Johnny torres, senior spanish and international business major and Christopher Milstead, junior German education major, listen to Maddie Kilmer, junior elementary education major, rehearse her lines for “el retablo de las maravillas” by Miguel de Cervantes. Jonathan Elliott/ the Bulletin.
Emporia State’s Delta Theta chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Hispanic Honor Society, will perform, “El retablo de las maravillas” by Miguel de Cervantes at 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Emporia Arts Council located at 618 Mechanic St. A fiesta will follow the production.
The performance will be in Spanish but those who are not fluent speakers are also encouraged to attend. Even without a complete knowledge of Spanish, audience members should be able to understand the concept of the play, said William Clamurro, professor of Spanish.
“The story is very simple,” Clamurro said. “Even if you don’t understand Spanish, please come. It’s free and open to the community and the students.”
There will be about 11 students performing in the production, not all of whom are fluent speakers.
“Most of (the performers) are students of Spanish,” Clamurro said. “Except for one, the rest of the students are not native speakers.”
Several other students will be helping with the technical aspects of the production.
“I love lighting and it’s a way to get my name out there and help other clubs,” said Levi Howe, senior theater design major and light technician for the show.
The performance is a part of the 90th anniversary of the founding of Sigma Delta Pi. The organization gave out grants for local chapters to hold celebrations for the anniversary.
“They had a grant contest and you could offer projects you could do during the month of November to commemorate Sigma Delta Pi’s founding,” Clamurro said. “With this money, we are putting on the show.”
“El retablo de las maravillas” has a similar concept as the children’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The title of the short one-act comedy can be translated to “The Wonder Show.”
“Two con artists come into a town and say that they have a wonder show that they will put on,” Clamurro said. “They say to the townspeople ‘You will be able to see wonders but it will be invisible to anybody who was born out of wedlock or any one whose ancestors are converted Jews.’”
The con artists describe all of the wonderful scenes the people should be seeing and everyone pretends to see the wonders, Clamurro said.
“If they say ‘I don’t see anything,’ the others will turn on them and say well ‘You must be a bastard or of unclean blood,’” Clamurro said.
Not wanting to be labeled as an illegitimate or of Jewish decent, the townspeople never admit to not seeing the wonders of the show.
Cervantes is also the writer of the popular story “Don Quixote.”
Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin
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