Anatomy of theater

Rodolfo Usigli

Presentation: Luisa Josefina Hernández

(Viva Voice of Mexico; 20) The publication includes a CD and a DVD
UNAM-Difusión Cultural-Tvunam / CITRU
México, 2005.
71 p.

In Anatomy of Theater, Rodolfo Usigli (1905-1979) formulates theoretical reflections, with diverse lines of argument, which contrast to his stage aesthetic with the characteristics that defined the commercial theater of the era. It particularly stresses the urgency to create a realist Mexican theater, as well as the necessity to develop the professionalization, specialization and technical dominance of the dramatists, actors, directors, scenographers, critics and Mexican theater technicians. Usigli wrote the brief treatise between August 23rd and 29th, 1939, but it was not published until 1967 (Ecuador 0°0’0’’) and, recently, in the 5th volume of his Complete Works (edited by FCE). Due attention is given its edition in the Viva Voice collection of UNAM, also in 1967, with the vinyl recording of the text read by the author, in which annexed the printed text alongside a presentation by Luisa Josefina Hernández, which values discoveries made by Usigli in his playwriting maturity. With the 100th anniversary of the writer’s birth in 2005, these materials are re-edited in the package that we now present, enriched by the recording of the Anatomy in CD format; a timeline with significant events and moments in his biography; and a DVD produced by UNAM TV that highlights the great Rodolfo Usigli’s transcendence in modern Mexican theater, through testimonies, documents and diverse audiovisual materials.