Roque Centurión Miranda

Roque Centurión Miranda (August 15, 1900 in Carapeguá-January 31, 1960 in Asunción) was a Paraguayan playwright, theater director and stage, radio and film actor. Enriched by a creative and enthusiastic group of young actors and playwrights including Luis Ruffinelli, Miguel Pecci Saavedra, Francisco Martín Barrios, Facundo Recalde, Benigno Villa and Arturo Alsina, Centurión Miranda is remembered as one of the true creators of the Paraguayan theatre. He began working as an actor. In 1926 he wrote his first play, Cupido sudando, a comedy in three acts, earning him critical acclaim after it was performed. Later, in 1932, in collaboration with Josefina Pla he wrote Episodios chaqueños. His 1933 Guaraní language drama Tuyú in three acts which dealt with young Chaco blood spilled by Paraguayan soldiers was a major success and is considered by critics to be the cornerstone of the Guaraní theatre.

Roque Centurión Miranda’s parents were J.C. Centurión and Francisca Miranda. He studied at the Colegio Nacional de Asunción. In 1926, he joined the first Paraguayan professional company: the Paraguayan Company of Comedy that had been created a decade before. This company was enriched by a creative and enthusiastic group of young actors and dramatists including Luis Ruffinelli, Miguel Pecci Saavedra, Francisco Martín Barrios, Facundo Recalde, Benigno Villa and Arturo Alsina. Theater in Guarani developed at the hands of the dramatists Francisco Martín Barrios, Benigno Villa, Rigoberto Fontao Meza and Félix Fernández.

In 1939, radio theater emerged. Its driving forces were Centurión Miranda and Josefina Plá who founded Proal, a sublime on-air news program, according to Carlos R. Centurion. There they created, among other things, the work Desheredado, written by both authors.

Soon after the signing of the peace treaty of the Guerra del Chaco, the group La Peña was born. Through radio, it promoted the theater with Centurión Miranda, Arturo Alsina, Hérib Campos Cervera, Clotilde Pinho, and Josefina Plá as the leading roles.

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