XXIV International Hispanic Theatre Festival :: Life Achievement Award
RECIPIENT OF THE 2009 LIFE ACHIEVEMENT IN THE PERFORMING ARTS AWARD
Santiago García Pinzón was born in Bogota, Colombia, on Dec. 20, 1928. An actor, playwright, director and teacher, he is one of the great theoreticians and
practitioners of the contemporary stage, an undisputed master and model for several generations of artists, and a required reference for young people taking their
first steps in theatrical creation. He trained as an architect at Colombia’s Universidad Nacional, Paris’ École des Beaux Arts and Venice’s Instituto Universitario.
Returning to Colombia, he began to study acting under Japanese director Seki Sano in 1956. Between 1959 and 1962, he studied set design and stage directing at
Univerzita Karlova, Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia. In 1958, he helped found the company El Búho, with which he staged Enrique Buenaventura’s A la diestra
de Dios Padre. In 1966, together with a group of artists and intellectuals, he founded La Casa de la Cultura, which in 1968 became Teatro La Candelaria, and he
continues to be the organization’s general manager. A master of collective creation, he does not conceptualize it as a method but as a process that renews itself
with each theatrical experiment, sets down interdisciplinary knowledge, and fosters ideological and practical commitment in each group member, a fruitful approach
even the case of traditional single-author plays. He conceives of each theatrical production as an exploratory process, a technique and a different way of improvising
that forces you to identify motives, explore reality and delve into the artistic tissue of non-verbal languages, gestures, intertextuality and polyphonic speech. His
plays have retold episodes from Colombia’s sociopolitical history and tackled in artistic language the manifestations of structural violence, the problems of the
dispossessed classes and the habits and customs of the oligarchy, all from a Latin American perspective and a deep commitment to popular culture and to the artistic
procedures that derive from delving into sources and the specific languages of the theatre. He has earned numerous domestic and international awards and honors,
including the CELCIT’s Ollantay Award and several honorary doctorates, accolades that recognize his artistic and ethical stature, his humanism and his role as a
socially committed Latin American intellectual. a range of domestic and international awards and honors.
RECIPIENTS OF THE LIFE ACHIEVEMENT IN THE PERFORMING ARTS AWARD
1989 – FRANCISCO MORÍN (Cuba/USA)
1990 – RAMÓN ANTONIO CRUSELLAS (Cuba/USA)
1991 – MARÍA JULIA CASANOVA (Cuba/USA)
1992 – ANDRÉS CASTRO (Cuba/USA)
1993 – ALEJANDRA BOERO (Argentina)
1994 – ISAAC CHOCRÓN (Venezuela)
1995 – JOSÉ MONLEÓN (Spain)
1996 – ANTONIO ABUJAMBRA (Brazil)
1997 – VICTORIA ESPINOSA (Puerto Rico)
1998 – HÉCTOR MENDOZA (Mexico)
1999 – MIREYA BARBOZA (Costa Rica)
2000 – GEORGE WOODYARD (USA)
2001 – ENRIQUE BUENAVENTURA (Colombia)
2002 – CLAUDIO DI GIRÓLAMO (Chile)
2003 – ESTELA MEDINA (Uruguay)
2004 – RAFAEL VILLALONA (Dominican Republic)
2005 – MARÍA IRENE FORNÉS (Cuba/USA)
2006 – EDDA DE LOS RIOS MORSELLI DE LATERZA (Paraguay)
2007 – MIRIAM COLÓN VALLE (USA)
2008 – JOSÉ SANCHIS SINISTERRA (Spain)
2009 – SANTIAGO GARCÍA PINZÓN (Colombia)