Subject Stages

The Spanish Actress’s Art: Improvisation, Transvestism, and Disruption in Tirso’s <em>El vergonzoso en palacio</em>

“…19 On the one hand, the actresses had to subscribe to the patriarchal marriage laws in order to practice their craft; on the other hand, because leading ladies had a great deal of power within the structure of the theatre company, they were also likely given more licence to show off their skills, including the verbal extemporaneity that constituted a freedom of voice. 20 Much like Shakespeare who had to make sure that he had sufficiently good roles for the shareholders in the company, Spanish playwrights wrote good scenes for principal actresses who were also politically important in the companies. 21 According to Maite Pascual Bonis, Spanish 'Actresses were better trained than men as they were expected to have more skills: they had to sing, dance and recite'.…”

“…'With her clothes and acting', María M. Carrión asserts, 'the transvestite articulates a sustained conflict between sumptuary objects, laws, and the subjects that own them and wear them'. 40 Skirting the confines of sumptuary laws and the culture that demands strict gender identification, the play permits the transvestite Serafina, and the actress who played her, to be the agent of action, normally the purview of men in a masculinist society. In the theatre, costume enables the performance of gender that leads Serafina to a desired existence.…”