Study Guide - Latino Arts, Inc.

Study Guide
Prepared to complement
The Latino Arts Theater
production of
The Plays of Cabrujas: A Uniquely Venezuelan
Perspective on the Human Condition
José Ignacio
Cabrujas
(1937-1995)
El Dia Que Me
Quieras
(The Day You’ll
Love Me)
Written by José
Ignacio Cabrujas
Adapted and directed
by Carolina Soza
Nov 17-18, 2005
Latino Arts, Inc.
1028 S. Ninth Street
Milwaukee, WI 53204
USA
Phone:
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Website:
www.latinoartsinc.org
E-Mail:
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Educational programs
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José Ignacio Cabrujas (born in Caracas,
July 17, 1937 – died in Portamar, October
21, 1995) was a contemporary of Isaac
Chocrón, Román Chalbaud and Rodolfo
Santana – generally regarded as the most
important quartet of contemporary
Venezuelan playwrights.
In his many plays, Cabrujas explored the
inner lives of Venezuelan men and women,
uncovering their isolation, exacerbated by
the loneliness and dearth of communication
in which they lived.
To achieve his goal, he examined their past
as a way to interpret their present,
employing a language that pushed
expressive dimensions to its limits. His
work expressed his frustration with people’s
tendencies toward immobility and passivity,
tendencies he saw as destructive and
disabling.
Cabrujas began his career as a playwright
with two works based on historical figures:
Juan Francisco Leon (1959), followed by
Los Insurgentes (1961). In both, the past is
used as a template to shed light upon the
present, but comes off in both works
seeming somewhat didactic and partisan.
With El extraño Viaje de Simón el Malo
(1961) he acquired national fame and
established his style: critical analysis of
modern humanity hidden behind the veil of
entertainment, especially marked by
perpetual acts of dishonesty.
Through the 60’s and 70’s, other plays
followed this theme, despite differences in
plot devices, setting, and theatrical style:
• Tradición, Hospitalidad (1962) explores
the lack of understanding among human
beings, illustrated through the
relationship of a couple.
• En Nombre del Rey (1963) which
again takes a historical event
(conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de
Quesada’s attempt to impose
Eurocentric ideas on the newly
“discovered” South American
continent) and applies modern ideas
and sensibilities to the plot.
• Días de Poder (1967) dramatizes a
political magnate’s efforts to writing his
memoirs following his fall from power.
continued on next page…
PLOT SYNOPSIS FOR
“El Dia Que Me Quieras
(The Day You’ll Love Me)”
Setting:
A home in Caracas, Venezuela in 1935.
ACT I
As the play opens, Marxist revolutionary Pio
Miranda is trying to convince his longtime
girlfriend Maria Luisa Ancizar to run away
with him to the “workers paradise” in the
Soviet Union. Her sister Elvira and niece
Matilda, however are preoccupied with that
day’s tumultuous arrival of tango star Carlos
Gardel in Caracas. When Maria Luisa
announces her plans, the women react
angrily, but are soon distracted by the arrival
of Placido Ancizar, who has just met Gardel
and brings tickets to that evening’s
performance. The conversation switches
between politics and tango. Suddenly, a
surprise visitor enters – Gardel – who
personally invites everyone to his
performance.
ACT II
The scene opens with Gardel performing on
stage. He thanks the sisters for their kindness,
and invites himself over to their home
afterwards. In the next scene, Gardel arrives,
and charms the family members – even Pio
Miranda, who regales him with more tales of
revolution. Pio’s enthusiasm infects the whole
gathering, bringing him to the breaking point,
at which he reveals the truth behind his
stories. He flees the house in despair, leaving
Gardel to comfort the jilted Maria Luisa with
his song “El Dia Que Me Quieras”.
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• Fiésole” (1967), an experimental piece in the symbolist vein.
• Acto Cultural (1976), a look at the effects of immobility, passivity, and cultural sterility on
the lives of the people of little San Rafael, employing a universal theme and reaffirms his
particular style.
However, of all his plays, critics agree that Cabrujas enjoyed his greatest box office success
with the farce El Día Que Me Quieras (1979).
More than seventy years
after his death, Carlos
Gardel stills attracts legions
of fans to his grave in
Buenos Aires. Visitors often
slip a lit cigarette into the
hand of his smiling statue.
