Latin American Theater Today:  

Aesthetics and Performance

Obelisco - Foto: Game Of Light

Project Director:

Dr. Gustavo Geirola, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Whittier College, Los Angeles, CA.

Project Co-Director:

Dr. Lola Proaño Gómez, Emeritus Professor - 

Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California.

Summer Seminar:

For College and University Teachers and Ph.D. Candidates

Elegitiby

• Full time and adjunct teachers with Ph.D. who are teaching Latin American Theater.
• Graduate students and ABDs in Modern Languages and Theater Departments with emphasis in Latin American Theater.
• Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have resided in the United States or its territories for at least three years immediately preceding the application deadline.
• Participants must be able to speak and understand Spanish.
• In order to promote an interdisciplinary debate, we invite scholars with expertise in acting, setting, and lighting techniques and/or costume designs.

Stipends: 

For NEH Seminar Participants: $3,300 (taxable and  intended to help cover project expenses).

Application Deadline:

March 2, 2015

Notification date:

March 30, 2015

Project Dates:

June 15 - July 10, 2015 (4 weeks)

Location:

Buenos Aires - Argentina

For more information: 

Dr. Gustavo Geirola
ggeirola@whittier.edu
Ph: (562) 907-4200 Ext. 4314

Onsite Consulant at Whittier College:

Shuna Holmes 

Authorized Representative Official for Whittier College, 

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Ph: (562) 907-4200  Ext: 5083

sholmes@whittier.edu

Brief Description

Location

Buenos Aires is the Argentine capital city; since 1994 it is now known as Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires). It is one of the most visited cities in South America, and one of the most important, largest and most populous of South American capitals, often referred to as the Paris of South America. It also has a very dynamic urban cultural life.

Theater

The most impressive aspect of Buenos Aires is the variety and quality of its theatrical production; also remarkable are its other cultural activities such as exhibitions, lectures, concerts and conferences. The monthly theatrical offerings comprise around four hundred plays, that encompass commercial theater, independent and alternative theater and Communitarian Theater. Theater groups from many other Latin American cities—and other companies from all over the world—regularly visit Buenos Aires as part of their tours, particularly for its international festivals. Theater productions run every day from mid afternoon to late at night, allowing spectators to enjoy a variety of genres, authors, and aesthetical trends.

Seminar

In our Summer Seminar in Buenos Aires in 2015 we propose to explore in detail Latin American theater from the 1990s to the present. 

The Seminar directors are excited at the prospect of being able to share their knowledge of and familiarity with this magnificent world with the participants of the Seminar. Gustavo Geirola is an Argentinean with ample knowledge of the Argentinean theater world, and Lola Proaño has studied Argentinean Theater since 1990 and is currently living in Buenos Aires.

We propose to explore in detail Latin American theater from the 1990s to the present.  Many changes have occurred when current Latin American theater is compared to the previous decades. We want to focus on these changes and debate the new trends which are emerging after some years of democratization in the region. For example, the figure of the author is re-emerging, and is also being redefined under different conditions; some theater groups go “from the sociological notion of collective creation to the aesthetic and ideological notion of a creative collective, a collectivity of meaning and a collective subject of enunciation” (Pavis, Dictionary 63 [see General Bibliography]) as can be seen in the experience of Communitarian Theater (Proaño 2013). The new economic and political conditions in Latin American, promoted by globalization and Neoliberal policies during the so-called period of democratization, have transformed the ways in which theater artists in Latin America conceive space, writing and dramatic text, the conceptualization of the body, the ways of performing and producing, the topics they confront and debate, the audience to whom they appeal, the use of technology, among many others aspects. Our Seminar will explore all the controversial issues related to this new historical circumstance.

 Come to the Theatre

“Vení al teatro” [Como to the Theater] Short TV Promotional Advertisement by AADET (Asociación Argentina de Empresarios Teatrales); 

the best actors in Argentina participate in it.

                                         

We invite scholars to join us in Buenos Aires and participate in our Seminar; it will be a great intellectual, cultural and linguistic experience for all of them and for us.