APPLETON, WIS. — The question of what impact censorship and a restrictive environment has on the creative medium of art is explored in four performances of the Lawrence University Theatre Arts production of “Las Meninas; A Fantasia in Two Parts.”
Show times are Nov. 15-17 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre of the Lawrence Music-Drama Center. Tickets for “Las Meninas” at $10 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.
“Las Meninas” is the first of three productions celebrating Spanish playwrights the theatre department will stage during the 2007-08 season.
Written in 1960 by Spanish playwright Antonio Buero Vallejo, the play is loosely based on the life of famed 17th-century Baroque artist Diego Velazquez and his painting “Las Meninas.” It is set in a period when the Spanish Inquisition strictly prohibited any art designated as “lewd” and even court painters like Velazquez required permission to paint what they wanted to. Lawrence’s production will be only the third time Marion Peter Holt’s translation of Buero Vallejo’s script has been performed in English.
“The play drew me in because it asks serious questions about when to stand by your ideals and when to work within the system because your long-term presence might effect more change,” said Associate Professor Kathy Privatt, the production’s director. “It seems to me that those questions transcend art and are worth our time and attention.”
