The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in association with the Embassy of Argentina in the UK and Methuen-Bloomsbury

To mark the English-language publication by Methuen Drama of the English translation of his acclaimed first book, The Uncapturable, Argentine actor and director Rubén Szuchmacher discusses his practice and pedagogy alongside a panel including Jean Graham-Jones (Lucille Lortel Professor in Theatre, CUNY), William Gregory, translator of The Uncapturable, and Sinéad Rushe (Senior Lecturer at RCSSD. Chaired by Maria Delgado (RCSSD).

PLEASE NOTE:

This talk is open to all, but anyone wishing to attend must register in advance. Registrants will be sent a link to the event, which will take place on Zoom.

For over fifty years actor-director Rubén Szuchmacher has been one of the best kept secrets in Latin American theatre. In his acclaimed first book, he provides a series of shrewd reflections on theatre and the ways in which its mysteries come into being in the presence of the audience. The poetics of space, the logic of time and the relationship between mise en scène and direction are all explored with clarity and vigour. Published now in English with support from Programa Sur, The Uncapturable is an erudite, lively and highly readable book about the hows and the whys of theatre-making, drawing on Szuchmacher's lived experience of training generations of actors, directors, teachers and programmers in Argentina.

Drawing on examples from theatre history, from his own professional experiences, and from the writings and practices of theatre-makers, theorists and writers as varied as Brecht, Barthes, Freud and Arendt, Szuchmacher proposes an approach to working on theatre in a collaborative way and always with an eye to the audience. Told from an Argentine standpoint but with a global outlook, The Uncapturable draws on the unique learnings gleaned from working in Argentina, be it the impact on theatre of politics, the need for inventiveness in times of hardship, the phenomenon of Argentine ‘circus theatre’ or the adaptation of literary giants such as Borges, affording the Anglophone reader an alternative perspective on the ideas of theatre we often take for granted.

In conversation with the author, translator and invited guests, this event will explore:

• Szuchmacher’s career, works, and trajectory in the theatre of Argentina and beyond;

• The distillation of Szuchmacher’s decades of experience into The Uncapturable;

• The process and experience of translating and publishing this book in English, and its relevance to the Anglophone reader;

• The role and importance of international exchange in contemporary theatre-making.

Speakers

• Rubén Szuchmacher, author of The Uncapturable

• Jean Graham-Jones, Lucille Lortel Professor of Theatre (City University of New York)

• William Gregory, BCLT Translator in Residence (UEA), English translator of The Uncapturable

• Sinéad Rushe, Senior Lecturer, Acting and Movement (RCSSD)

Chair

• Professor Maria Delgado (RCSSD)

Biographies

Rubén Szuchmacher is one of Argentina’s leading theatre and opera directors. With a long, illustrious career directing in his country’s major institutions, and touring worldwide, he has amassed a wealth of experience spanning from fringe and alternative spaces to the great proscenium arches and opera houses of Buenos Aires and beyond. Also a stage and screen actor and choreographer, he has also managed theatre buildings, and has taught theatre direction and other theatre disciplines in universities in Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Chile and Uruguay. In 2016 he was awarded a Premio de la Trayectoria (lifetime achievement award) by the Argentine Instituto Nacional de Teatro (national theatre institute).

Jean Graham-Jones is the Lucille Lortel Professor of Theatre at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. A trained actor and director, she is a scholar and translator of Argentine theatre and performance; and her major publications include Exorcising History: Argentine Theater Under Dictatorship; Reason Obscured: Nine Plays by Ricardo Monti; BAiT: Buenos Aires in Translation; Timbre 4: Two Plays by Claudio Tolcachir; Evita, Inevitably: Performing Argentina’s Female Icons Before and After Eva Perón; and Lola Arias: Re-enacting Life

William Gregory is a translator from Spanish and Translator in Residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation. His produced works include B by Guillermo Calderón (Royal Court), I’d Rather Goya Robbed me of my Sleep than Some Other Arsehole by Rodrigo García (Gate, London), and Cuzco by Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez (Theatre503). In 2019 he was a finalist in the Valle Inclán translation award for The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays. He is a Visiting Research Associate at King’s College London and a member of the Hispanic and Lusophone theatre collective Out of the Wings.

Sinéad Rushe is a theatre director, acting coach and Senior Lecturer in Acting and Movement at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is the author of Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide.