Argentine Open Theatre
Encyclopedia
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
Origins
The theatre in Argentina had developed alongside the nation's emergence as a modern economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Independent and experimental theatreExperimental theatre
Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century as a retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream...
, however, had long endured in the shadows of commercial productions (for which Buenos Aires' Corrientes Avenue
Corrientes Avenue
Avenida Corrientes is one of the principal thoroughfares of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. The street is intimately tied to the tango and the porteño sense of identity...
became particularly well known). Many of the playwrights prominent in this movement were also politically opinionated, and their plays' left-leaning subtext were frowned upon by powerful figures in the Argentine military and the publishing sector, alike. Increasing repression became a serious threat to artistic freedom in the years shortly before and during the country's last dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
.
Opportunity and peril
Intimidation and pressure were eased somewhat in 1980, however, with the support of the relatively moderate Army Chief, General Roberto Viola. Playwright Osvaldo DragúnOsvaldo Dragún
Osvaldo Dragún was a prominent Argentine playwright and theatre director.-Life and work:Osvaldo Dragún was born in Colonia Berro, a Jewish agricultural settlement in Entre Ríos Province, Argentina. After his father's linseed farm suffered from recurrent locust problems, the family left the...
seized the opportunity to organize a new theatre movement, calling on fellow playwrights Roberto Cossa
Roberto Cossa
Roberto Cossa is a prominent Argentine playwright and theatre director.-Life and work:Roberto Cossa was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and raised in the quiet residential borough of Villa del Parque. He first performed in theatre at the age of 17 and, in 1957, he and friends founded the San...
and Carlos Gorostiza
Carlos Gorostiza
Carlos Gorostiza is a prominent Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist.-Life and work:Carlos Gorostiza was born to Basque Argentine parents in the upscale Buenos Aires borough of Palermo...
, as well as renowned theatre actors Luis Brandoni
Luis Brandoni
Luis Brandoni is an Argentine film and television actor. Politically active in the centrist Radical Civic Union , he was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in 1993, where he served until, 2001...
, Jorge Rivera López and Pepe Soriano
Pepe Soriano
Pepe Soriano is a prominent Argentine actor and playwright.-Life and work:Soriano was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina...
. They purchased a shuttered sparkplug factory on Santos Discépolo Way (a pedestrianized backstreet in the crowded Balvanera
Balvanera
Balvanera is a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Origin of Name and Alternative Names:The official name, Balvanera, is the name of the parroquia centered around the church of Nuestra Señora de Balvanera, erected in 1831.The zone around Corrientes avenue is known as Once after Plaza Once de...
district of Buenos Aires) into the "Picadero Theatre." Honored by the presence and support of Nobel
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is an Argentine sculptor, architect and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize.-Biography:Pérez Esquivel was born in Buenos Aires to a Spanish fisherman who emigrated to Argentina...
and writer Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato , was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America"...
, the group announced, in a May 12, 1981, press conference, the establishment of the Teatro Abierto Argentino - the "Argentine Open Theatre."
Sensitive both to the repressive climate and to the sharp economic crisis
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz was an Argentine executive and policy maker. He served as Minister of the Economy under de facto President Jorge Rafael Videla between 1976 and 1981, and shaped economic policy during the self-styled National Reorganization Process military dictatorship.-Early...
, playwright Carlos Somigliana penned the Open Theatre's mission statement, declaring that:
Being the theatre the cultural and social phenomenon that it is, we shall strive to recover the public at large with productions of great quality and modestly priced tickets.
They premiered their first festival on July 28, 1981, featuring Cossa's Gris de ausencia (Pale of Absence), Dragún's Mi obelisco y yo (My Obelisk
Obelisk of Buenos Aires
The Obelisk of Buenos Aires is a national historic monument and icon of Buenos Aires. Located in the Plaza de la República, in the intersection of avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio, it was built to commemorate the fourth centenary of the first foundation of the city.In order to enrich the...
and Me), and Gorostiza's El acompañamiento (The Entourage) among the evening's repertoire. During an August 6 performance, however, three fire bombs were set off in the theatre, casting doubts on the company's viability (the incident remains one of Argentina's best-known "unsolved mysteries"). Sixteen prominent Buenos Aires theatres offered them their stages, however, and the Open Theatre relocated to the larger Tabaris Theatre, a Corrientes Avenue landmark known for its revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
. The Open Theatre reopened two days later and its 1981 season ran until September 21, featuring 21 directors, over 150 cast and crew, and bringing together some 25,000 spectators. Organizer Osvaldo Dragún delared that "today the open theatre belongs to the entire nation."
