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Twentieth Century
Experimental Theatre and Performance in Chile MAY 2000
TEATRO EXPERIMENTAL CHILE’S
UNIVERSITY THEATRE 1937-1973 Teatro Experimental was
founded in the 1930's by a group of students and professors at the
University of Chile in Santiago. The impetus for this experimental movement
was twofold. First there was a desire to present the public with socially
relevant drama as opposed to the offerings of the commercial theatre.
Second, there was a wish to promote the growth of a contemporary national
drama. The company created its own need for more plays and in this manner
provided an incentive for Chilean dramatists to write. In order to
present polished performances, the establishment of a school to train
actors, directors, and technical personal quickly followed. The group
toured Chile and founded theatres in Antofagosta, Rancagua, San Fernando,
Chillán, and Concepción. Government funding, channeled through the
university, was given with no known strings attached. In
1959 Teatro Experimental became the Instituto del Teatro de la Universidad
de Chile (ITUCH). The members obtained civil service status through their
employment at the university. By the 1960s they created a Union Commission.
The purpose of this unit was to take theatre to the labor centers.
Television became a popular outlet for entertainment by 1967, and along
with a contented middle class, attendance at theatre performances dropped. Although
most of the plays produced were Eurocentric classics or Chilean plays
written with American and European influences in style and themes, Teatro
Experimental was instrumental in setting the stage for the political and
socially relevant theatre that would blossom at the latter part of the
century. If Teatro Experimental had not been permitted to carry out its
objectives, would these dramatists and their plays have existed? It is most
unlikely. Schools, scholarships to study abroad, and the opportunity of
seeing their works staged by competent actors, directors, and stage
technicians were available only because Teatro Experimental had taken that
first step and other groups had followed their example. The
list that follows is a selected bibliography to enable research into this
particular time period of Chilean theatre history. Lourdes Gautier
Malakhow Please direct queries to: e-mail LAGMTNECK@aol.com SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (1937 - 1973) Alegría,
Fernando. "Chile’s Experimental Theater." Interamerican,
IV no. 10 (October 1945), 24-25,
44-45. Díaz, Jorge.
"Reflections on the Chilean Theater." The Drama Review, 14 no. 2
(Winter 1970), 84-86. Durán Cerda,
Julio. "Actuales Tendencias del Teatro Chileno." Revista Interamericana
de Bibliografía, 13 (1963). _______.
"El Teatro en Las Tareas Revolucionarias de la Independencia de
Chile." Anales de la Universidad de Chile. (1960), 118-19,
227-235. Ehrmann, Hans.
"Theater in Chile: A Middle-Class Conundrum." The Drama Review,
14 no. 2 (Winter 1970), 77-83. Hancock, Anson
U. A History of Chile. Chicago: Charles H. Sergel and Co., 1983. Hurtado, Maria
de la Luz, Ochsenius, Carlos and, Vidal, Hernan. Teatro chileno de la
crisis institucional: 1973-1980 (Antología crítica). Minneapolis and
Santiago: Minnesota Latin American Series and CENECA, 1982. Jones, Willis
Knapp. "Chile’s Drama Renaissance." Hispania, 44 (1961),
89-94. _______.
"Chile Mirrored in Its Theater." Pan American, (May 1945),
26-30. _______.
"The Chilean Huaso Everybody Knows." Pan American, (March
1945), 34-36. Juricic, Zlatko
Brncic. "Historia del Teatro en Chile." Anales de la
Universidad de Chile, (1952), 85-88, 113-169. Kinsbruner, Jay.
Chile: A Historical Interpretation. New York: Harper and Row, 1973. Latcham,
Ricardo A. "Curtain Time in Chile: Teatro Experimental Pioneered New
Movement to Stimulate Chilean’s Interest in Good Theater." Americas,
4 no. 9 (1952), 16-19. Mora, Gabriela.
"Notas Sobre el Teatro Chileno Actual." Revista Interamericana
de Bibliografía, 18 no. 4 (October-December, 1968), 415-21. Petit,
Magdalena. "The Little Theater in Chile." Bulletin of the Pan
American Union, 83 (1948), 560-65. Rela, Walter. Contribución
a la Bibliografía del Teatro Chileno: 1804-1960. Montevideo:
Universidad de la Republica, 1960. Solórzano,
Carlos. Teatro Breve Hispanoamericano. Madrid, Spain: Aguilar, 1967. _______.
"The Contemporary Latin American Theater." Prairie Schooner,
39 no. 4 (1965), 118-25. Teatro
Chileno Actual. Santiago de Chile: Zig Zag, 1966. Woodyard,
George W. "The Theater of the Absurd in Spanish America." Comparative
Drama, 3 (1969), 183-92.
Links www.uchile.cl/facultades/artes/teatro_nacional/historia.htm http://www.tercera.cl/sitios/mujer/archivo/884-18.09.99/884B.html |