Notre Dame Film, Television, and Theatre Will Present STAGING THE DAFFY DAME

Notre Dame's Department of Film, Television, and Theatre (FTT) announces Anne García-Romero's Staging the Daffy Dame in the Patricia George Decio Theatre at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, November 20-24.

In Staging the Daffy Dame, a Latina theatre professor employs non-traditional casting while staging a Spanish Golden Age comedy - Lope De Vega's La Dama Boba (The Daffy Dame) - on a present-day college campus, provoking heated conversations about race, class, gender, and immigration.

"We think of the theatre as a safe space in which to confront problems," says FTT's Director of Theatre, Kevin Dreyer, who is directing the production. "But can we always afford to play it safe? The play is also asking - what can a 17th century play teach us about identity and relationships today?"

Playwright Anne García-Romero, an associate professor in FTT, developed Staging the Daffy Dame as part of the LaunchPad program at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the play was also developed in part at TheatreSquared as part of the Arkansas New Play Festival. Newly revised for FTT's production, this will be its Midwest premiere.

García-Romero's plays have been developed and produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, The Goodman Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Borderlands Theater, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Nevada Repertory Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Kitchen Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, NoPassport Press, and Playscripts.

In conjunction with the production, FTT and Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies will present a panel discussion, "Undocumented: DACA Student Experiences," on Thursday, November 21 at 12:00 pm at the Institute for Latino Studies, 315 Bond Hall. The panel is free and open to the public.