“We went to experience Hispanic culture, but also to bring music to another culture and combine those elements together,” said flute student Alondra Bahls, president of the �鶹ӳ����ý Flute Club.

During Hispanic Heritage Month the group is sharing its cultural experience by performing music from different Hispanic cultures each week.

The Flute Studio is composed of 12 �鶹ӳ����ý undergraduate students who have an interest in music, flute performance and music education. To see and hear about the studio .

“When I created this trip, I wanted my students to��experience another culture and improve their leadership skills,” said Associate Professor Nora Lee García. “I also wanted this to be a recruiting opportunity for the university. While in Guatemala, the students were able to see music-education techniques from a different perspective. This was a chance for them to be inspired by these methods and bring them back to the United States.”

Music performance major Sara Nazarian said the travelers were immersed in an entirely different culture.

“Educating and advocating and the learning of other cultures is so important and that’s why we need to have months like these, so we can teach other that we aren’t that different from each other,” Nazarian said.

“T��� Life is a Dream Project” aims to bring a contemporary sensibility to a classical Spanish play.��It is a contemporary one-act��performance inspired��by��Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s play��Life is a Dream,��in which a prince, imprisoned by his father after receiving a fateful prophecy, struggles with the differences between reality and illusion, instinct and wisdom, destiny and free will. The production explores the transitory nature of life and presents reality as constantly transforming and, occasionally, indistinguishable from a dream.

Martha García, a faculty member in the Department of Modern Languages, and Julia Listengarten, a theatre professor in the School of Performing Arts, conceived the idea of a collaborative play years ago. “She teaches theatre literature from a world-languages perspective and I create theatrical texts,” said Listengarten. “We wondered what would happen if we were to collaborate, to bring something to life. What would happen? What would the challenges be?”

After receiving a grant to complete the project by �鶹ӳ����ý’s Office of Information Fluency, the two faculty members set to work on bringing the project to stage. García adapted the classical Spanish play and Listengarten worked with theatre students, including director Joseph D’Ambrosi, to cast the play. Both García and Listengarten have been supervising the production process. Once the production started taking shape, Nora Lee García was brought in to the team to add another language: music.

“T���atre, as a form of visual storytelling, transcends language and culture,” said Listengarten, on the topic of whether a non-Spanish speaking audience member would be able to understand the play. “We don’t necessarily need to understand words to respond to emotions that are embodied in the actors’ physical movement and voice.”

��D’Ambrosi is in the final year of his Masters of Arts in Theatre degree. “Working on a project with a language barrier was not easy at first,” he said, “however, the language was the least of our worries as the rehearsal process went on. The cast and I talked about the meaning of the play and how its message is universal. We talked about the character development and the goals that each actor wanted to accomplish. Because of these conversations, the language naturally fell into place and I could understand what was happening onstage through the actors’ discoveries. It showed me, and I hope it will show the audience, that language is not the only means of communication, but that we can communicate through our connection with the characters’ journeys and experiences.”

Tickets are required, but are free to all patrons. They may be reserved online, in person, or over the phone for the production in the campus Black Box theatre.

For more information and to reserve free tickets, go to http://www.theatre.ucf.edu or call 407-823-1500.

Production at a glance:

The “Life is a Dream” Project

Conceived and supervised by Julia Listengarten and Martha García

Based on the play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca��

Adapted by Martha García

Produced by Julia Listengarten��

Directed by Joseph D’Ambrosi

Music directed by Nora Lee García

Dec. 5 at 8 p.m.

Dec. 6 at 2 p.m.

A collaboration between Theatre �鶹ӳ����ý and the Department of Modern Languages

This play will be performed in Spanish.

Free, but tickets are required.

The recital celebrates Latin heritage and includes music from Cuba, Brazil and Argentina. Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said she likes to present a concert annually during Latin Heritage Month in order to celebrate Hispanic awareness and to connect with her cultural heritage.

“We are playing three suites, each of which shows a different portrait of the countries,” Garcia said. “’Suite Habana’ [by Eduardo Martin] is a portrait of Cuba. Suite de Buenos Aires [Máximo Diego Pujols] gives a musical glimpse of the Argentinian capital. The third suite [Astor Piazzola’s “Historia del Tango”] tells the history of the tango dance, from 1900 to today. There are stories behind all of the music.”

Garcia is one of the most highly regarded flutists in the concert world today and��teaches in��the �鶹ӳ����ý School of Performing Arts. She decided to perform with Izquierdo after a mutual colleague recommended them to each other. The two have never met and will have just two rehearsals together before their performance Saturday.

“Rene is from Cuba and is a faculty member at Wisconsin State University in Milwaukee. He travels all over the world playing all types of music. We’ve never met, but are working together on a collaborative recording, to come out in May,” said Garcia.

She welcomes the community to come to the free performance. “This concert is meant to connect people to different cultures. It is popular music from different countries and beautiful in nature,” she said. “It is a concert that everyone can find something to identify with and enjoy.”

Garcia will perform in another concert, also entitled “Music of the Americas,” on Oct. 17 with the Bach Festival Society. She has been the principal flutist of the society for 20 years.