page_title: Argentine Open Theatre
section_title: Opportunity and peril
hierarchical_section_title: Argentine Open Theatre / Overview / Opportunity and peril
caption_attribution_description: Roberto Viola, gobernante de facto de Argentina en 1981
context_page_description: The Argentine Open Theatre was an independent theatre company in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
context_section_description: Intimidation and pressure were eased somewhat in 1980, however, with the support of the relatively moderate Army Chief, General Roberto Viola. Playwright Osvaldo Dragún seized the opportunity to organize a new theatre movement, calling on fellow playwrights Roberto Cossa and Carlos Gorostiza, as well as renowned theatre actors Luis Brandoni, Jorge Rivera López and Pepe Soriano. They purchased a shuttered sparkplug factory on Santos Discépolo Way (a pedestrianized backstreet in the crowded Balvanera district of Buenos Aires) into the "Picadero Theatre." Honored by the presence and support of Nobel laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and writer Ernesto Sábato, the group announced, in a May 12, 1981, press conference, the establishment of the Teatro Abierto Argentino - the "Argentine Open Theatre."
  Sensitive both to the repressive climate and to the sharp economic crisis, playwright Carlos Somigliana penned the Open Theatre's mission statement, declaring that:
  Being the theatre the cultural and social phenomenon that it is, we shall strive to recover the public at large with productions of great quality and modestly priced tickets.
  They premiered their first festival on July 28, 1981, featuring Cossa's Gris de ausencia (Pale of Absence), Dragún's Mi obelisco y yo (My Obelisk and Me), and Gorostiza's El acompañamiento (The Entourage) among the evening's repertoire.  During an August 6 performance, however, three fire bombs were set off in the theatre, casting doubts on the company's viability (the incident remains one of Argentina's best-known "unsolved mysteries"). Sixteen prominent Buenos Aires theatres offered them their stages, however, and the Open Theatre relocated to the larger Tabaris Theatre, a Corrientes Avenue landmark known for its revue. The Open Theatre reopened two days later and its 1981 season ran until September 21, featuring 21 directors, over 150 cast and crew, and bringing together some 25,000 spectators. Organizer Osvaldo Dragún declared that "today the open theatre belongs to the entire nation."
caption: Dictator Roberto Viola allowed the festival, believing it could help counter international criticism of military rule.
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