A Symposium on Lorca

• When: Tuesday, February 29, 2:30-4pm
• Where: Veterans Hall, Ellison Campus Center
• Cost: FREE/OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The power and magnitude of both play and playwright make the occasion of one of Salem State Theater's first excursions into the poetry and passion of Lorca so notable that educators, artists, and writers have agreed to conduct A Symposium on Lorca: Poetry, Passion, and Politics.

During the first day of the symposium, the play and the current Salem State Theater's production will be analyzed and responded to by a panel acquainted with Lorca's history and works. Panelists will be responding to the actual production of The House of Bernarda Alba which they will have viewed the previous weekend. Following a lunch break, a different panel will assemble in the Callan Studio Theater to examine the "politics of poetry" which critics have hailed in the few works actually produced by Lorca in his all-too-short career.

The focus on Monday afternoon will be the uniquely woven feature of the all-female Spanish household of Bernarda Alba and how Lorca drew the current politics of both church and state to the forefront at the time of its writing and how the House closely depicts the political tenure of Spain at the time Lorca was approaching the top of his career.

During the second part of the symposium on Tuesday, the discussion will center on the "Sexual Politics and Policy in The House of Bernarda Alba." A panel of distinguished researchers and invited students in the areas of creative writing, psychology, women's studies, foreign languages and history will assemble to examine the playwright's extensive use of leading female characters in his work and the distinctive drive of women and women's issues seen in his plays. Light refreshments will be served.

The symposium continues efforts being made to address cross-discipline studies at Salem State College. Such adventures in the exchange of ideas have been enormously successful and well attended. Participants are being urged to see or read the play, The House of Bernarda Alba, and to contact the Arts Hotline at 978-542-6999 for details and information.

Director David Allen George views this two-day program as "an excitingly educational and entertaining look into the world of one of Modern Spain's most coveted writers, Federico García Lorca.