Drama and Theater in Puerto Rico

DRAMA AND THEATER IN PUERTO RICO THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN THEATER in Puerto Rico is brief, covering less than twenty-five years. It is the story of the dedication of a small group which has, in a relatively short time, made serious theater a reality. There is still much to be done, but the most difficult steps have been taken. Around these men, notably Emilio Belaval, Francisco Arrivi, Manuel Mendez Ballester and Rene Marques , must be written any serious attempt to present the state of Puerto Rican theater today. There are two key dates in the development of Puerto Rican theater: 1938, the year in which the Ateneo of Puerto Rico presented the first serious program of plays by native authors; and 1958, the date of the First Drama Festival. Prior to 1938, theater in Puerto Rico languished under the same handicaps which prevailed in most of Latin America. Theater consisted almost entirely of inferior comedy and bad melodrama presented by visiting Spanish companies. The acting style echoed the excesses of romanticism, and the organization of the companies around one leading figure tended to subordinate dramatic values to the commercial. The prompter's shell was probably the most important item in any presentation. The few sporadic attempts to do something representative of Puerto Rico were virtually ignored. Francisco Manrique Cabrera, who was himself active in the theater at this crucial moment, sees its beginnings in the amateur theatricals offered in the Casino de Puerto Rico, usually directed or otherwise sparked by Emilio Belaval. He also points out the significance of Fanindula Universitaria, a traveling group which tried to carry theater throughout the island. Contemporary with the amateur theater was a popular theater based on local types, a theater of grotesques and farces led by "Diplo," Ram6n Ortiz del Rivero. The constant mention of this figure by critics and dramatists leads one to suspect that the first movement towards a national theater may well have been inspired, at least in part, by the existence of this group. In his extremely valuable study of the origins of the Puerto Rican theater, The Generation of I930: The Theatre, Francisco Arrivi points out the significance of the political situation of the period in 177 178 MODERN DRAMA September relation to artistIc developments. "The Nationalist Party moved a large sector of the young intellectuals with its categorical affirmation of Puerto Rican nationality. On the other hand, the traditional parties tried to contain a growing desire for social reform which finally crystallized in the Popular Democratic Party. The national consciousness, partisan or not, put a stop to the process of Northamericanization and forced us to think of the historical and cultural roots of the country."l The result of this process was a series of studies of the social and cultural reality of Puerto Rico. Arrivi goes on to state that this "unstable conjunction of the national dream with socio-economic reflection served, I believe, as a motivating force for the most valuable literature of the period."2 The first concrete step toward a similar renovation in the theater was enunciated by Belaval in his program for a dramatic society which would have a triple purpose: "(1) to stage plays by contemporary Puerto Rican playwrights, (2) to install new techniques of staging in their various aspects: direction, acting, design, lighting, wardrobe, makeup, (3) to attract an audience, first, through a nucleus of selected spectators, then, with the awakening of a national theater, freely, by the strength and quality of the esthetic work alone."3 Equally important was his insistence that this be a recognizably Puerto Rican theater, "a typical reproduction of our territorial reality .'" At the outset, however, Belaval makes it very dear that he is not speaking of some sort of propaganda theater. "One of these days we will have to unite to create a Puerto Rican theater, a great theater of our own, where everything will belong to us: the theme, the actor, the decorative motifs, the ideas, the esthetic. There exists in every people an incorruptible theatricality which must be re-created by its own artists."s While Belaval was formulating this program and attempting to organize the group, the Ateneo of...