The drama of power and Venezuelan politics colored his following works, La Noche Oriental
(1982), a tale spun around the times of the Perez Jimenez dictatorship, and El Americano
Ilustrado (1987), a biting look at the “cult of personality” surrounding Venezuelan president
General Guzmán Blanco. In 1989, Cabrujas examined the life of one of his country’s
greatest painters in Reverón, Retrato de Artista con Barba y Pumpa. In 1995, he
reinterpreted Shakespeare’s Othello into a Venezuelan context in Sonny, diferencias sobre
Otelo, el Moro de Venecia, transforming the lead role into a tormented boxer who struggles to
understand his own existence while coming to terms with themes of servitude and jealousy.
In some critiques outside of his homeland, José Ignacio Cabrujas is dismissed as a “soap
opera writer” for his work as a writer for popular television novelas. Few of his plays have
been translated from Spanish, so the depth and power of his output as a whole has yet to be
recognized. However, plays such as Profundo, Acto Cultura and El Día Que Me Quieras
reveal an uncanny ability to weave a tale around the same spirit: the power of myths and
cultural beliefs, and the individual’s responsibility to put his own stamp on his world. That is
what has earned him national acclaim and recognition in Venezuela, and what makes him so
important to the history of theatre in the world beyond its borders.
Carlos Gardel: The King of Tango
Carlos Gardel (December, 11 1890 – June 24, 1935) was an enormously popular tango
singer from Argentina who was killed in an airplane crash at the height of his career.
For many music fans, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango, a musical form and
dance that evolved in the immigrant neighborhoods of Montevideo and Buenos Aires at
the end of the 19th century.
The poster from Gardel’s
actual appearance in
Caracas, Venezuela.
Gardel possessed a dark, sensual baritone voice, which he deployed with unerring
musicality and dramatic phrasing, creating miniature masterpieces among the
hundreds of three-minute tangos that he recorded during his lifetime. Together with his
long-term collaborator, lyricist Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel also wrote several classic
tangos, notably “Mi Buenos Aires Querido”, “Volver", and "Por una cabeza".
Although his precise origins are the subject of controversy, Gardel is generally thought
to have been born as Charles Romuald Gardés in Toulouse, France to unknown father
and Berthe Gardes (1865-1943). This remarkably independent woman, whom Gardel
idolized all his life, brought him at age 27 months to Argentina, where his name was
Hispanized. Some versions set his birth-place in the Abasto barrio of Buenos Aires,
where he grew up and spent most of his life. Others say he is a native of Tacuarembo,
Uruguay. However, when asked about his nationality, Gardel would answer, “I was
born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of two years and a half.”
Gardel began his career singing in bars and parties and in 1913 formed a duet with
José Razzano (which would last until 1925), singing a wide variety of folk songs.
Gardel made the music his own by inventing the tango-canción in 1917 with "Mi Noche
Triste", which sold 100,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America. Gardel
PAGE 3 OF 4
went on to tour Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia
and made appearances in Barcelona, Paris and New York. He sold 70,000 records in
the first three months of a 1928 visit to Paris. As his popularity grew, he made a
number of films, which were essentially vehicles for his singing and his suave,
matinee-idol looks.
When Gardel and his collaborator Le Pera were killed in an airplane crash in Medellín,
Colombia in 1935, millions of his fans throughout Latin America went into mourning.
Hordes of people thronged to pay their respects as the singer's body traveled via
Colombia, New York and Rio de Janeiro to its final resting place in La Chacarita
cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Gardel is still revered in Buenos Aires, where people like to say of him "he sings better
every day." One of Gardel's favorite phrases, “Veinte años no es nada (Twenty years
is nothing)” continues to be a famous saying across Latin America.
EL DÍA QUE ME QUIERAS
(THE DAY YOU’LL
LOVE ME)
Music by Carlos Gardel
Lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera
ESPAÑOL
Acaricia mi ensueño
el suave murmullo de tu suspirar.
Como rie la vida
si tus ojos negros me quieren
mirar.
Y si es mio el amparo
de tu risa leve
que es como un cantar,
ella aquieta mi herida,
todo todo se olvida.
El día que me quieras
la rosa que engalana,
se vestirá de fiesta
con su mejor color.
Y al viento las campanas
dirán que ya eres mía,
y locas las fontanas
se contaran su amor.
La noche que me quieras
desde el azul del cielo,
las estrellas celosas
nos mirarán pasar.
Y un rayo misterioso
hara nido en tu pelo,
luciernaga curiosa que veras
que eres mi consuelo.
El día que me quieras
no habra más que armonía.
Será clara la aurora
y alegre el manantial.
Traerá quieta la brisa
rumor de melodía.
Y nos daran las fuentes
su canto de cristal.
El día que me quieras
endulzara sus cuerdas
el pajaro cantor.
