Theater existed for pre-colonial peoples of Colombia, as it did for the ancient Greeks; as religious ceremony, celebrating gods and related to seasons, wars, and harvests – and on occasions even incorporating human sacrifices. The arrival of the Spanish introduced western theater to the New World, though apart from Opera, Romanticism, and other European genres, it too was mostly religious and pedagogical in nature. The 19th century; however, introduced more ambitiously secular and historical themes, especially in the costumbrismo style brought over from Spain which focused on the daily lives of the common population. Some of the more notable authors during this time include Luis Vargas Tejada, José María Samper and José María Vergara y Vergara.

However, it was not until the early 20th century that a distinctly Colombian theatre came into being through the efforts of Antonio Alvarez Lleras and Luis Enríque Osorio who wrote politically themed, realistic plays. They also trained actors, produced theater journals, and sponsored companies, all of which laid the foundation for the new directions Colombian theater was to take in the years that followed.

Indeed, in the period following World War II Colombian artists, influenced by European existentialists and the experimental works of Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht, felt even more emboldened to tackle ideological themes, while the cataclysmic events from 1948 to 1955 known as La Violencia ended the popularity of the more genteel costumbrismo of the previous century.

In Medellín an Experimental Theatre of the Institute of Fine Arts questioned the bourgeois values of Colombian culture, exploring such issues as racism, class inequality, and historical oppression, and often doing so in an abstract manner, with characters identified as numbers or symbols as an index of their dehumanization. Some theater groups revived elements of pre-Columbian ceremony in theater as a means of honoring the heretofore devalued indigenous culture.

In addition to Brecht and Artaud, writers and directors such as Enrique Buenaventura and Santiago García, who had lived in Paris and Prague, also imported the vanguard innovations of Stanislavski and Grotowski to Colombian culture, with art that was simultaneously more realistic (especially in acting) but more experimental and modernist in its staging.

The success of the Communist revolution in Cuba was yet another notable historical factor in the evolution of Colombian theater, inspiring a generation of university-based young writers, actors, and directors, many calling themselves the Nuevo Teatro, to create newer forms of community-based, cooperatively-created theater that addressed the needs and issues of the people, particularly the poor, minorities, and the disenfranchised, and became widely popular. These works incorporated elements of folklore and revisionist views of history. One of the most popular of these works was the play, “I Took Panama,” staged by the Teatro Popular de Bogotá, regarding Colombia’s loss of Panama through the interventionist policies of Theodore Roosevelt.

However, due to the left-leaning bent of this movement, many of the artists involved had to struggle with government censorship and harassment. Buenaventura and García were both dismissed from their university positions, and some theater companies were shut down on charges of "subversion."

The 1980s saw a resurgence of more conventionally scripted drama, particularly as paramilitary and cartel violence resulted in a decline in the popularity of activist theater. Argentinean actress Fanny Mikey successfully produced the works of Edward Albee and Neil Simon, and co-founded the Iberoamerican Theatre Festival, the largest of its kind in all of South America, attracting established repertories from all over the world, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in Bogotá, as well as in Medellín, Cali, and Cartagena a lively theatrical community still thrives.

Culture and Arts, Culture

By Ricardo Segreda

Growing up in New York, Rick Segreda used to cut out of high school in order to hang out at the Museum of Modern Art and catch foreign-language...

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