Actors and companies in new spain: the 16th and 17th centuries

Maya Ramos Smith

Prologue: Concepción Reverte Bernal

CONACULTA / INBA-CITRU / TOMA Ediciones y Producciones Escénicas y Cinematográficas / Paso de Gato / Comisión de Cultura de la Cámara de Diputados
México, 2011
390 p.

With a unifying vision, the most recent study by Maya Ramos, Actors and Companies in New Spain: The 16th and 17th Centuries, takes us deep into the diverse theatrical performances played during the first two colonial centuries: starting with the great public festivities, both profane and religious, performed by amateurs and sponsored by the court, the guild-house and the church. It takes us to the university and colleges performances in the court, the churches and monasteries. The final stage is the gradual and growing professionalization of these actors, who participated first in public festivities and palace performances, in the lordly houses and then in the first fixed spaces, specifically devoted to the theater, where they were supported by a paying audience. Within the framework of the social and festive world of New Spain, the storytelling on the duties of actors and companies —full of the vicissitudes of people and events— is structured in two parts: in the first, “The Amateurs Theater”, a wide view is offered regarding urban theater in Mexico, and its main types; in the religious stage: evangelist and popular religious theater, the theater at the cathedral and at the theater of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition; in the academic stage: the theater at the university, monasteries and colleges and especially, in the Jesuit colleges. In the court stage: theater at the court and the courtly baroque festivities. In the second part, the development of professional theater is studied. The theater of New Spain was able to add its own characteristics and authors to the Spanish heritage, as a reflection of its society and historical moment. There are special chapters devoted to the participation of these artists, already professionals, in the festivity of Corpus Christi held in the first theatrical courtyards (“corrales de comedias”) (1587-1600) and in the first Mexican coliseum (1601-1660); on the actors and companies during the age of Sor Juana (1669-1700); on the staging and musical theater, and finally on the art of the actor, the occupation and acting. There is also an annex with a listing of authors and sponsors of comedies mentioned between 1551 and 1699, another for comedy companies between 1595 and 1699, plus biographies, document sources, index of plays and index of names.