Mexican playwright Tanya Saracho’s work is known for its rich, complex portraits of Latina women. Her latest play centers on the 17th-century Mexican nun and writer Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, known as “The Tenth Muse of Mexico.”

Commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, “The Tenth Muse” is currently running through Nov. 2 at the Angus Bowmer Theatre in Ashland. The play is the final show to open this season, rounding out OSF’s 2012-13 calendar.

“We are delighted to present Saracho’s poignant and life-affirming play,” said artistic director Bill Rauch in a news release. “Saracho broadens our world with her storytelling, infusing her writing with understanding, complexity and courage.”

Sor Juana was a self-taught scholar and famous poet who fell out of favor with the church after writing one of her most famous works, the proto-feminist document “Response to Sor Filothea.” According to the festival’s play guide, “Illuminations,” the writing “defended Juana’s right, and the right of all women, to an active intellectual life.”

The play is set in the Convent of San Jeronimo in 1715, 20 years after the death of Sor Juana. Three young women discover her literary treasures and begin secretly acting out one of the plays, “House of Desires.” As the convent struggles to keep the Inquisition at bay, the three women “discover the true cost women pay for raising their voices and the risks they are willing to take to preserve those voices,” according to the synopsis.

“That I am able to live my life as an artist is directly connected to Sor Juana and the generations of women who followed her,” said director Laurie Woolery in a news release.

Ticket prices for “The Tenth Muse” range from $25 to $86 for adults and $25 to $60.20 for children (ages 6 to 17), depending on seat location. To purchase tickets, visit www.osf ashland.org or call 800-219-8161.