In the eclectic heart of Buenos Aires, a century-old building, with a façade that replicates the historic University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain, For more than eight decades, it has housed the Coliseum of Argentine Performing Arts: The Cervantes National Theater.
A theater with “an incredible history” and more than 100 years, which opened on September 5, 1921 as a commercial hall and that since 1936 has been the headquarters of the national theater “with a project for all the territories of Argentina”, he expresses to efe Jorge Dubatti, deputy director of the institution, critic, historian and author specialized in theater.
The initiative
“El Cervantes” was a project of the actress María Guerrero and her husband Fernando Díaz de Mendoza, owners of a Spanish theater company, with great success in Buenos Aires, who wanted to create in Argentina “an eminent center for the country’s culture and its connection with Spain.”
An initiative that enthused King Alfonso XIII himself, who ordered that all the cargo ships of his Government that arrived in the South American capital transport the essential artistic elements for “the Cervantes”.
It was thus that tiles, majolica, tapestries, ironwork, lamps and even a curtain embroidered with the shield of Buenos Aires, among many other materials, were made and sent from various Spanish cities, in “a desire for Argentina-Spain interculturality”.
But that great theatrical enterprise lasted only five years, since the high maintenance costs of the room generated a huge debt, and the couple had no choice but to put the property up for public auction.
Faced with the uncertain fate of the majestic coliseum, a group of local theater artists went to the then president of Argentina, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, who promoted the purchase of the building, which in 1936 would begin to function as the “National Comedy Theater”. A name that would definitely change to the current one in 1947, on the 500th anniversary of the birth of Cervantes.
Trajectory
On the trajectory of the theater throughout the years, Dubatti states that the history of “Cervantes” is “the history of successive projects, not only artistic, but also social and political in Argentina”, with one constant: “the search for a theater that can be thought of as representative of what is national, of what is Argentine”.
Author of the book Cervantes National Theatre, the first centurythe director comments on the difficulties he had to summarize the “incredible richness” of his story, and highlights, among other things, the great Argentine production, as well as the reception of international shows and festivals.
factory theater
As a national theater, “el Cervantes” contemplated from the beginning the production of all the elements of the scene, a philosophy that it maintains today: “We have here not only artistic casts and teams that are generating their shows, but also a stable body of workers, tailoring, set design, machinery, makeup, dressing rooms.”
Dubatti explains that the transmission of this “knowledge of the trade” is one of the recurring demands of theaters in the provinces where ‘el Cervantes’ has federal production or strengthening programs (‘Produce country’, ‘Federal Theater Network’).
“In this sense, ‘el Cervantes’ is much more than a room that produces shows, it is also a factory in the sense of production and dissemination of specific knowledge of the theater”he affirms, and highlights the fundamental role of workers in this.
next 100 years
“For the next century, which we are already doing, I believe in a very federal theater, connected to the whole country. A theater of innovation, which is at the forefront of experimentation, but which is also very attentive to the Argentine historical past”expresses the historian
“We have a marvelous theatrical culture that goes from the farce to the grotesque, the independent theatre, going through the Creole patio and the poetics of tango”, he stresses, while expressing the desire to work with these poetics, not only to preserve them, but also to resize them from contemporary discourse.
The manager imagines a Cervantes National Theater with a permanent system for publishing authors, history, surveys, a large research center spread throughout the country: “I think of it as a production plant that keeps pace with cultural, political, social and artistic changes as they occur, being, among other things, the protagonist of what we could call ‘avant-garde points’”he concludes. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
