Tilting at Don Quixote

We recently sat down with two of our core staff members to discuss the creation of a new bilingual offering for our Shakespeare in the Schools program - Don Quixote.

ETC: Please introduce yourself and say your role with ETC!

KJ: I am KJ Moran Velz, Director of After School Programming and teaching artist with ETC. I started teaching with ETC in February 2022, so we are coming up on four wonderful years. 

SCOTT: I’m Scott Abernethy, the Director of Shakespeare in the Schools (SIS) and a teaching Artist with ETC. I started as an SIS Company member in 2016, and have been gratefully leading this program I love for 4 years as well! 

ETC: Scott, can you talk a little bit about where the idea for a production of Don Quixote came from or how this project came about?

SCOTT: As with most of our good ideas, it came from a teacher! Monica Harvey, a partner of ours I coordinate with at Dr Charles R Drew Elementary, and I were chatting after our annual SIS residency about two years ago. She asked if we have any other performances than Shakespeare's canon. I asked what she had in mind, and it turns out The Adventures of Don Quixote had been added to the curriculum they use in Arlington Public Schools. Don Quixote has always been a personally beloved story to me, so it was an easy fire to light. After conversations among staff, and with a gift from Arlington Kiwanis, we knew it was the right time to build a program that really met the additional needs of students in Arlington! 

ETC: KJ, when did you get brought into the project?  Please tell our awesome community why it was so perfect that YOU are already a part of our core staff!

KJ: I don’t remember! Maybe Scott can fill in the details here. 

In addition to my work at ETC, I am a playwright! I am a member of the Dramatists Guild, having worked across the DMV in creating plays for young audiences since 2019. While I recently have shifted focus to writing plays for adults, my heart is always in writing big, bold stories with kids in mind. My undergraduate degree is also in Spanish, so Don Quixote was the perfect opportunity to celebrate three of my favorite things: ETC, bilingual theatre, and new work. 

I returned to the original text in Spanish for many elements of the script - although Arlington Public Schools uses the Dover text, I found it crucial to adapt from the original text and include my own translations to make this centuries-old text accessible to students. The story itself is incredibly silly, and it has been since 1605. However, at its heart, it’s about a man who has the faith to make the world just a little bit better - and that’s a message that we all still need to hear today. 

Four centuries later, I find myself moved by Don Quixote when he says, “It is not the place of knights-errant to investigate whether those they encounter on the road of life are suffering because of their sins or their virtues - it is only our duty to help them, focusing on their suffering and not their villainy.”

For me, these words are an evergreen reminder to meet people where they are, to help alleviate suffering in the here and now, regardless of what happened in someone’s past. I do truly believe that my duty as a human being is to do the same. I don’t have to be a knights-errant to help the world - and neither do you!

SCOTT: I am embarrassed to say, I don’t think I can pin down when the project was serious enough that we needed to ID a playwright, and KJ was likely on the Zoom at the time, literally under our noses. I am PROUD to say that this project and KJ’s recent smash play “Mother Mary” are my two favorite plays this year! Best of all, working with KJ has given me a good friend as well as collaborator. We have also been known to collaborate with our respective partners at DC Rawhides Line dancing! 

ETC: What’s next?  Where are you in the process and when will this new script be ready for schools?

KJ: Scott and a team of intrepid adventurers - aka five of our incredible SIS Team Members Mary Myers, Clint Blakely, Libby Barnard, Francesca Chilcote, and Madelyn Farris - set out on a workshop of the script. I trusted Scott and this team to find the spots for growth and development, and find them they did! Their interpretation of this script made it come alive in new ways, which will hopefully elevate further once we get audiences involved!

SCOTT: Find them indeed! It’s worth noting that this creative team is a perfect mix of ETC’s old guard, and some of our newest company members, all of whom immediately started mining the script for every moment of joy and then some. I still have some arts and crafts to do on our props, but otherwise this show is absolutely ready for an audience starting in winter 2026. I can’t wait to see how students enjoy participating in this new Adventure year after year! 

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Want to help Don Quixote make it to as many students as possible? Your gift helps ETC continue to reach more students, no matter their school budget or their own language needs!  You can identify your donation for SIS programming, or let it be for wherever it is most needed, when you give.  Monthly donations help us plan ahead with schools, promising programming will be available as school budgets invariably shift.  Will you give to help ETC share this awesome story?