2024-07-16 06:10:06
“Going to the theater with family or friends is part of the Argentine idiosyncrasy,” says Natalia Gualtieri, a drama professor at the University of El Salvador.
This passion of Argentines for theater is part of their daily life. Some seek entertainment, others are looking for thrills and still others want to deepen their reflections on the realities of the moment and how to question them.
Natalia Gualtieri, who has written, produced and directed plays, estimates that in Buenos Aires alone, more than 600,000 people attend the 187 theaters each year. In the country as a whole, she says, the figure exceeds 4.3 million spectators who attend more than 1,500 theaters.
This former director of the dramaturgy department at the University of Salvador distinguishes between two theatrical variants in Argentina: commercial theater that stages international authors and artists recognized by the media, Broadway musicals or productions by national authors.
In these spaces, the emphasis is not so much on the author himself or the country of origin of the play, but rather on the dramatic situation it proposes. In the news, humor is fashionable with many French, British and American comedies. She cites as an example the famous Colon Theater, built in 1888, which specializes in opera and ballet, and the San Martin and Cervantes theaters, which have a predilection for classical works.
The second variant that Natalia Gualtieri calls “under or off” includes plays with a more poetic, intellectual and avant-garde content that are performed in venues scattered throughout the capital’s neighborhoods. “They are on every street corner and their audience, neither massive nor too small, is made up of theater students, artists and intellectuals.”
At the origins of this enthusiasm of the Argentines for the theatrical practice, Natalia Gualtieri identifies two stages. The European stage with the first plays from the Spanish or French golden age during the fight for independence, and the national stage itself, which was born in 1789 with the play “Siripo” by Manuel José de Lavarden. This play was performed in the first theater space of the country founded on November 30, 1783, a date retained since 1979 as “National Theater Day” in Argentina.
Natalia Gualtieri lists the topics addressed by Argentine playwrights that delight viewers. “Family relationships, emotional ties, socio-economic problems that lead to the evaporation of dreams and, at specific moments in history, authoritarianism, censorship and persecution,” she says, adding that in current events, screenwriters focus on debates around the role of women and gender violence.
For Natalia Gualtieri, the most notable Argentine playwrights are Javier Daulte (The Seers), Rafael Spregelburd (Hell), Mauricio Kartun (The Comic Screw) and Hector Levy-Daniel (whose play “The Bitter Fruit” is currently being performed in the United States under the direction of Philip Boehm), although she recognizes a weakness for the work of Lisandro Fiks (especially his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play “An Enemy of the People”).
In this context, Natalia Gualtieri highlights the role of theatre in raising questions and contributing to debates. She says she is in favour of “thematic theatre that questions human beings and their role in society. I like everyday themes (…) with funny and intelligent dialogues and, above all, those that address the world of women”.
To preserve the theatrical heritage and continue to nourish this flame of the Argentines for the theater, Natalia Gualtieri recommends that the cultural authorities of her country be attentive to the problems of the new generations, to integrate new technologies into the staging and above all to update the works of the classics.
She advises making efforts so that the tradition and mystique of the theater is not lost and that the history and trajectory of Argentine artists is disseminated, without the theatrical language being so foreign to the younger generations.
2024-07-16 06:10:06