Global IssuesIndependent Theatre Flourishing in Buenos Aires
Independent theatre productions are mushrooming in basements, small theatres, garages or private residences throughout the Argentine capital, and sometimes even making it big across borders.
'Buenos Aires is becoming the Latin American capital of independent theatre, and foreign tourists are surprised by the variety offered,' Carlos Andrada, with the city government's Proteatro Institute, which foments independent theatre, told IPS.
Although the people involved include actors and directors who have become popular in the world of commercial theatre, films or television, most of the participants make a living in other jobs and professions and take part in the plays for the sheer love of art.
According to Proteatro, there are six public theatres, 12 private commercial theatres -- which receive no government subsidies -- and 200 independent theatres, 70 percent of which are actually unconventional spaces like warehouses, private homes or abandoned factories.
One of the better-known independent theatres is 'El excéntrico de la 18', directed by actress Cristina Banegas, which also offers acting classes. Another is 'Timbre 4', which operates out of the home of actor and director Carlos Tolcachir and is also a school for actors.
Tolcachir directs the multi-award-winning play 'La omisión de la familia Coleman' (The Coleman Family's Omission), which opened five years ago in his performance space, reached by walking down a long, narrow corridor in complete silence, so as not to bother the neighbours.
The play has been performed at a number of international festivals, and next month is going on tour, to Sao Paulo in Brazil and then on to Madrid and Barcelona in Spain and, finally, in Paris, where it will be performed with French subtitles.
Based on that success, Tolcachir made it to the commercial circuit, and is now directing 'Agosto', an adaptation of August: Osage County, a dark comedy by Tracy Letts, starring Academy Award-nominated Argentine actress Norma Aleandro, and 'Todos eran mis hijos', an adaptation of Arthur Miller's 1947 classic play All My Sons.
Both plays, whose casts include renowned actors, have been hugely popular.
But there are also hundreds of small underground theatres that are not on the Proteatro Institute's list but offer the public a variety of experiences, from adaptations of well-known works to innovative new plays or performance art.
Theatre buffs can visit 'El Sótano' or 'Espacio Polonia', among many others. 'I like the Bravard,' actor Iair Said told IPS, referring to the 'Club de Teatro Defensores de Bravard', which offers, for example, scenes from the 'Ciclo de sketches solemnes' (Cycle of Solemn Sketches).
Said, at the age of 22, has already been involved in theatre for nine years. Besides being an actor, he is also a playwright and conducts castings, but he has found it difficult to make a living in the world of theatre. He has also worked in a money exchange house and at a travel agency.
'I really love collective creativity, but sometimes I think that in order to do theatre you have to be middle- or upper-middle-class, or you have to work in some other job to make a living, which isn't easy for an actor,' he said.
'It's hard for those of us who are involved in theatre to do something totally different because we wear our emotions on our sleeves, and it's difficult for us to do things that we don't like,' said Said, who performs in 'Jorge', a play that can be seen on Sundays at 'El excéntrico de la 18'.
'Jorge' emerged as a series of experimental scenes put on by actors from the same acting school. It began to be performed in 2009 on what is known here as the 'off' theatre circuit, and word-of-mouth has kept it going for months.
Very few actors actually earn money in independent theatre. Proteatro has an annual budget of just under one million dollars for independent theatres with stable casts. But there are more and more theatres, requests for funds are growing steadily, while the city government institute's budget remains the same, Andrada said.
To give an idea of the magnitude of the phenomenon, the official said that in 2008, 380 projects applied for government funds, 530 in 2009, and 480 already this year.
Independent theatres barely cover the cost of putting on a play, without even paying for rehearsals or paying copyright fees. And actors and directors rarely receive a portion of box office earnings. Sometimes actors even have to pay to participate.
One beneficiary of the Proteatro funds is Luis Di Carlo, an actor, playwright and director who obtained a subsidy to put on 'Vivarium' at the Teatro del Abasto this year. The play was popular with the public and received good reviews.
But one thing is clear, as the director, who makes a living tutoring math students, says: 'If it's independent theatre, you're not doing it to earn money. Success merely means that you can keep doing it.'
Di Carlo, who has performed in a number of independent plays over the last 20 years, says the 'off' circuit combines a great need on the part of actors and directors to express themselves with a good space for experimentation.
Another factor that explains the boom in the independent theatre movement is the cultural diversity of a city 'that is a universe unto itself,' he comments to IPS. In each neighbourhood, theatre has its own identity, 'whether it's more grassroots or more intellectual,' he says.
There are other reasons as well, he said, like the appreciation of the public, which enjoys innovative works and does not care if the performance space is small, the chairs are hard and uncomfortable, the locale is in a rundown neighbourhood, or there is no nice restaurant just around the corner.
And of course there is history, Di Carlo points out. 'Buenos Aires is a city with a vibrant nightlife and a very strong tradition of theatre that has never disappeared, not even in times of obscurantism, when the phenomenon remained latent,' he said.
One particularly difficult time for theatre was the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, which nevertheless, in its final stretch, saw the birth of 'Teatro Abierto' (Open Theatre), which later influenced other art forms like protest songs against the regime that claimed 30,000 victims of forced disappearance.
It was followed by 'Parakultural', a current that got off to a timid start at the restoration of democracy in 1983, in basements and other unconventional spaces, but led to the emergence of actors who went on to became famous.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service