Panamanian Theatre for Social Change: Notes from an Interview with Playwright Raúl Leis

Playwright and theatre producer Raúl Leis Romero (1947-2011) was one of Panama’s most significant public intellectuals. In addition to his long-running involvement in Panamanian theatre, Leis was a sociologist, journalist, human rights activist, political commentator, and prizewinning author. Leis reported on social and political events in Panama during the Torrijos and Noriega dictatorships (1968-1989), Panama’s invasion by the United States, the Panama Canal’s transfer to Panamanian sovereignty (1977-1999), and the post-handover context. In Panama, Leis led the Panamanian Center for Research and Social Action (CEASPA), in addition to serving as a member of many organizations dedicated to adult literacy and popular education across Latin America and Europe.

When Leis passed away suddenly on 30 April 2011, eulogies poured in from colleagues around the world. Yet among these, few if any mentioned Leis’s extensive theatrical activities.¹ In this regard, I am fortunate to have interviewed Leis about his theatre practice in 2010. The following narrative is based on our interview.

Biography

Leis grew up in a marginalized community in Colón and was soon involved with local activist groups. Influenced by liberation theology and radical politics, Leis experienced a transformation of his social consciousness at fifteen, at which point he decided to dedicate his life to community outreach. In the early 1960s, Leis joined the Servicio Voluntario Nacional (SVN), a Panamanian government program providing volunteer aid. Working in isolated, heavily indigenous, afrocolonial, and rural regions like Bocas Del Toro and Kuna Yala, Leis began to experiment with the use of theatrical techniques in local conflict resolution processes. In workshops, he employed creación colectiva practices inspired by Enrique Buenaventura’s methods. Leis found that the use of simple puppets enabled community members to express grievances more freely. His workshops were overwhelmingly successful, leading Leis to codify his techniques in the volume Guía para un teatro popular in 1973. In the first half of the volume, Leis introduced his method for community theatre, which he called sociodrama, adapting Boalian methods to Panamanian contexts. His workshops became institutionalized as the Teatro Voluntario de Cambio Social (TEVOCASO) program, which he administrated for two years. When General Omar Torrijos Herrera took power in 1968, the Panamanian state absorbed the SVN and proposed to make Leis its national coordinator, a salaried government position. Rejecting the offer, Leis chose instead to study sociology at Panama’s Universidad de Santa María la Antigua.

At this time, Leis started to write plays, winning the Ricardo Miró Prize—Panama’s highest national award for theatre—at 21.² Leis often worked closely with directors and actors. His most frequent collaborators included: El Salvadoran director Norman Douglas; Miguel Moreno, actor and founder of the Teatro Estudiantil Panameño; actor and producer Danny Calden; and Anselmo Cooper and Dagoberto Chung, creators of the Unidad del Teatro Colonense and the Teatro de la Ciudad, who still work with at-risk youth in Colón. All of his plays have been mounted, several touring to Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Peru.

“La Toma de Conciencia”: Themes and Influences in Raúl Leis’s Theatre

Leis’s aesthetic production centers on his understandings of grassroots activism and social critique. A creator of political theatre with distinctly Panamanian stylistic overtones, Leis wanted his productions to contribute to the creation of “un mundo en que valga la pena vivir” (personal interview). Rosalina Orocú Mojia comments: “El tema central en las obras de Leis es ‘la condición humana’ en sus dimensiones sociales y subjetivas… [Leis] se enfoca en la opresión, la exclusión social, la apatía, la injusticia; y la solidaridad, la humanidad y la historia como modo de educación.” According to Carlos Fong, director of the Panamanian Ministry of Culture’s national literacy program, “[Leis] creía en las utopías realizables, no en las quimeras y los sueños imposibles, sí en utopías concretas, ‘generadoras de acciones posibles.’ Raúl Leis era un hombre que construía utopías a través de acciones puntuales y...