Carla Della Gatta
Latinx Shakespeares of the 20th century
Scholar Carla Della Gatta looks at the growth of Latinx-inspired Shakespeare productions in the US beginning with West Side Story on Broadway in 1957. She finds the performances as richly diverse in form as they are in content.
Bilingual Shakespeares
Carla Della Gatta looks at the extraordinary mix of Latinx-inspired productions and adaptations performed on stages, large and small, across the United States.
Staging Puerto Rican Culture: Speaking Spanish and English in Romeo and Juliet
Carla Della Gatta explores how bilingual staging methods help evoke Puerto Rican culture for the Capulet women in Folger Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet.
West Side Story: A new take on Romeo and Juliet, 60 years later
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is a layering of theatrical devices, a Hollywood riff on both a famous musical and a Shakespearean story for 21st-century audiences.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet turns 25
Carla Della Gatta writes about Baz Luhrmann’s movie Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, which became an indelible version for Gen X, Gen Y, and even Gen Z. In homage to West Side Story, it Latin-izes the…
West Side Story: 60 years as a cultural barometer
Sixty years old this week, the 1961 movie West Side Story, based on the acclaimed Broadway musical inspired by Romeo and Juliet, also became a de facto representation of US Latinx in musicals for many years.