Telenovela Comes to Tallahassee
By Ben Gunter
Come see a live 5-part telenovela in Tallahassee this fall. Called Loco for Love, this high-stakes drama has been four centuries in the making. It brings Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) and William Shakespeare (author of Hamlet) back from the dead, to go head to head for the title of World Champion Storyteller.
Yes, this telenovela takes two great authors and the characters they created and drops them into a wrestling ring for a WWE smackdown. The challenge revolves around a character called Cardenio, who appears in Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Shakespeare’s The History of Cardenio. The story brings you face-to-face with four unforgettable lovers: Cardenio and Luscinda and Dorotea and Fernando.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. Luscinda is Cardenio’s fiancée until his best friend Fernando (who’s secretly married to Dorotea) betrays him by snatching Luscinda – in the church, on her wedding day. With the love of his life out of reach, Cardenio loses his mind and runs wild in the forest. He goes loco for love, but in this telenovela, you get to decide his fate. Audience members can rescue this hopeless romantic, by choosing different parts of the story and various versions of Cardenio’s tale for the actors to act out.
Telling the whole story takes 5 episodes and a 4-day Festival – a free Loco for Love Festival in Tallahassee’s Railroad Square Art Park, from September 13th through the 16th. All ages are welcome, and the event is packed with family fun. At the Festival, you can experience the glory of Florida’s Spanish past first-hand in Hispanic heritage performances, Hispanic foods, and expert lecture-demonstrations that invite you to learn Spanish swordplay, participate in ancestral dances, sing traditional music, and more! During the Festival, you can also catch all five episodes of Loco for Love. (Don’t worry if you miss an episode! Every performance will begin with a summary of what drama has unfolded in the telenovela thus far.)
The Festival is produced by Theater with a Mission (TWAM). TWAM is the troupe who brought El Muerto to life for the Día de los Difuntos, presented shepherds and angels from the 1600s during Las Posadas in St. Augustine, and performed for the Hispanic Heritage Festival and the Fiesta en el Parque in Ft. Walton Beach.
Now, TWAM invites you to see a telenovela that’s been breaking hearts for centuries. Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare took their final bow on the same date 402 years ago, but that was not the end of the story for these magnificent storytellers. They’re coming back to life in Tallahassee this September. Look for breaking news about Loco for Love on the Festival’s Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/TheaterWithAMission/ , and join us in Tallahassee this September!
