Rodolfo Usigli (November 17, 1905 – June 18, 1979) was a Mexican playwright, essayist and diplomat. He has been called "the father of Mexican theater" and "playwright of the Mexican Revolution." In recognition of his work to articulate a national identity for Mexican theater, he was award the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes (Mexican National Prize for Arts and Sciences) in 1972.

Biography

Usigli was born to an Italian father and a Polish mother in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...

. In his early childhood, he enjoyed many plays that his parents took him to. His father aspired him to go to music school, and Usigli spent a year in the National Conservatory of Music before deciding that his real passion was theater. He studied drama at the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

from 1935-1936 on a Rockefeller scholarship, later becoming a professor and diplomat. It was during his time as a diplomat in 1945 that he met

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. After returning to Mexico from the U.S., he established the Midnight Theater and also became a member of the literary circle that formed around the journal Contemporary. During the 1930s, he directed

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

Theatre

Usigli’s theater focuses largely the history of Mexico and satirizing his contemporary Mexican society, and how the Mexican middle classes were betrayed, politically and socially, by the Mexican revolution. His plays reflect a sense of the hypocrisies of life after the revolution, both criticizing society and offering models to emulate. He called for a national theater movement that would reflect the truth of the Mexican experience and express the Mexican spirit. He is perhaps best known for his 1938 play '' El gesticulador (The Imposter)'', which critiqued social issues ravaging Mexico, such as misuse of power that the bureaucracy had got from the Revolution of 1910. The play was censored by the Mexican government banned, raising Usigli's reputation. In 1942 Usigli published another work of scathing quality. In ''Family Dinner at Home his intended target were the apex strata of the Mexican social structure. Usigli experimented with

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

in the novel, ''Ensayo de un crimen'' (''Rehearsal for a Crime''), which in 1955 was adapted into a film, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, by

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

. Usigli also wrote several essays on history, art and theater. He was also an occasional poet, writing modest but interesting poems. The award-winning Usigli believed the objective of theatre was to tell the truth about society. He was known for his strong representation of women in plays. Usigli designed strong female characters in several of his plays. Two of Usigli's protégées, Rosario Castellanos and

Luisa Josefina Hernández Luisa Josefina Hernández (2 November 1928 – 16 January 2023) was a Mexican writer and playwright. Hernández died on 16 January 2023, at the age of 94. Works Plays * ''Aguardiente de caña'', 1951. * ''Botica modelo'', 1954. * ''Los frutos ca� ...

, became important female voices on the Mexican stage. He was also a strong influence on his pupil Jorge Ibargüengoitia and on

Josefina Niggli Josefina Niggli (1910–1983; birth name was Josephine) was a Mexico, Mexican-born Anglo-America#Anglo-American ethnic group, Anglo-American playwright and novelist. Writing about Mexican-American issues in the middle years of the century, before ...

Selected works

Plays

* ''Tres comedias impolíticas (Three Impolitic Comedies)'', 1935 *''El niño y la niebla (The Boy and the Mist)'', 1936 *''Otra primavera (Another Spring)'' *''Medio tono (Middle Class)'' *''Mientras amemos (As Long as We Love)'', begun 1937-38, completed 1948 * ''El gesticulador'' (''The Imposter''), 1938 * ''La familia cena en casa (Family Dinner at Home),'' 1942 * ''Vacaciones (Holidays)'' * ''La mujer no hace milagros (The Woman Does Not Work Miracles)'' *''La función de la despedida'', 1949 *''Los fugitivos'', produced 1950, published 1951 *''Jano es una muchacha'', 1952 *''Las madres'', 1960 * The Corona Trilogy: ** ''Corona de sombra (Crown of Shadow),'' 1943 ** ''Corona de Fuego (Crown of Fire),'' 1960 ** ''Corona de Luz, (Crown of Light),'' 1963

Poetry

* ''Conversación desesperada (Desperate Conversation),'' 1938 *''Sonetos del tiempo y de la muerte'' ''(Sonnets of Time and Death)'', 1954 * ''Tiempo y memoria en conversación desesperada'', 1981

Novels

* ''Ensayo de un crimen (Rehearsal for a Crime)'', 1944

Non-fiction

* ''México en el teatro (Mexico in Theatre), 1932'' * ''Caminos del teatro en México (Paths of the Theatre in Mexico)'', 1933 * ''Anatomía del teatro (Anatomy of Theatre)'', written 1939, published 1967 * ''Itinerario del autor dramático (Itinerary of a Dramatist)'', 1940 * ''Juan Ruiz de Alarcón en el tiempo,'' 1967 * ''Ideas sobre el teatro (Ideas about the Theatre),'' 1968 * ''Imagen y prisma de México'' (1972)

Memoirs

* ''Conversaciónes y encuentros (Conversations and Encounters)'', 1974 ** translated into English in a critical edition as ''You Have Nothing to Learn from Me: A Literary Relationship Between George Bernard Shaw and Rodolfo Usigli'', 2011.

External links

Rodolfo Usigli website at Miami University of OhioThe Rodolfo Usigli Archive in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections at Miami University of OhioRodolfo Usigli website at biblioteca Cervantes Virtual

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Usigli, Rodolfo 1905 births 1979 deaths Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of Polish descent Mexican dramatists and playwrights People from Mexico City Yale School of Drama alumni 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Occasional poets