Schools and university's are growing and expanding in the early 16th century. Many people had more than one job, like the actor/dentist Joseph Anton Stranitzky for instance. It is important to be mindful of the multi-tasking and multi-talented - ness of these people. Don Garcia, for example, is (or was rather) a student we must keep in mind that even though it does not specifically say so in the script he almost certainly has done some extensive work in other areas.
According to http://www.answers.com/topic/joseph-anton-stranitzky, Stranitzky "was at first an itinerant actor, active in Nuremberg and Augsburg." He then moved into the area of directing and directed at the Kärtnertortheater company for the remainder of his life. He wrote himself into many of his plays that were based on classical Mythology. He often played the comic part of Hanswurst. Oh yeah and he was a qualified dentist in his spare time.

The Spanish Inquisition has just begun in early modern Spain and this script can be viewed as an expose of the times. Don Garcia is a compulsive liar which can be viewed as a socio-political reference to the 1630's.
Juan Ruiz de Alarcon was born in either 1580 or 1581 but it is uncertain. He was born in Tasco, Mexico where he was the son of a "mine expert and a woman of Spanish ancestry ramshackle". http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.dramateatro.arts.ve/ensayos/n_0010/verdad_sospechosa_ii.htm&ei=ZFe9SdSnHZGYsAPB_9w-&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dla%2Bverdad%2Bsospechosa%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4ADBR_enUS271US271
Alarcon got his degree in law and attempted to get a professorship three times but was denied each time. "It is at this moment when Alarcon becomes the protagonist of his own tragicomedy." (from the above mentioned essay). Unfortunately this article was originally written in spainish and the rest of the essay could not be translated by my computer. The essay did mention that Alarcon among other men were "examples of what is commonly called 'miscegenation', and that in essence means akot more." I looked up the definition of miscegenation and found that it is the "marriage of or producing children with a member from a different race." http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS271US271&defl=en&q=define:miscegenation&ei=2Vy9ScGBIIHasAPjoNRB&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
This may have had an impact on Alarcon and his writing.

The printing perss is what everybody was talking about in early modern england so they loved their words! This period in time gave us the works of Shakespeare, another wordy guy. Our script is a little redundant. Our Director has given me permission to make some cuts to the original script. Many of the longer lines will be reduced to a shorter more to the point version. The revised script is on the way.

School of Thought

In Early Modern England the tides were a changin! Royal families are starting to slowly loose their strangle-hold. The church is not as fundemental as it once was and there is funding for state academies! The very title of the play lends itself to the importance of these schools. In rehearsal and preparation for this show we need to keep this historical fact in mind as a central theme. Nadine Pederson (the director) has choosen to set the play as if the audience were students and the actors teachers as you know, this is because our modern day audience will be sitting quietly opposed to how the audience would have behaved when the play was written.