by Ben Gunter
The Bohemian Babushka – BB for short – is a cross-cultural sensation. She is the Cuban-American creation of Florida’s own Sonia Guerra, whose wry, wise insights into what it means to be a Hispanic woman living in an Anglo world have won her more than 30,000 followers on “Feybu,” “IGrammy,” and “Tweety.”
You can meet her everywhere. In addition to her monthly column in Conexión and her blog “Babushka’s Baile,” BB has been known to appear – cloche hat on her head, iridescent-blue eyeshadow on her eyelids, and “JU SO FONI!!!” on her lips – at conventions in Miami (she has an international following at Hispanicize), tourism conferences in Orlando, historical reenactments in St. Augustine, press conferences in Tallahassee, and tour buses guiding folks through a pilgrimage to Hispanic heritage sites statewide.
This month, Babushka is making a new departure. She is Zooming into 1615, starring in TWAM Virtual’s Ark of Wonders.
A new translation of a snappy satire that was written in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes just over 400 years ago, Ark of Wonders tells the juicy story of what happens when a tiny troupe of actors arrive in a little country town on the same day that the local bigwigs are celebrating a high-society wedding. The actors sell the bigwigs one performance of “miraculous and spectacular sights” for the wedding reception – sights that only people whose bloodlines are perfectly pure and whose parents were properly married will be able to see.
Babushka plays Chirinos in the Ark of Wonders, the “autora” who takes care of business for the actors who dream up the show. As Chirinos, Babushka sells the town council on the idea of buying a performance of this magically exclusive play, collects payment for the performance in advance, and produces most of the wonders that the bigwigs “see,” ranging from a charging bull fresh from Salamanca, to a “mischief of mice” right off of Noah’s ark, “two dozen raging lions and huge, fanged bears,” and a dancing lady from the holy land, “the one they call Herodias, whose dancing placed the head of John the Baptist on a plate.”
Theater with a Mission (TWAM) selected Ark of Wonders for TWAM Virtual because the play offers a vibrant invitation to visit Spanish La Florida. By bringing us face to face with how our Spanish-speaking ancestors laughed and worried about purity in our bloodlines, security in our status, and living up to what the neighbors think, Cervantes’ sparkling satire functions like a time machine. This half-hour play, breezy as a BB blogpost, tells us secrets about our past that the history books miss.
TWAM asked BB to play Chirinos because she is “a human shot of espresso” who is completely “upbeat but keeping it real.” Her patented sense of fun with a serious purpose is perfect for the role. Don’t miss Bohemian Babushka’s history-making performance.
If you visit www.comedias.org, you can see BB play La Chirinos for an international audience of theater aficionados who live in towns that stretch from California to Spain, during the Association for Classical Hispanic Theatre’s first online conference on July 17.
If you visit www.theaterwithamission.com, you can catch BB in Cervantes’ Ark of Wonders, newly translated by Kathleen Costales and Ian Borden, any time you please. For more information, and for future installments of TWAM Virtual, follow Theater with a Mission (TWAM) on Feybu, IGrammy, and Tweety.
This July, Zoom back into Spanish Florida with the Bohemian Babushka! As BB says, “HolaHolaHola Beautifuls – there’s no time like the present for getting up close and personal with our pasts… (and don’t miss my grandson EO playing Sobrino)!”