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Barbara Fuchs

Barbara Fuchs is a translator and theater scholar. She directs the UCLA Diversifying the Classics project and its biennial LA Escena festival of Hispanic classical theater.

Barbara Fuchs is Professor of Spanish and English at UCLA, where she also directs the Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance and its Diversifying the Classics project (http://diversifyingtheclassics.humanities.ucla.edu/). In 2013, in partnership with Playwrights’ Arena, she launched the Golden Tongues initiative, which adapts Hispanic classical theater to contemporary Los Angeles. She also directs LA ESCENA, Los Angeles’ first festival of Hispanic classical theater, founded in 2018. Recent scholarly projects include Theater of Lockdown: Digital and Distanced Performance in a Time of Pandemic, forthcoming from Methuen; a collaborative translation of Ana Caro's The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs, forthcoming from Juan de la Cuesta; and 90 Monologues from Classical Spanish Theater, with Jennifer Monti and Laura Muñoz (Juan de la Cuesta 2018).

She directs the "Comedia in Translation and Performance Series" for Juan de la Cuesta, which has published the following collaborative translations:

To Love beyond Death. Edition and translation of Calderón de la Barca's Amar después de la muerte, with the Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance. Juan de la Cuesta, 2020.

The Widow of Valencia. Edition and translation of Lope de Vega’s La viuda valenciana, with the Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance. Juan de la Cuesta, 2019.

What We Owe Our Lies. Edition and translation of Alarcón’s Los empeños de un engaño, with the Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance. Juan de la Cuesta, 2019.

The Force of Habit. Edition and translation of Guillén de Castro’s La fuerza de la costumbre, with the Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance. Juan de la Cuesta, 2019.

A Wild Night in Toledo. Edition and translation of Lope de Vega’s La noche toledana, with the Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance. Juan de la Cuesta, 2018.

digital theatre screenshot
Reverse-Engineering Zoom with Isadora
Essay

Reverse-Engineering Zoom with Isadora

Site-Specific Performance for the Internet

4 January 2021

Barbara Fuchs chats with director and designer Jared Mezzocchi about his digital theatre production Russian Troll Farm, how to reverse-engineer Zoom, Isadora as the way forward, and more.

screenshot of a zoom theatre piece
Crowdsourcing Theatre Practice in a Time of COVID
Essay

Crowdsourcing Theatre Practice in a Time of COVID

20 August 2020

Barbara Fuchs and Elena Araoz share information about their new projects that attempt to make sense of the transformations to the theatre field and put a call out for artists to help chart these transformations.

an actor onstage with a large projection behind them
Distanced Devotion
Essay

Distanced Devotion

Grumelot’s Game Over Brings Us Closer

30 July 2020

Barbara Fuchs writes about Game Over, a devised piece by the Spanish company Grumelot, which was a profound exploration of storytelling across multiple platforms, including Zoom, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Spotify.

youtube screenshot
End Meeting For All
Essay

End Meeting For All

Zoom Theatre, Launched

25 June 2020

Barbara Fuchs reflects on Forced Entertainment’s three-part Zoom show, End Meeting For All.

two actors onstage
Female Playwrights, Hispanic Comedia
Essay

Female Playwrights, Hispanic Comedia

A Jubilee Primer

16 March 2020

Barbara Fuchs and Rafael Jaime argue that beyond the English-language theatrical canon lies a rich corpus of classical work that remains remarkably hospitable to women, focusing their discussion on two playwrights: Ana Caro and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Theatre History Podcast # 6
Podcast

Theatre History Podcast # 6

Diversifying the Classics with Barbara Fuchs

26 September 2016

Michael Lueger and Barbara Fuchs discuss the plays written during Spain’s theatrical Golden Age, and Barbara’s Diversifying the Classic project, which aims to bring them back into prominence for English-speaking audiences.

Diversifying the Classical Canon
Essay

Diversifying the Classical Canon

2 April 2016

Scholar and translator Barbara Fuchs discusses the opportunities and challenges of diversifying the classical canon to include Spanish-language Hispanic classical theatre.