Spain's Golden Age of Theater

About this episode

Barbara Fuchs discusses the theatrical innovations of the Spanish Golden Age and their influence on early modern theater.

While Shakespeare was reshaping English drama, a parallel theatrical revolution was unfolding in Spain. During the Spanish Golden Age, playwright Lope de Vega pioneered the comedia nueva, a bold new dramatic form that broke classical rules in favor of fast-paced plots, emotional intensity, and popular appeal. In this episode, scholar and translator Barbara Fuchs shares how the theatrical innovations of Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina, Ana Caro Mallén de Soto, and others, including a three-act structure, blended genres, and complex female roles, helped redefine early modern theater and influenced the kinds of stories told on the English stage. Fuchs traces the rich cultural exchange between Spain and England and the work that she is doing now with Diversifying the Classics to bring plays in Spanish from both sides of the Atlantic to new audiences. Fuchs also discusses her adaptation for young audiences of de Vega’s Fuente Ovejuna, a powerful story of collective resistance, whichwill be featured at the Folger’s Reading Room Festival on Saturday, January 24. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published January 12, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library…

People in this episode

Guest: Barbara Fuchs

Topics covered

• Spanish Golden Age
• theater
• Lope de Vega
• comedia nueva
• cultural exchange
• early modern theater

Keywords

• drama
• playwrights
• female roles
• adaptation
• Fuente Ovejuna

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Diversifying the Classics, Fuente Ovejuna, The Comedia in Translation and Performance, Knowing Fictions: Picaresque Reading in the Early Modern Hispanic World, The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs, Juan de la Cuesta, The Quest for Certainty in Early Modern Europe, Theater of Lockdown: Digital and Distanced Performance in a time of, Pandemic

Places: Spain, England, Atlantic, Stirling, Scotland, Studio City, California, Los Angeles’, Toronto

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