Theatre Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
The theatre program at the University of Texas-Pan American has a long history of excluding Latino plays from its production seasons, even though the university is located near the Mexican border and the majority of its students are Mexican American. The regional population served by this publicly-funded school, which has been state-funded since 1965, is predominantly Mexican American and Spanish speaking. Furthermore, as reflected in its name, the school’s mission has included for more than half a century a commitment to advance the “blending” of the North American and Latin American cultures. This article reviews the school’s production record over a twenty-year period, from 1970 to 1990, when more than one hundred and fifty full-length plays were produced by its theatre program, not one of which was about Mexican Americans or Mexico. Selected background information is provided to help illuminate the historical context in which the school’s theatre faculty decided year after year to exclude Latino plays from their theatre on the Mexican border.
Recommended Citation
Wiley, E. (2014). Play Selection in the Department of Speech and Drama at Pan American University in the 1970s and 1980s: Twenty Years of Excluding Latino Plays. Rio Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlards, 23(1), 135–145.
Publication Title
Rio Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlands