación del entremés de Cervantes El retablo de las maravillas, pero en vez de un pueblo de España en el siglo XVII, la acción tiene lugar en el Los Angeles del siglo XXI. La entrevista con Oni gira en torno a su proceso de adaptación, el tema de la raza y la cuestión de identidad, y el poder que tienen el arte y la narrativa para alcanzar la justicia en el futuro. La conversación que tuvimos no sólo abarca las técnicas de adaptar y transformar el entremés clásico cervantino, sino que también aborda el papel que desempeña el teatro en los movimientos que defienden la justicia social
Julie Taiwo Oni is a Nigerian-American playwright and educator based in Los Angeles. Her writing is invested in expanding the narrative of Black experience and provoking performative explorations of intercultural misconceptions, particularly those related to the African diaspora. Her recent play, The Woodingle Puppet Show, with Host Mr. C., as Constructed by Mr. Asinine with Calculations and Articulations of the Genius Sort, adapts El retablo de las maravillas to twenty-first century Woodingle, a predominantly Black city based on Inglewood, California, adjacent to Los Angeles. Woodingle tells the story of Pupita Collards and Marionette Collards, two women competing for an apartment in a rapidly gentrifying area, and Mr. C., a puppeteer whose show includes invisible figures of famous Black Americans to determine which of the women is considered authentic enough to be offered the place in Woodingle. The play is part of the “Golden Tongues” series, a collaboration between the UCLA Diversifying the Classics Project and Playwrights’ Arena to support adaptations of Spanish Golden Age plays to the present day. Director Jully Lee and actors Gerald James, Samantha Miller, and Carene Rose Mekertichyan produced a staged reading of Woodingle in November of 2020 as part of the LA Escena Festival of Hispanic Classical Theater. We were fortunate to be able to meet with Oni over Zoom to discuss her adaptation of Cervantes.
