In XVII century Spanish dominated Mexico, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was born to a world that was not ready for her wisdom, radical, for the time, ideas and adventurous heart.
She is a woman that was well known for her intelligence, and it is now a role model for women everywhere, teaching us that no matter the situation, our voices should never be silenced.
In the play her life is portrayed going back and forth from her days in court as a young woman to the convent where she eventually died. The feverish dreams make for a very interesting and fantastical play, where characters pop out of wardrobes and come out of trunks. The design is just as fluid, conforming two spaces that double up as the convent and the court, and her cell and the room in the palace of her youth. The real architecture of both places has merged together in a cohesive design and has even bend to conform a place of dream.
The changes from one to another happen in seconds and there are some moments when she is in the past on one side of the stage while the nuns are knocking at her door on the other.
With the help of light and theatrical magic, the play can tell the story of her life as a poet, activist, and scholar in the convent and her unfortunate love story in the Palace.
The sins of Sor Juana - Embroidering at the convent