A book on William Shakespeare’s play adaptations set in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and co-edited by two Texas A&M University-San Antonio professors was selected as part of a PBS book list promoting college publications.
The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera, Vol. 3, was one of 13 college publications recently featured during Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month. Through a partnership with the Association of University Presses, PBS Books selected the publications for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month and promoted them via a multi-platform initiative to libraries and on bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores through online purchases.
Katherine Gillen, an English professor and interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Adrianna Santos, an English associate professor, co-edited the anthology, along with Kathryn Vomero Santos at Trinity University. The anthology was published by ACMRS Press, part of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University.
Gillen said The Bard in the Borderlands includes adaptations of Shakespearean plays set in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in which playwrights have engaged with Shakespeare in ways that reflect the region’s hybrid languages and cultures.
“We’re big fans of PBS, and we are so happy to be featured,” Gillen said. “The anthology features several playwrights who are important Latinx playwrights from a range of generations. Some have been doing this work for a while and are well known, and others are more up-and-coming. We’re excited PBS will help spread the word and amplify the work of those artists.”
Gillen said the origins of The Bard in the Borderlands started in 2018 at the “Latinx Shakespeare: A Borderlands Drama Symposium,” which was hosted by Gillen and Santos at A&M-San Antonio. The conference brought together scholars, teachers, theater practitioners and activists who discussed the interconnections of Shakespeare and Latinx drama and the way playwrights in the Borderlands region were engaging with Shakespeare. The symposium also covered how to teach and perform Shakespeare and Latinx drama in culturally responsive ways.
“When we hosted the conference, we originally didn’t know about these adaptations (of Shakespeare),” Gillen said. “But we soon learned about how much interest there was in the adaptations. The main goal was to make the adaptations available to students and teachers, and we also wanted to collect this work so we could study it.”
Santos said The Bard in the Borderlands anthology offers an important perspective on Shakespearean play adaptations and serves as a tool for human expression that truly resonates with the San Anto community and beyond
“I think theater is such an important place for communities to gather and to ask really big questions and better understand one another,” Santos said. “I think these stories need to be told because these community voices are important and when we gather to witness and celebrate these stories, beautiful things can come from that kind of connection.”
Volume three will be the last book to be published in The Bard in the Borderlands anthology. Despite it coming to an end, Santos said the work she, Gillen and Vomero Santos dedicated to the anthology will continue.
“New doors are being opened for other people to take up the work and to continue looking into this growing field,” she said. “We’ve seen several Shakespeare adaptation productions in the past few years that are just amazing, and I’m really looking forward to the next generation of plays coming out.”