The unique Teatrotaller (Spanish for theater-workshop), a blend of academics and performance in Spanish, has been going strong ever since Cornell students founded it in 1993 to preserve and promote Spanish, Latin American and Latino cultures through theater at Cornell.

Even students without fluent Spanish or who have never acted in a play before are drawn to Teatrotaller, as evidenced by the crowd at the auditions for last semester's production of "Desiertos," a hard-hitting drama on the human cost of immigration, and by the enthusiasm at this semester's rehearsals of an as-yet-untitled and original performance, set in a Mexican- whorehouse and scheduled for the Risley Theatre, April 8-10.

The Hispanic Theater Production course (Spanish Literature 301), taught by Debra Castillo, professor of Romance studies and comparative literature, serves as the core of Teatrotaller, which welcomes volunteer participants. Because the class is a variable credit topic course, it can be repeated. One student took the class six times.

Participants in Teatrotaller, usually 15 to 20 people, are of varied backgrounds and include native Spanish speakers and those learning Spanish for the first time; students from Cornell, Ithaca College and even Syracuse University; undergraduates, graduate students, alumni and local residents; Spanish literature majors even a postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics.

Despite little funding and no dedicated space, the group produces three plays a year.

"The students are really ingenious in overcoming challenges," says Castillo.

Diana Capous '09, now a research associate in Cornell's Social Cognition Development Lab, says participating in Teatrotaller has taught her "the essence of collaboration and the power of passion" and offers her "a time of cultural exploration and creative flow."

Because the composition of the group changes each season, Castillo recommends plays that reflect the language skills, interests and abilities of the particular students that semester. Plays are also chosen for their relevance to current events; sometimes they are written by the students in the course.

Because of Teatrotaller's growing reputation, well-known Latino playwrights often send plays in the hope that the group will produce them, Castillos says, and that "Quite a few graduate students have told me that their involvement with Teatrotaller is what made their applications for university positions stand out, effectively getting them their jobs."

Teatrotaller's reputation extends nationally and even internationally -- various Cornell Teatrotaller groups have performed in New York City, Boston and Kansas as well as Belgium, Mexico, Canada and, most recently, Israel.

To commemorate Teatrotaller's 15th anniversary, the group participated last year in a yearlong project focused on Chiapas, Mexico. The project was Cornell's first systematic effort to insert Spanish across its curriculum. The initiative featured interdisciplinary studies and included a two-week field study in multiethnic Chiapas, exploring its rich and diverse cultural environment.

Teatrotaller provided a creative component to the Chiapas field study, presenting the Mexican play "La Mujer Que Cayó del Cielo" ("The Woman Who Fell From the Sky"), based on the true story of a Tarahumara woman who spent 12 years in a Kansas insane asylum. Because the script included indigenous Mexican language, the actress playing the main role had to learn her lines syllable by syllable.

The students also created "Kan Balaam," a play integrating ancient Mayan myths and cosmology with contemporary issues faced by indigenous communities in Chiapas. The play drew an audience of more than 400 people.

Linda Glaser is a staff writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.