Florecerá la vida
no existira el dolor
La noche que me quieras
desde el azul del cielo,
las estrellas celosas
nos mirarán pasar.
Y un rayo misterios
hará nido en tu pelo.
Luciernaga curiosa que veras
que eres mi consuelo.
ENGLISH
It caresses my dream
the smooth murmur of your
sighing.
How life laughs
if your black eyes want to look at
me.
And if it is mine the shelter
of your slight laughter
that is like singing,
it calms my wound,
everything is forgotten.
From the film El Dia Que Me
Quieras (1935). Of
particular interest is the
little boy on the left: he is
Astor Piazzolla, who would
grow up to be one of the
world’s greatest classical
composers.
The day that you love me
there'll be nothing but
harmony.
The dawn will be clear
and the water spring will be
happy.
The breeze will quietly bring
a rumor of melody.
And the fountains will give us
their crystal song.
The day that you love me the
singing bird
will sweeten its cords.
Life will bloom,
pain will not exist.
The night that you love me
from the blue of the sky
the jealous stars
will watch us go by.
And a mysterious ray
will nest in your hair,
inquisitive glow-worm that'll
see
that you are my consolation.
The day that you love me
The rose that adorns,
will dress in celebration
with its best color
And to the wind the church bells
will say that already you are mine,
and the crazy fountains
will tell about their love.
The night that you love me
from the blue of the sky
the jealous stars
will watch us go by.
And a mysterious ray
will nest in your hair,
inquisitive glow-worm that'll see
that you are my consolation.
Gardel is still universally
loved and remembered
throughout South America.
Resources for Further Study
VENEZUELA
IN BRIEF
PAGE 4 OF 4
Books for young readers:
Kohen-Winter, Jane and Baguley,Kitt. Venezuela (Cultures of the World Series).
Benchmark Books, 2002. (Ages 12 and up)
Nickles, Greg. Argentina: The Culture. Crabtree Publishing Company, 1997. (Ages
9-12)
Source books for educators:
Daus, Roberto. Carlos Gardel En Imagenes (Carlos Gardel in Pictures). Almendra
Music S.L.-Ediciones Musicales.
Collier, Simon. The Life, Music, and Times of Carlos Gardel. University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1986.
Rudolph, Donna Keyse. Historical Dictionary of Venezuela. 2nd ed. Scarecrow,
1996.
Websites:
http://www.gardelweb.com Very detailed study of Gardel in Spanish and English.
http://www.todotango.com A great site that includes videos, recordings, and more.
Flag of Venezuela
Official Name: Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela
Selected Recordings:
The Best of Carlos Gardel, Blue Note Records/23505.
Videos:
El Día Que Me Quieras (1935). Gardel’s last film, released shortly after his death.
Available on VHS and DVD.
El Día Que Me Quieras (1989). An adaptation of Cabrujas’ play, but interpreted as
more of a docudrama. Available on VHS and DVD.
Population: 25,375,281
Size: 566,383 square
miles (slightly more than
twice the size of
California)
Capital: Caracas
Major Industries:
Petroleum, iron ore,
cereals, fruit, sugar and
coffee.
Government: Broke off
from Gran Colombia in
1830. Ruled by a
succession of military
strongmen for most of the
first half of the 20th
century. Democratically
elected governments have
held sway since 1959.
Currently headed by
President Hugo Chavez.
Who’s Who: Historical Figures Mentioned in the Play
El Dia Que Me Quieras takes place at a
turbulent time in both Venezuelan and
world history. Many names of real
historical figures are mentioned in the
play, some familiar and some not-sofamiliar.
General Juan Vincente Gomez
(1857-1935) Venezuela’s president
and dictator from 1908 until 1935,
Gomez brutally suppressed all political
opposition, while overseeing a period of
stability and economic recovery due to
the development of the country as a
major oil exporter.
Romaine Rolland (1866-1944)
Idealistic French writer, philospher, and
pacifist. His search for a perfect society
led him to briefly visit the Soviet Union
during the 1930s, but he quickly became
disillusioned due to the repression he
saw there.
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) Russian
revolutionary, leader of the Bolshevik
party, and the first Premier of the
Soviet Union. Under his firm control,
Russia was transformed from a
monarchy to a classless, “workers’
paradise”. Upon his death, his body
was carefully embalmed and is still on
display in Moscow’s Red Square.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) As
Lenin’s successor as leader of the
Soviet Union, Stalin established
himself as a “father figure” for his
people, but oversaw the deaths and
deportations of millions of Soviet
citizens. Under his reign, the USSR
emerged as a major industrial power
and emerged victorious after World
War II.