Those Women Productions Presents HOUSE OF DESIRES Next Month

Those Women Productions is pleased to stage its production of House of Desires (Los empeños de una casa) by the 17th century Mexican poet, playwright, and theologian, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, in a translation by Catherine Boyle (written for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2004). By turns sly, subversive, witty, and goofy, this little-known romantic farce will delight audiences. House of Desires previews on July 29, opens on Saturday, July 30, and runs through August 14 at La Val's Subterranean Theater in Berkeley.

Those Women Productions practices "Radical Hospitality": the suggested price for tickets is $35 but all tickets for all shows are choose your own price with no minimum. Advance tickets, when available, can be purchased at https://thosewomenproductions.com/our-productions/house-of-desires/; or tickets can be purchased at the door subject to availability.

"Suppose The Three Stooges were feminists," says Artistic Director Elizabeth Vega, "and they got together with William Shakespeare to write a version of Midsummer Night's Dream, and you'll have the right idea." House of Desires will be directed by Vega and will feature a cast of nine, as well as original music composed by Erika Oba.

House of Desires was first performed on October 4, 1683, as part of the birthday celebrations held for the first-born child of the Viceroy Count of Paredes. This comedy of intrigue, deemed one of the most famous works from late Baroque Spanish-American literature, features a pair of couples pining to be together amid a never-ending gamut of jealous lovers, sword fights, rivalries, disguises and duplicities. Sor Juana - herself a nun from the age of 19 - creates passionate and strong-willed characters who speak their minds, and her work subtly criticizes the social, racial, and gender-based barriers of her day. This work is considered in many circles to be the pinnacle of Sor Juana's writings as well as throughout all Mexican literature, and is a rare theatric piece of colonial Latin America.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is widely regarded as one of the first great Latin American writers, yet is unfamiliar to most audiences and readers in the United States. Writing between 1660 and 1693, her plays often included brave and clever women, and she openly criticized the Church for keeping women uneducated. At the age of eight she composed her first poem; by adolescence, she had comprehensively studied Greek logic, and was teaching Latin to young children at age 13. She also learned Nahuatl, an Aztec language spoken in Central Mexico, and wrote some short poems in that language. She begged to disguise herself as a male to further her education, but was not given permission by her family to do so. She continued to study privately, and at 16, was admitted to the service of a Viceroy's wife. When she was 17, the Viceroy assembled a panel of scholars to test her intelligence. The vast array of skills and knowledge she demonstrated before the panel became publicly known throughout Mexico. Her reputation and her apparent beauty attracted a great deal of attention. Interested not in marriage but in the furthering of her studies, Juana entered the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of St. Joseph, where she remained for a few months. In 1669, at age 21, she entered the Convent of the Order of St. Jérôme, where she would remain until her death. Eventually, controversy surrounding Sor Juana's writing and pressure from those around her (including her confessor Núñez de Miranda) resulted in Sor Juana's forced abjuration. During this time, Sor Juana was required to sell her books as well as all musical and scientific instruments.

The cast for House of Desires includes April Ballesteros as Doña Ana, Monique Crawford as Celia, L. Duarte as Castaño, Konnor Heredia as Don Pedro, Justin P. Lopez as Don Carlos, Tara Navarro as Don Juan, Jeanette Sarmiento as Don Rodrigo, Brittany Sims as Doña Leonor, and Susannah Wood as Hernando. Design and production team includes Quinnton Barringer (scenic), Rachael Heiman (costumes and props), Adri Schurman (costume assistant); Samuel Raskin (sound), Nate Bogner (lighting), Kristen Matia (fight director); Kit Lanthier (stage manager); Harley Greene (assist. stage manager); Carol Lashof (producer, Executive Director of TWP); Erika Oba (music); Audrey Ronningen (marketing, front of house); Julie Ann Sarabia (Covid safety manager); and Elizabeth Vega (director, Artistic Director of TWP).

Director Elizabeth Vega is the Founding Artistic Director of Those Women Productions. She holds a BA in Liberal Arts from St. John's College and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from Exeter University where she studied at the Globe Theater in London. Directing credits include Troilus and Cressida at the Dell Theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon and the world premieres of Carol Lashof's Witch Hunt and Just Deserts. She is on the faculty at Holden High School and has also taught at Cal Shakes and at the Berkeley Rep School of Theater.

Those Women Productions is a Berkeley-based theater company dedicated to giving the stage to hidden truths of gender and power. Previous productions have been praised by critics: Jordan Freed of Theatrius called Witch Hunt "an important and timely production," and Lily Janiak of the San Francisco Chronicle, in a Datebook feature on Witch Hunt said the show"gives Tituba hopes and fears, virtues and flaws. It gives her goals, and it makes her strategic in pursuit of them. In short, it makes Tituba a person." Of the company's collaborative, virtual production of Hindsight 2020, Nathalie Grogan of The Daily Californian said: "Hindsight 2020 is a testament to the incredible strength and endurance of people: to hold out hope, to adapt, to find new communities and to find new mediums of creative expression. A true and honest ode to 2020, Hindsight 2020 looks back upon a year of struggle and encapsulates it with undeniable skill and refreshing creativity." Owen Brunell of Theatrius.com called Shifting Spaces "so much more than an excellent feminist perspective on self image and determination ... Characters transcend the stage, touchingly, as they search for and discover new identities." And of Margaret Of Anjou, The Daily Californian praised, "Shakespeare would have been proud to see his work take on new life." More information is available at www.ThoseWomenProductions.com.

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