The feelings of a child are universal and do not suffer lingual barriers. An audience equipped with various levels of Spanish-speaking ability looked on, beginning to understand this concept as Marimar Huguet-Jerez, assistant professor of Spanish, and her dedicated students evoked their inner children.
Their performance, titled "Criaturas" or "children," discussed not only the hopes, dreams and fears of children, but also the issue of growing up and becoming an adult.
Held in the Don Evans Black Box Theatre on Wednesday Nov. 19, the presentation was performed by Huguet-Jerez's "Masterpieces of Spanish Theater" class, a senior capstone for Spanish majors.
Although the performers volunteered, all students in the class needed to participate in some way to gain credit, whether it be ushering, designing music or making brochures.
Students prepared for the production for the duration of the fall semester, reading Spanish plays and learning different styles and techniques.
"The students just loved the experience," Huguet-Jerez said. "They saw much more closely the fact that a play is written for being performed, not just read. Some have realized they had a hidden talent for acting and might try other acting venues."
Huguet-Jerez's students felt they benefited from the performance and were able to display their efforts. "The play not only helped me work on my Spanish pronunciation, but allowed me to show off four years of hard work of acquiring a second language," Brittany Chadziutko, senior Spanish major, said.
"By means of this play, we were able to show the campus community what we had learned, and how hard we've worked on our Spanish fluency," she said.
In addition to personal gains, the performers also felt a sense of accomplishment and were satisfied with the results.
"The overall performance was a huge success," Meghan Mekita, senior Spanish major, said.
"Everything went smoothly on the big day and we had a much bigger turnout than we expected," she said. "It was also nice to get so many compliments after all of our hard work."
"The fact that they had to perform in Spanish made their experience doubly worthy," Huguet-Jerez said.
"Their Spanish oral skills were greatly benefited and so was their confidence in the language," she added.
Beyond the typical benefits of this presentation, the new actresses relished the fact that they were able to bring forth their inner child.
Elizabeth Moody, senior Spanish major, said, "Because this play invokes the child within all of us, I feel I had to learn how to represent that part of me on stage."
She said, "Because its theme is so universal and the language so accessible, it appealed to all audience members - from native Spanish speakers to the beginner Spanish student."
