theatre archives; Latino Shakespeare; Bilingual Shakespeare; Spanish Shakespeare; Hispanic Shakespeare; Latinx Shakespeare
Welcome to the first online archive of Latinx theatrical adaptation.
LatinxShakespeares.Org is an archive that includes reviews and ephemera from over 200 Latinx-authored and/or Latinx-themed Shakespearean productions and adaptations and over 100 Latinx-authored and/or Latinx-themed adaptations of other western classics staged in the United States over the last seventy-five years.
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This archive is intended for artists and researchers, and anyone who is interested in theatre history and art-making.
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The archive was built, created, and is run by Carla Della Gatta, PhD, a theatre historian and performance theorist who has researched the intersections of Shakespeare and Latinidad since 2010. She works with theaters and artists on staging ethnic and bilingual classical theatre.
Recent, Current, & Upcoming Shows
Espejos Clean by Christine Quintana
Spanish translation and adaptation by Paula Zelaya Cervantes
(dir. Juliette Carrillo)
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Milwaukee Repertory Theater (Milwaukee, WI)
April 8 - May 11, 2025
A play about isolation and friendship, with two female actors. A bilingual play with Spanish and English supertitles.
Bad Hombres / Good Wives by Herbert Siguenza
(dir. Ed Trujillo)
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Contra Costa College (San Pablo, CA)
April 18 - May 4, 2025
Bad Hombres / Good Wives is an adaptation of Molière’s The School for Wives, and Siguenza notes that it also borrows ideas from The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. The play engages with narcocultura and a farcical telenovela style.
Bad Hombres / Good Wives by Herbert Siguenza
(dir. Michael Mufson)
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Palomar Performing Arts (San Marcos, CA)
May 2 - May 11, 2025
Bad Hombres / Good Wives is an adaptation of Molière’s The School for Wives, and Siguenza notes that it also borrows ideas from The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. The play engages with narcocultura and a farcical telenovela style.
The Real James Bond... Was Dominican by Christopher Rivas
(dir. Daniel Banks)
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Chautauqua Theater Company (Chautauqua, NY)
July 1 - July 6, 2025
Rivas' one-man coming of age story is inspired by discovering that "Bond creator Ian Fleming drew upon the life of Porfirio Rubirosa - a Dominican diplomat." It includes a live percussion score by Jonathan Gomez.
Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis
(dir. Lisa Portes)
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Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR)
July 9 - October 24, 2025
First performed in 2018, Solis’ Quixote Nuevo is a fundamentally new play from his earlier Don Quixote, which was first performed in 2009 at OSF. Departing from Cervantes’ novel, Quixote Nuevo includes a contemporary borderlands setting and a Papa Muerte calaca figure. It includes puppetry and music. Herbert Siguenza continues his role as Quijano/Quixote.
Twelfth Night, O Lo Que Quieras
by Liz Filios and Tanaquil Márquez
(dir. TBA)
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Delaware Shakespeare (Wilmington, DE)
July 16 - August 3, 2025
Originally scheduled for 2020, this bilingual musical adaptation included Latinx characters Viola and Sebastian. It premiered at DelShakes in 2022 and has been developed further for 2025.
Shane by Karen Zacarías
(dir. Blake Robison)
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Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR)
July 31 - October 25, 2025
Karen Zacarías reimagined Jack Schaefer's 1949 novel, Shane, (made into a film in 1953). Zacarías created a new version of this Old West mythology, with "the Starretts as a Latino family and Shane as the son of a Cuban slave." The play premiered at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 2023.
Electricidad by Luis Alfaro
(dir. Glynnis O'Donoghue)
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Three Bone Theatre (Charlotte, NC)
August 15 - 31, 2025
Part of Alfaro’s Greek trilogy, his modernization of Electra takes place in Los Angeles “right now, baby.” With a three-female chorus of Las Vecinas and a Chicanx-Cholo setting and dramaturgy, it is a play of twenty-nine short scenes. Three Bone Theatre is producing all three of Alfaro's Greek adaptations; they staged Mojada in 2024 and will stage Oedipus El Rey in 2026.
For a complete list of upcoming productions of West Side Story in the United States and worldwide, see here.
Available Books
This book includes essays and interviews from 25 playwrights, actors, scholars, dramaturgs, and directors who work at the intersections of Shakespeare and Latinx theatrical production.
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It is available at all major online booksellers in hardcover and ebook. In February 2023, it went to paperback.
Latinx Shakespeares, the monograph, explores how Latinx culture is constructed dramaturgically and textually in recent Shakespearean adaptations and productions.
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It is available at all major online booksellers.
It is also available for FREE to download. Hit the button below.
Online Essays, Blogs, Podcasts, and Videos
“Staging Puerto Rican Culture: Speaking Spanish and English in Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare & Beyond, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2024.
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“Bilingual Shakespeares as a Pedagogy of Ethics,” Teaching Shakespeare Magazine, Special Edition: on Shakespeare, Race, and Pedagogy, 2024.
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"Staging Latinx Shakespeares with Dr. Carla Della Gatta," The Theatre History Podcast, 2024.
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"Latinx Shakespeares as Performance Methodology," British Shakespeare Association, 2023.
“West Side Story: A New Take on Romeo and Juliet, 60 Years Later,” Shakespeare & Beyond, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2022.
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“How We Hear Shakespeare’s Plays with Carla Della Gatta,” Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2021.
​“West Side Story,” Shakespeare Hour Live!, Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2021.
“Shakespeare and Latinidad,” A Bit Lit films, 2021.
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“Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet Turns 25,” Shakespeare & Beyond, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2021.
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“West Side Story: 60 Years as a Cultural Barometer,” Shakespeare & Beyond, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2021.
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For media (audio, video, and interviews) and additional resources, see the Resources page. For a full list of my scholarship and media, see carladellagatta.com.
LatinxShakespeares.Org is a non-profit site.
This is an online, living, and growing archive of Latinx Theatre Adaptation.
Please credit all artists and scholars appropriately.
Please cite the archive in your dramaturgical and scholarly research.
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All images and ephemera have been posted with permission from theaters and artists.
They may not be reproduced or re-posted without permission.
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I built and paid for this site myself because of my love for theatre and theatre-makers.
I will be managing it as editor and adding to it each month.
All donations go to maintenance of the site.
