Educational Resources / Play Texts
Three PDFs prepared for the classroom: two complete plays and an anthology of scenes short enough to read aloud, stage or workshop in a single session. All three are free to download and free to use in teaching.
Full texts, ready to assign.
Las cortes de la muerte
Lope de Vega
An auto sacramental in which Death, Sin, Time, Madness and the Devil hold court over Man. The stage directions describe every costume, which makes it unusually easy to picture in class.
El narciso en su opinión
Guillén de Castro
The comedia of Don Gutierre, a man in love with himself, in an annotated edition: footnotes gloss the hard words as they appear, so students can read without stopping.
One session each, with the support material already written.
Short Scenes for Performance
Eight passages from eight plays, each one long enough to stage and short enough to finish in a class. They come with plot summaries in English, glossaries for the hardest lines and discussion questions in Spanish.
- El Marión (entremés)Francisco de Quevedo
- El narciso en su opiniónGuillén de Castro
- El burlador de SevillaTirso de Molina
- La muerte del apetitoSor Marcela de San Félix
- La dama bobaLope de Vega
- Con quien vengo, vengo (acto III)Pedro Calderón de la Barca
- La dama duendePedro Calderón de la Barca
- Casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar (acto II)Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Some suggestions
How to use these scenes in the classroom
- Have students look for the grammar concepts they are learning in the scenes. Have them circle examples of the present tense, the preterit and the imperfect, ser and estar, the subjunctive, prepositions, and so on.
- Choose a scene that is written in the present tense and have the students rewrite it in the past.
- Have the students read one of the scenes and discuss the characters. What are they like? What do they look like? What are their likes and dislikes? Which character would they want to be friends with, and why? Who do they know who acts like each of the characters?
- Have the students choose one character and write a story about him or her in Spanish.
- Have the students draw the costumes for one of the scenes.
- Have the students draw a set design for one of the scenes.
- Have the students make a list of all the props that one of the scenes would need.
- Divide the class into groups along gender lines and have each group perform a scene for the other with an all-girl or an all-boy cast. Then have them discuss gender norms and expectations.
- Teach the students the difference between consonant and assonant rhyme, and have them find examples in the scenes.
- If you teach an advanced Spanish literature class, consider asking the students to write new scenes for this website.
Looking for a different play?
Digital Play Texts holds the full AHCT archive: 249 plays by 61 authors, read online jornada by jornada, with the verses numbered.
Do you teach from an edition of your own? Write to us at secretary@comedias.org and we will add it.
