By Sydney Schuhmacher
This September 13-16, Theater with a Mission invites you to Tallahassee for the Loco for Love Festival! You’ll get to explore Florida’s Spanish past with entertaining speakers who are experts on dueling, dancing, dining, and drama – experts who will offer free, hands-on workshops that let you touch, taste, sing, dance, and wrestle with life in La Florida 400 years ago. Let us introduce you to Dr. Ian Borden, That Klassic Tag-Team, Dr. Nena Couch, and Cindy and Andrew Batten.
Dr. Borden is an expert on Spanish swordplay in the 1600s. He comes to Tallahassee from the University of Nebraska, to connect the “Florida Man” meme we read about in newspapers today with life in Florida 400 years ago. Dr. Borden’s talk “Florida Man: How Weapons and Swordplay Tell Us Who You Are” will reveal how the weapons you carried in the 1600s not only defined you as a man, but whether you came from an English or Spanish background. He says, “Swordplay is an intersection that defines what it means to be a soldier, to show valor, to have honor, that shapes community, and even serves as an expression of patriotism.”
Dr. Borden is not all talk. In a hands-on workshop called “Mano a Mano – Swordplay in Shakespeare and Cervantes,” he’ll teach you how to wield a (wooden) sword like a duelist in the days of Don Quixote. That paves the way for Kiko Harris and Kody Kastle, That Klassic Tag-Team from Orlando. They will share secrets from pro wrestling, a theatrical sport that’s been entertaining fans for centuries. Kiko and Kody say, “We look forward to introducing you to the physical skills and theatrical talents that connect wrestling today with a sport that Shakespeare and Cervantes loved.”
You can exchange your sparring partner for a dancing partner with the help of Dr. Nena Couch from Ohio State University. An expert in Spanish and English dances from the 1600s, Dr. Couch will show you how to unlock social secrets with the flick of a fan. She says, “I am honored to be invited to share in this special opportunity to explore 17th-century movement and dance, so participants can experience the physicality of the past.”
Between fights and dances, you’ll find it easy to work up an appetite at the Loco for Love Festival! So Andrew and Cindy Batten will be on hand from The History Channel to share songs and recipes from Florida 400 years ago. For more than 30 years, the Battens have been leading demonstrations of open-hearth cooking that literally let you taste history. They say, “Spanish Florida was the first ‘fusion cuisine’ in North America. We will show you how the blending of ingredients from the Old and New Worlds created something unique in Florida.”
In addition to delicious dueling, dancing, and dining with experts, the Loco for Love Festival features thrilling drama. Theater with a Mission premieres a 5-part play called Loco for Love, where Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) and William Shakespeare (author of Hamlet) go head to head for the title of World Champion Storyteller. Tallahassee Hispanic Theater presents Puppet Show Don Quixote, for kids and adults, in English and in Spanish. Mickee Faust Players will perform Shakespearosaurus, showing you great scenes from Shakespeare through the eyes of a talking T-Rex, and Theater with a Mission will revive a bilingual production of Cervantes’ great one-act, El retablo de las maravillas, Where Only the Pure See Miracles. For sneak peeks behind the scenes, visit www.theaterwithamission.com and like the Facebook event page at https://www.facebook.com/TheaterWithAMission/. ¡Viva la Florida!
