Myrna Casas

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Myrna Casas
Born(1934-01-02)January 2, 1934
San Juan, Puerto Rico
DiedNovember 9, 2022(2022-11-09) (aged 88)
OccupationProfessor, writer and playwright
NationalityPuerto Rico
Alma materVassar College,
Boston University College of Fine Arts,
New York University

Myrna Casas (January 2, 1934 – November 9, 2022) was a Puerto Rican experimental playwright, director, actress, and theatre scholar.[1][2] She was the co-founder and artistic director of the company Producciones Cisne.[3]

Early life

Casas was born in San Juan to Carmen Busó Carrasquillo and Sixto Casas Semidei. She studied Drama at Vassar College, graduating in 1954, and earned a master's degree in acting at Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1961. She went on to study at New York University where she obtained a doctorate in Theatre education in 1974.[4]

Career

A member of the sixties generation, Casas's work addressed Puerto Rican national identity through both absurdist and realist plays.[5] She also explored the themes of women in patriarchal societies, as in her play Eugenia Victoria Herrera.[6] Her 1988 play The Great Ukrainian Circus (El gran circo Ucraniano) has been performed regularly and examined by scholars.[7]

Casas for many years taught at the University of Puerto Rico in the drama department, which she also directed for several years.[4][8] She acted in the 1950s and served in the San Juan municipal assembly from 1996 to 2000.[4]

In June 2022, the Columbia University Libraries acquired Casas's papers, including her original annotated manuscripts of all plays written since 1960, as part of its Latino Art and Activism Archives.[9]

Personal life and death

Casas died on a November 9, 2022, at the age of 88. She was buried at the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.[10]

Works

Casas wrote more than 30 plays, including:[4]

  • Cristal roto en el tiempo (A Glass Broken in Time) – 1960
  • Eugenia Victoria Herrera – 1964
  • Absurdos en soledad – 1964
  • La trampa (The Trap) – 1974
  • No todas lo tienen (They Don't All Have It) – 1975[8]
  • Al garete
  • Cuarenta años después (Forty Years Later) – 1976
  • Crónicas de obsesión
  • Tres noches tropicales (Three Tropical Nights)
  • Juegos de obsesión
  • Las reinas del Chantecler
  • El gran circo Ucraniano (The Great Ukrainian Circus) – 1988[8] (winner of the National Dramaturgy award of the Circle of Puerto Rican Drama Critics)[4]
  • Este país no existe (This Country Doesn't Exist) – 1993[11]

Casas also wrote an opera libretto, El mensajero de plata.[4]

Honors

Casas received honors from the

SOGEM (Sociedad de Escritores de México) (1990).[3]

In 2019 the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón dedicated the celebration of World Theatre Day to Casas.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Myrna Casas - Oxford Reference". www.oxfordreference.com. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  2. ^ "Myrna Casas". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  3. ^ a b "Myrna Casas". Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Casas, Myrna - Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico.
  5. ISBN 9780791432051
    .
  6. ISBN 9789027284754
    .
  7. JSTOR 4141051
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780313290411
    .
  9. ^ "Rare Book & Manuscript Library Acquires the Archive of Playwright Myrna Casas – News from Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library". blogs.cul.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  10. ^ "Fallece la dramaturga Myrna Casas". NotiCentro. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  11. S2CID 145399818
    .
  12. ^ Integradas, Comunicaciones (2019-03-19). "Dedican Día Mundial del Teatro a Myrna Casas". inSagrado (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-11-10.
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