OGDEN — Sarah Grunnah is on a mission — to disrupt what she sees as the "exclusiveness" of William Shakespeare's artistry and broaden the appeal of the English playwright.

"Shakespeare in the UK, and in this country too, is kind of the epitome of English language literature, of the upper class, of whiteness and of privilege, too," the assistant theater professor at Weber State said. "For me, that invites disruption, especially in this increasingly global world in which we live and in Ogden, too."

Accordingly, she has helped craft and produce a bilingual, Spanish-English adaptation of his play, "The Winter's Tale," and the revisioned work, "Ella Se Mueve/She Stirs," will be performed Friday in Ogden. The production, lasting about an hour, will be performed at Dumke Arts Plaza, an outdoor venue at 445 25th St. in Ogden, starting at 5:30 p.m.

The premise of "The Winter's Tale" includes a jealous husband who worries his wife is cheating on him with his best friend. Injecting Spanish into the reimagined version of the work, Grunnah made the husband an English speaker and his wife and best friend bilingual, the root of the jealousy. "His wife and his best friend have this shared linguistic background, so those two only speak Spanish with each other. The premise for this version of this play is that the jealousy is spurred by a shared cultural heritage," she said.

The reimagined version of the work is germane on varied levels, as Grunnah sees it. In addition to her Weber State connection as an assistant theater professor, two Weber State students and two recent Weber State graduates are in the cast of six.

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Weber State is pursuing Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution status, Grunnah said, "And I think we owe it to our community to make art in ways that are going to reach as many people as possible." Emerging-Hispanic Serving Institution status, when Hispanic student enrollment reaches 15%, is a key step toward becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which opens federal funding opportunities.

Grunnah also alluded to the sizable Latino community in Ogden, around 30% of the population, as well as Shakespeare's "privileged spot in the canon" of English literature.

"I'm interested in destabilizing this Anglophone dominance in Shakespeare studies and Shakespeare performance," she said. Inserting Spanish into the play is more than just a plot development tool, she went on, "It's about de-centering that privilege, that cultural elitism."

Though Grunnah studied 17th-century Spanish-language drama as part of her doctorate studies, she got outside help in coming up with the Spanish-language passages in her version of "The Winter's Tale." "Ella Se Mueve/She Stirs" is shorter than Shakespeare's original, with 30% to 50% in Spanish and the balance in English.

Though not everyone who sees the work may speak both English and Spanish, she thinks most will still understand what's happening in the play. "But I'm also comfortable with monolingual, English-only speakers not understanding the Spanish because we've had such a long history of privileging English-language speakers, and I think this is an opportunity for those who are bilingual, those who only speak Spanish, to feel like they have a place with this ... literature," she said.

Moreover, she thinks art shouldn't always be "clear and understandable on the surface" and that using two languages plays into that philosophy. "I think art that makes us ask questions is more interesting," she said.

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