Argentine Open Theatre

The Argentine Open Theatre was an independent theatre company in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The theatre in Argentina had developed alongside the nation's emergence as a modern economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Independent and experimental theatre, however, had long endured in the shadows of commercial productions (for which Buenos Aires' Corrientes Avenue became particularly well known). Many of the playwrights prominent in this movement were also politically opinionated, and their plays' left-leaning subtext were frowned upon by powerful figures in the Argentine military and the publishing sector, alike. Increasing repression became a serious threat to artistic freedom in the years shortly before and during the country's last dictatorship.

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:

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