ARGENTINA: Theatre's Far Fringe Gaining Spaces

• by Marcela Valente (buenos aires)
• Wednesday, February 23, 2011
• Inter Press Service

The new playhouses are located in actors' and directors' homes, but also in rented warehouses, former shop premises, abandoned factories and other spaces that do not meet the requirements for official approval as theatres.

According to official information, Buenos Aires has six theatres belonging to the state, 12 private commercial theatres, and more than 200 venues for independent theatre, over 70 percent of which are unconventional locales.

'We want to work without a predetermined format, and the imposition of costly and tiresome requirements for official approval interferes with experimentation and the creation of new dramatic languages,' actress Nayla Pose told IPS.

Pose shares the experimental Teatro El Brío premises with her husband, acting instructor and director Claudio Quinteros. The couple's living space is on the upper level, and spectators feel they are being welcomed into a home.

'Even when the owners of the venues don't live there, there is something about these spaces that makes people feel they have been invited into a living room, where they are offered a glass of wine or allowed to linger and chat after the play,' Pose said.

Quinteros and Pose, who rent their theatre-living space, began the process of obtaining official approval for the theatre two-and-a-half years ago, but have not succeeded yet. If they have to leave, after all the conversion work, they will have lost their investment.

Up to mid-2010, the fact that they had started the process to gain a permit allowed them to operate provisionally. But then a night club in the city collapsed, killing two people, and a clampdown began on all venues open to the public.

'They threatened to close us down; we had to take our sign off the door and shut down the websites where we publicised our plays,' Pose said. However, the wave of City of Buenos Aires government inspectors did have a positive effect.

A score of owners of alternative theatres started to meet, under the name of Espacios Escénicos Autónomos (ESCENA - Autonomous Stage Spaces), and in December they achieved approval of a new statute that kept them from having to go underground.

The first ESCENA communiqué proclaimed that Buenos Aires is one of the world's cultural capitals, largely because of its independent theatre and dance performances, and to promote this distinctive brand the government should not close venues but, on the contrary, assist their creation and preservation.

'We didn't want to have to go underground; what we do is for others to see,' Pose said. The new statute adapts the requirements, focusing basically on safety regulations while laying aside superfluous demands, and allows more time to meet requirements.

It will no longer be compulsory to have a condom vending machine in bathrooms, or to have a parking lot or car park near the theatre. And the venues will be able to put on plays while official permission is being processed.

ESCENA member Martín Seijo told IPS that the cost of fitting out a theatre to the official standards are so high that unless the project is on a sound commercial footing, it has to close down.

'The owners are actors or directors who have these performance spaces as places to experiment in, to expand the aesthetic values of their productions and to reflect on theatre and acting,' he said.

Seijo does not own a venue, but he heads the Colectivo Teatral (Theatrical Collective), which organises debates on the alternative scene. ESCENA brings together those responsible for spaces of reflection, as well as physical premises.

The new statute, whose details have yet to be worked out, 'has reduced the level of harassment,' he said. But more importantly, the alternative spaces have gained recognition as new players on the theatre scene. 'Now we can sit down at the negotiating table,' he added.

Seijo said the alternative theatres are not-for-profit, but they do need subsidies or financing in order to meet safety requirements, be included in public listings and organise joint purchases of materials.

Otherwise, these unconventional performance spaces offering productions that are appreciated by the public, theatre critics, university departments and international festivals are doomed to disappear.

Pose explained that she had acted for seven years in a play that was put on at an independent theatre, in the so-called 'off' circuit in Buenos Aires. Although the venue met the requirements for official approval, the managers' focus began to change.

'If the house wasn't full the show wouldn't make a profit, so the play would be cancelled,' she said. So at the fringes of the alternative theatre scene, the new unconventional 'off-off' venues arose.

These independent playhouses can survive on ticket sales of barely 400 pesos (100 dollars) a weekend. 'What we want is to earn respect for our experimental approach, to show that we exist, and that there are many spaces offering this quality of theatre,' Pose said.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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