World Theatre Day 27 March 2006
Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda
Playwright
Author of the 2006
World Theatre Day Message
Víctor Hugo
Rascón Banda was born in 1948 in Uruáchic, a mining
town in the Chihuahua sierra, in northern Mexico. Following family
tradition he should have devoted himself to mining, but his life took a
different path, as he explains: “With the name my mother gave me, she
condemned to be a writer, and with the childhood I had, I could only be
a playwright”. His family home also served as a courthouse, so from
early childhood, he used to listen to the confessions of those who came
before the judge, his grandfather. This universe where the souls of the
accused were laid bare, was so potent that Víctor Hugo could not
escape it, and became himself not only an outstanding lawyer but also
and above all, a leading figure in Mexican playwriting.
When he was still young, he left his small town to continue his studies in the city. Since then he has often returned, either physical or metaphorically, to be nurtured by the characters and stories that are familiar to him, to drink in the Rarámuri wisdom and seek inspiration from the German, French and Spanish foreigners present in his home town; to encounter examples of resistance, carried by the winds of Northern Mexico.
In 1979 he wrote his first play Voces en el umbral (Voices on the Threshold), an innovative text that recreates the life of two women, one of them a German and the other a Tarahumara. Both women see their life go from the apogee of mining to its decadence. Los ilegales (The Illegal), the first of his plays on stage, was the beginning of a career marked by popular acclaim, as well as recognition from critics and the academic world. For his plays, Víctor Hugo has been awarded several national and international prizes: Ramón López Velarde (1979), Teatro Nuestra América (1981), Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1993) y Rodolfo Usigli (1993). Recently, he received the “Xavier Villaurrutia” medal, an award given by the artistic community of his country, through the National Institute of Fine Arts and the National Council for Culture and Arts, as recognition for his life’s work.
His corpus of work, composed of over 50 plays, forms a significant spectrum depicting the complexity of the human being and his relationship with the social environment; indeed, according to Víctor Hugo it is the society of his time that speaks through the creator (the playwright).
Plays such as Contrabando [Contraband] (1991), La mujer que cayó del cielo [The Woman who Fell from the Sky] (1999), Sazón de mujer [Woman Seasoning] (2001) or Apaches [Apaches] (2003) access subterranean worlds, both tragic and passionate, inhabited by beings who stare us down and denounce injustice, pain, desire and social marginality. The female characters in Rascón Banda’s work have inspired several academic studies which underline the delicacy and depth with which the playwright captures the intricacies of their souls. Besides his so called “serrana” plays, Rascón Banda has also authored urban plays such as Armas blancas [White weapons]* (1982), which, staged by director Julio Castillo, is frequently quoted as a memorable production of university theater. In this set of plays, we also find Los ejecutivos [The executives] (1996) and La banca [The bank] (1997), where the playwright uses his knowledge of the national banking system to reflect upon the manoeuvering and games played by a limited few , to the detriment of the majority.
Víctor Hugo is a generous teacher who encourages creativity in young people, a playwright who as President of the General Society of Writers of Mexico (SOGEM) incessantly fights to defend the rights of the writers. The theater community recognizes Rascón Banda as of its most outstanding members, for his plays as well as for his prominent participation in the cultural life of his country.
His dramatic work is one of the most produced and published in Mexico. Some of the national theater prizes bear his name: Monologue Dramatic Composition in Quintana Roo; One Person Theater Contest in Quintana Roo, and Playwrighting Prize in Nuevo León.
He has also written several screenplays, such as: Días difíciles (Hard Days), Morir en el Golfo (Dying at the Gulf), Playa azul (Blue Beach), Jóvenes delincuentes (Young Delinquents), La muerte del Padre Pro (The Death of Priest Pro) and Rosa de California (Rose of California).
He is the President of the writers of Mexico, Counsultant Council of the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Treasurer of the Academia de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas, President of the Authors Societies, and Vice-president of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies.
Rocío Galicia
National Center for Theater Research “Rodolfo Usigli”
* an "arma blanca" - literally "white weapon" in Spanish - describes weaponry using metal blades such as knives, daggers etc.
When he was still young, he left his small town to continue his studies in the city. Since then he has often returned, either physical or metaphorically, to be nurtured by the characters and stories that are familiar to him, to drink in the Rarámuri wisdom and seek inspiration from the German, French and Spanish foreigners present in his home town; to encounter examples of resistance, carried by the winds of Northern Mexico.
In 1979 he wrote his first play Voces en el umbral (Voices on the Threshold), an innovative text that recreates the life of two women, one of them a German and the other a Tarahumara. Both women see their life go from the apogee of mining to its decadence. Los ilegales (The Illegal), the first of his plays on stage, was the beginning of a career marked by popular acclaim, as well as recognition from critics and the academic world. For his plays, Víctor Hugo has been awarded several national and international prizes: Ramón López Velarde (1979), Teatro Nuestra América (1981), Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1993) y Rodolfo Usigli (1993). Recently, he received the “Xavier Villaurrutia” medal, an award given by the artistic community of his country, through the National Institute of Fine Arts and the National Council for Culture and Arts, as recognition for his life’s work.
His corpus of work, composed of over 50 plays, forms a significant spectrum depicting the complexity of the human being and his relationship with the social environment; indeed, according to Víctor Hugo it is the society of his time that speaks through the creator (the playwright).
Plays such as Contrabando [Contraband] (1991), La mujer que cayó del cielo [The Woman who Fell from the Sky] (1999), Sazón de mujer [Woman Seasoning] (2001) or Apaches [Apaches] (2003) access subterranean worlds, both tragic and passionate, inhabited by beings who stare us down and denounce injustice, pain, desire and social marginality. The female characters in Rascón Banda’s work have inspired several academic studies which underline the delicacy and depth with which the playwright captures the intricacies of their souls. Besides his so called “serrana” plays, Rascón Banda has also authored urban plays such as Armas blancas [White weapons]* (1982), which, staged by director Julio Castillo, is frequently quoted as a memorable production of university theater. In this set of plays, we also find Los ejecutivos [The executives] (1996) and La banca [The bank] (1997), where the playwright uses his knowledge of the national banking system to reflect upon the manoeuvering and games played by a limited few , to the detriment of the majority.
Víctor Hugo is a generous teacher who encourages creativity in young people, a playwright who as President of the General Society of Writers of Mexico (SOGEM) incessantly fights to defend the rights of the writers. The theater community recognizes Rascón Banda as of its most outstanding members, for his plays as well as for his prominent participation in the cultural life of his country.
His dramatic work is one of the most produced and published in Mexico. Some of the national theater prizes bear his name: Monologue Dramatic Composition in Quintana Roo; One Person Theater Contest in Quintana Roo, and Playwrighting Prize in Nuevo León.
He has also written several screenplays, such as: Días difíciles (Hard Days), Morir en el Golfo (Dying at the Gulf), Playa azul (Blue Beach), Jóvenes delincuentes (Young Delinquents), La muerte del Padre Pro (The Death of Priest Pro) and Rosa de California (Rose of California).
He is the President of the writers of Mexico, Counsultant Council of the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Treasurer of the Academia de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas, President of the Authors Societies, and Vice-president of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies.
Rocío Galicia
National Center for Theater Research “Rodolfo Usigli”
* an "arma blanca" - literally "white weapon" in Spanish - describes weaponry using metal blades such as knives, daggers etc.
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