Winning back the streets
The ongoing economic collapse and replacement of President Viola for the hard-line General Leopoldo GaltieriLeopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship . The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him...
led the company to plan the 1982 season with more precautions. Playwrights were invited to submit works well in advance, and the repertoire was expanded to include works of experimental theatre
Experimental theatre
Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century as a retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream...
. Playwright Ricardo Monti contributed to the effort by publishing the "Open Theatre Magazine," a quarterly publication. The magazine provided a forum for potential participants as much as it prudently kept authorities abreast of its developments. Other fund-raising efforts included a coffee-table book, Teatro Abierto 1981, which sold 8,000 copies. None of the participants accepted compensation beyond covering their personal expenses related to the event, and any surplus profits were returned to the struggling company's fund.
The Open Theatre's 1982 season, whose slogan was "winning back the streets," opened in late September with Dragún's Al violador (To the Rapist), Eugenio Griffero's provocative look at gay life in Argentina, Príncipe azul (Blue Prince), and Somigliana's daring criticism of the military, Oficial primero ("Commissioned Officer"), among other works from 30 other directors. Controversy ensued, however, when a number of well-known directors' works were passed over, notably Pacho O'Donnell
Pacho O'Donnell
Mario O'Donnell , best known as Pacho O'Donnell, is an Argentine writer, politician and physician who specializes in psychoanalysis....
's; negative national sentiment on the heels of the disastrous Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
helped further dampen interest in the season, which closed in November.
The 1983 season was produced in the Margarita Xirgu Theatre amid Argentina's imminent return to democracy
Argentine general election, 1983
The Argentine general election of 1983 was held on 30 October and marked the return of Democracy after the 1976's dictatorship self-known as National Reorganization Process...
, and its featured plays were more politically daring than those of the two previous seasons. Dragún's Hoy se comen al flaco (Today They'll Take the Skinny Guy) headlined the opening night on September 24, and other works included odes to tragedies in Chile
Chile under Pinochet
Chile was ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 when Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat until 1990 when the Chilean transition to democracy began. The authoritarian military government was characterized by systematic suppression of political parties and...
and Nicaragua
Nicaraguan Revolution
The Nicaraguan Revolution encompasses the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front which led to the violent ousting of that dictatorship in 1979, and the...
. Banned by the dictatorship, murga
Murga
Murga is a form of popular musical theatre performed in Uruguay and in Argentina during the Carnival season. Murga groups operate in Montevideo and at the Buenos Aires Carnival, though to a lesser extent than in Montevideo; the Argentine murga is more centred on dancing and less on vocals than the...
s were included in the season as theatrical works. The carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
-like marches often paraded out of the theatre house, itself, and often included banned left-wing themes. The season concluded with a murga marching against censorship, and the burning of an effigy of censorship ("La Censurona").
The theatre strikes back
El teatrazo ("The Attack of the Theatre") as the slogan of the 1984 season was thought of by its organizers as way to "share our opinion in the context of liberty." The return of democracy, however, also helped deprive the festival of its status as the leading forum for artistic defiance of a repressive regime; indeed, one of the Open Theatre's leading figures, Carlos GorostizaCarlos Gorostiza
Carlos Gorostiza is a prominent Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist.-Life and work:Carlos Gorostiza was born to Basque Argentine parents in the upscale Buenos Aires borough of Palermo...
, had been appointed Secretary of Culture by newly elected President Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
. Following the failure of the 1984 season, musch of which was cancelled, the company dedicated its 1985 season to young playwrights. That season featured works from throughout Latin America
Latin American literature
Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and indigenous languages of the Americas. It rose to particular prominence globally during the second half of the 20th century, largely due to the...
and, opening on September 21, it was more successful than its predecessor; but a sixth season was cancelled, leaving the Open Theatre a place in Argentine history as "a modest popular resistance and, among the cultural ones, the most visible."