Myrna Casas
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Myrna Casas | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 2, 1934 |
| Died | November 9, 2022 (aged 88) |
| Occupation | Professor, writer and playwright |
| Nationality | Puerto Rico |
| Alma mater | Vassar 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]
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] She has been compared to other Puerto Rican women in theatre, such as Victoria Espinosa and Gilda Navarra.[10]
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.[11]
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[12]
Casas also wrote an opera libretto, El mensajero de plata.[4]
