Osvaldo Dragún

Osvaldo Dragún (May 7, 1929 Entre Ríos, Argentina –June 14, 1999 Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a prominent Argentine playwright and theatre director. Director of Cervantes Theater.

Osvaldo Dragún was born in Colonia Berro, a Jewish agricultural settlement, near San Salvador in Entre Ríos Province, Argentina. After his father's linseed farm suffered from recurrent locust problems, the family left the settlement for Buenos Aires. Dragún left his university studies in 1953 to pursue his calling in the theatre. Joining the Fray Mocho Theatre in 1956, he premiered his first work, La peste viene de Melos (The Plague from Melos). The politically charged play, on the 1954 coup d'état against Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz, drew also from the playwright's own childhood memories of his father's struggles with locusts.

He continued to write controversial works for the Fray Mocho, including Historias para ser contadas (Tales to be Told), a series of short plays including Historia del hombre que se convirtió en perro (The Story of the Man Who Turned into a Dog),Tupac Amaru and Milagro en el mercado viejo (Miracle at the Old Market), for which he received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1962. His 1966 play, Heroica de Buenos Aires received the same distinction. That June, however, one of Argentine independent theatre's most powerful opponents, General Juan Carlos Onganía, took power in a quiet coup. Dragún's stays abroad, which had begun in 1961, became more frequent, directing plays in several other Latin American countries and in the United States. He continued to write politically themed plays, however, notably Historias con cárcel (Stories and Jail). He helped establish the Campana Comedy Theatre in 1969 and, six years later, premiered El Jardín del Infierno ("The Garden of Hell") there.

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