Hispanic Department Plays

The Herbert Hughes Memorial Fund has made a substantial contribution to funding Spanish theatre productions at the University of Sheffield from the 1960s onwards. In the early 1960s, Fernando Moragas organised the Velada teatral, put on in the Students' Union; it usually consisted of choral and other music, and a one-act play in Spanish. This continued until the early 1970s. Then, around 1974, the first full-length Spanish play was staged in the Drama Studio. It was directed by the second Hughes Professor of Spanish, Anthony Heathcote; and the Spanish play has enjoyed an annual three-night run in February every year since. Tony Heathcote, following his first production of Lope de Vega’s Peribáñez, established a tradition of staging dramas and comedies from the Spanish Golden Age, most notably his famous early 1980s production of El burlador de Sevilla (a seventeenth-century play usually attributed to Tirso de Molina), which was filmed and later developed into a much-used teaching resource. A range of staff and students followed in Tony’s footsteps, most notably in recent years Dr Stuart Green and the fifth Hughes Professor, Philip Swanson. Phil Swanson resurrected the Golden Age tradition for the twenty-first century with a modernist version of Calderón de la Barca’s masterpiece El alcalde de Zalamea, though the last couple of decades have mainly seen modern plays being staged. One particular highlight (supported by an enhanced tranche of Hughes funding) was the remarkable 2014 Spanish version of the musical Evita, directed by final-year student of Law and Spanish, Laura Hair. With an orchestra, full choreography and often stunning singing, this represented a significant step forward in ambition and received rapturous audience responses. The Spanish play continues to this day, with this year students’ putting on a production of Lauro Olmo’s classic of 1960s realism, La camisa, on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th March 2017. To book tickets please click HERE.

None of these theatrical events would have been possible without the generous support of the Herbert Hughes Memorial Trust. The same goes too for the Hispanic Concert series and the Spanish opera productions such as the renowned versions of La púrpura de la rosa and the first Spanish opera, Celos aun del aire matan. The profile of Hispanic Studies at Sheffield in the public eye of the city and beyond was raised considerably by these activities. They also helped the development of generations of students of Spanish whose personal growth and lifelong commitment to the culture of the Hispanic world were profoundly encouraged thanks to their involvement in these sparkling initiatives.