Wabash College’s Visiting Artists Series will present Penélope by Jorge Dávila Vásquez in the Experimental Theater in the Fine Arts Center. On Thursday, September 10, Yolanny Rodríguez (named one of the “Diosas” of NYC Independent Theater by ARTENY magazine) will perform the original Spanish language version for Spanish speaking audiences and students and on Friday, September 11 she will debut Dan Rogers’ translation of Penélope in a staged reading. Both performances will begin at 8 p.m.
Penélope is a one-woman play set in the Andes Mountains in the contemporary era. The drama centers on the life of the eponymous protagonist whose husband, a schemer and trickster, has left on a long trip to the coast in search of work. In his absence, Penélope takes a chair, parasol, and her sewing chores to the Inca Highway everyday to sit, embroider, and wait for him. As the play progresses, members of her family, friends, townsfolk, and the local priest come to visit, pester, and court. Part of the genius of the play is the way it deftly knits the struggles of a single mother in contemporary South America onto the backdrop of Homeric poetry.
The play was well received and Teatro Vanguardia (a Spanish language theater company with a strong following in Washington Heights) entered their production in the IV Annual festival of Spanish Theater hosted by the Dominican Cultural Commission. And soon after, with Jorge Dávila’s blessing, Wabash professor Dan Rogers was asked to translate the play for English audiences.
The Visiting Artist Series is funded in part by the Tippecanoe Arts Federation, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Seating for Visiting Artists Series events is by general admission, though free tickets are required.
Contact the Fine Arts Center Box Office by email at boxoffice@wabash.edu; or phone: 765-361-6411. The box office will open 90 minutes before curtain time for Visiting Artists events. Tickets not claimed at the Box Office 10 minutes prior to curtain will be released to the general public.