Red Bull Theater to Premiere New Translation of Ana Caro's THE COURAGE TO RIGHT A WOMAN'S WRONGS

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced the cast for the next offering of their season of REVELATION READINGS, the OBIE Award-winning series: Ana Caro's The Courage To Right A Woman's Wrongs (Valor, agravio y mujer), directed by Melia Bensussen, featuring Helen Cespedes, Kelley Curran, Carson Elrod, Anita Castillo-Halvorssen, Anthony Michael Martinez, Sam Morales, Lorenzo Pisoni, Ryan Quinn, Luis Quintero, and Matthew Saldivar.

Ana Caro, one of the Spanish Golden Age's most accomplished female playwrights, presents a witty critique of society through the story of Leonor, a woman who sets out to find her one-time lover (Don Juan, naturally) and bring him to justice. The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs is a comedy of wild intrigue and lively ingenuity in which Leonor crosses geographical boundaries and defies social expectations of gender in order to bring her fickle lover to justice and restore her lost honor.

Presented in association with Diversifying the Classics | UCLA, this event will mark the New York premiere of a brand new English-language translation by that initiative's working group The Comedia in Translation and Performance.

"I was delighted when Barbara Fuchs of the UCLA Diversifying the Classics initiative contacted me to begin a conversation. Their mission dovetails brilliantly with ours. So we began reading some of the plays, and Caro's play rose immediately to the top. It's a great but little-known comedy from the Spanish Golden Age, which just happens to be written by a woman. I was shocked to learn it had never had an English language translation, and I can't wait to hear it live on stage in what will be its New York premiere, featuring an excellent cast led by director Melia Bensussuen," said Mr. Berger.

The Golden Age of Spain offers one of the most vibrant theatrical repertoires ever produced. At the same time that England saw the flourishing of Shakespeare on the Elizabethan stage, Spain produced prodigious talents such as Lope De Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderón de la Barca. The Diversifying the Classics project at UCLA brings these plays to the public by offering English versions of Hispanic classical theater. These translations are designed to make this rich tradition accessible to students, teachers, and theater professionals.

Ana Caro Mallén (ca. 1601 - ca. 1645) came to be one of the most celebrated playwrights of Spain's Golden Age. Her work was praised by eminent playwrights and novelists of her day, and she was even included in a book celebrating the Famous Men of Seville. Noting her status among the greats of the Spanish theater, her friend and celebrated novelist María de Zayas wrote, "audiences have praised her, and every great mind has crowned her with laurel and cries of victory, writing her name on the city streets." In spite of her renown and success, little is actually known about Caro's life. Though she was a prolific writer, only a few of her works have survived, including The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs (Valor, agravio y mujer).

This reading is Red Bull Theater's first collaboration with Diversifying the Classics, an initiative attending to issues of translation and adaptation, connecting academics with practitioners, and hosting performances. The UCLA Comedia in Translation and Performance working group brings together academics, playwrights, translators, directors, and actors to translate and promote underrepresented texts of the Spanish Golden Age. The UCLA Comedia in Translation and Performance working group responsible for the translation includes Marta Albalá Pelegrín, Adrián Collado, Carla Della Gatta, Paul Fitzgibbon Cella, Barbara Fuchs, Rafael Jaime, Robin Kello, Javier Patiño Loira, Jennifer L. Mont, Laura Muñoz, Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Kathryn Renton, Rhonda Sharrah, Cheché Silveyra, Aina Soley, Veronica Toro, and Elizabeth Warren.

Revelation Readings offer the unique opportunity to hear rarely-produced classic plays, and brand new plays in conversation with the classics, performed by the finest actors in New York. This year's slate of readings is sure to delight audiences all season long. Revelation Readings will take place on Monday evenings (7:30PM) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street between Bleecker & Hudson Streets).

For tickets and more information about Revelation Readings or any of Red Bull Theater's productions and programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.