Hartford Stage takes a leap with latest
‘Espejo: Clean,’ is a bilingual play dedicated to women
It has been the stated mission of Melia Bensussen, ever since she became the artistic director of Hartford Stage in 2019, that the theater should do more Spanish-language and Hispanic-themed shows.
Among her projects have been an online reading of “A Christmas Carol” in Spanish, a modern take on “Don Quixote” (Octavio Solis’ “Quixote Nuevo”) and a pre-Broadway shakedown of the musical “Kiss My Aztec.” But with “Espejo: Clean” by Christine Quintana, Hartford Stage is taking a real leap, since the play is presented in Spanish as well as in English.
“Espejo: Clean” takes place at a resort in Cancun, Mexico. There are only two characters in the play. One is a woman who’s begrudgingly being a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. The other is a woman in charge of the housekeeping staff at the resort hotel. The play utilizes a few different theatrical styles but strives to make the characters realistic. One way it does that is to have them speak Spanish.
There are subtitles, projecting translations of the lines so that audience members feel they aren’t missing anything. But its director, Melissa Cresp, says that “Espejo: Clean” can be experienced on multiple levels and that its spoken dialogue is just one of those levels.
“In the theater, you want to be able to understand what’s happening even if you don’t hear every word,” Crespo says. “That’s even true with Shakespeare — he makes up half his words. ‘Espejo: Clean’ is very Shakespearean. It’s language-driven. The actors react in the moment, even though a lot of it is in the past tense.”
The supertitles also merge into the overall design of the piece. “The whole set is gamed for the projections,” Crespo says. “It’s a fully immersive, fully designed world.”
The director says that having the characters converse in both English and Spanish is just one of the challenges of the play.
“It’s what I call an impossible play,” she says, where the playwright writes what they need to write and then trusts the director to make it come to life.
“Espejo: Clean” has splitscreen scenes where both performers are onstage at the same time doing different things, some flashbacks and even magical realism where you realize “Oh, that was a fantasy!” Crespo says.
Crespo directed a staged reading of “Espejo: Clean” in 2021 for Theatre Aspen in Colorado, then pushed for the play to be part of the mainstage season at Syracuse Stage in New York, where she is the associate artistic director. Crespo then approached Bensussen. “Melia and I met in maybe 2015. I was joining the directors’ union, and the union paired me with her as my mentor. We found we had a lot in common and have stayed in touch.”
Crespo asked if Hartford Stage would be interested in co-producing “Espejo: Clean,” a move that would defray overall expenses and also expose the play to a wider audience.
“Hartford has a huge Latino/Latina population as does Syracuse,” Crespo says.
Bilingual plays are “becoming more a trend,” Crespo says. “It’s always been a thing with opera, which I also direct.”
Crespo grew up in Stamford and still has family in Fairfield County. Some of her early theater experiences were with the community-based Curtain Call company in Stamford. Directing at Hartford Stage meant she could spend time with her family over the holidays, though rehearsing for most of December meant she only had a few days off.
“Espejo: Clean” had its world premiere in Vancouver, Canada, where Quintana is from. The U.S. premiere was in 2021 at South Coast Repertory Theatre. The Hartford Stage/Syracuse Stage co-production is the play’s East Coast premiere.
When she learned she could helm a full production of “Espejo: Clean,” Crespo cast the same two actors she’d worked with in the reading: Kate Abbruzzese and Emma Ramos. She then assembled an all-female design team, including scenic designer Mariana Sanchez, costume designer Lux Haac, lighting designer Colleen Doherty, sound designer Daniela Hart of the New Yorkbased production company UptownWorks and projection designer Lisa Renkel. The stage manager (LauraJane Collins) and assistant stage manager (Chandalae Nyswonger) are women as well.
“The play is dedicated to women,” Crespo says. “It’s important to cultivate that. I hired all of them and was very intentional about it.”
She works with some of these designers regularly, while others are those whose work she’s admired and has been looking for a chance to work with. Sanchez is in the latter category. “I’ve been wanting to work with her for a while. She also happens to be from Mexico.”
Upcoming projects for Crespo include an off-Broadway production of the romantic drama “Bees & Honey” by Guadalís Del Carmen at New York’s MCC Theater in May. She’s also a playwright. “Egress,” which she co-wrote with Sarah Saltwick, had a reading at TheaterWorks Hartford’s New Works Festival last year.
Following the Hartford run of Jan. 12 through Feb. 5, “Espejo: Clean” moves to Syracuse Stage, where it will play from Feb. 15 to March 5. Though the theaters’ stages are shaped differently, Crespo says she and the designers have tried to keep the set and the staging as similar as possible in the different spaces.
“I love seeing different theaters doing the same play one right after the other,” she says.