Current Productions
Spring 2025 Production:
An essay on the author:
Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramirez de Santillana was born in the mid-17th century, in San Miguel Nepantla, near Mexico City, when it was New Spain. The illegitimate child of a Spanish military man and a criolla woman, she was raised in the hacienda of her grandfather. There, she has access to a vast library and, in a time in which girls and women were not allowed to be educated, she taught herself to read and studied various subjects.
In the mid-1660s, the influence of her family gained her a position in the Spanish royal court, where she received as much attention and admiration for her intelligence as her beauty. The Viceroy arranged for the teenage Juana to be tested by the most learned men, who questioned her on every subject from literature and philosophy to science and religion; Juana passed with impressive thoroughness and thoughtfulness.
After refusing multiple marriage proposals, she entered the convent of Sán Jeronimo. There, she had the largest library on the continent, where she continued her studies. Her parlor is still a subject of fascination, where she hosted dinner parties for Spanish nobility and was visited by other important figures of the day, including the Vicereine, Leonor, with whom she maintained a close relationship. She taught theatre and music to the children of the village.
She wrote poetry and plays, and composed music. Though most of her writing was sacred, including plays commissioned for Catholic observances, much of her work was secular. The Church was not pleased. In 1694, she was ordered to write only religious works. Her library was emptied, her possessions – scientific tools and gifts from her many friends and admirers – were confiscated and carted off. She was put into a cell, then made to sign a document, in blood, beginning with the words, “Yo la peor de todos,” / “I, the worst of all…” Soon after, a plague swept through Mexico. In caring for the other nuns, Sor Juana fell ill and died on April 17, 1695; she was in her 40s.
Sor Juana’s legacy lives on as the first published feminist of the “New World,” and “the first Latin American thinker to raise questions concerning the status of women in Latin American society.”
Past Productions:
Sister Fox & Brother Coyote
Past Productions:
The Little Mermaid
Shows for this full-length, Disney-licensed, Broadway-style theatre production are scheduled to take place from July 28-Aug. 13, 2023 (7:30pm and 1pm) at Gavilan’s Gilroy campus Theater Building. It’s presented by The Christopher Ranch Foundation, Broadway South Bay, Little Theatre Productions and Gavilan; tickets are $25-$50. For more information, go here: https://broadwaysouthbay.com/