Myrna Casas (January 2, 1934 – November 9, 2022) was a Puerto Rican experimental playwright, director, actress, and theatre scholar. She was the co-founder and artistic director of the company Producciones Cisne.

Early life

Casas was born in San Juan to Carmen Busó Carrasquillo and Sixto Casas Semidei. She studied Drama at

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, graduating in 1954, and earned a master's degree in acting at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

in 1961. She went on to study at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

where she obtained a doctorate in Theatre education in 1974.

Career

A member of the sixties generation, Casas's work addressed Puerto Rican national identity through both absurdist and realist plays. She also explored the themes of women in patriarchal societies, as in her play ''Eugenia Victoria Herrera.'' Her 1988 play ''The Great Ukrainian Circus'' (El gran circo Ucraniano) has been performed regularly and examined by scholars. Casas for many years taught at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

in the drama department, which she also directed for several years. She acted in the 1950s and served in the San Juan municipal assembly from 1996 to 2000. In June 2022, the

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acquired Casas's papers, including her original annotated manuscripts of all plays written since 1960, as part of its Latino Art and Activism Archives.

Personal life and death

Casas died on a November 9, 2022, at the age of 88.

Works

Casas wrote more than 30 plays, including: *Cristal roto en el tiempo (A Glass Broken in Time) – 1960 *Eugenia Victoria Herrera – 1964 *Absurdos en soledad – 1964 *La trampa (The Trap) – 1974 *No todas lo tienen (They Don't All Have It) – 1975 *Al garete *Cuarenta años después (Forty Years Later) – 1976 *Crónicas de obsesión *Tres noches tropicales (Three Tropical Nights) *Juegos de obsesión *Las reinas del Chantecler *El gran circo Ucraniano (The Great Ukrainian Circus) – 1988 (winner of the National Dramaturgy award of the Circle of Puerto Rican Drama Critics) *Este país no existe (This Country Doesn't Exist) – 1993 Casas also wrote an opera libretto, ''El mensajero de plata''.

Honors

Casas received honors from the Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean (2013),

Ateneo Puertorriqueño The Ateneo Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Athenaeum), is a cultural institution in Puerto Rico. Founded on April 30, 1876, it has been called Puerto Rico's oldest cultural institution, however, it is actually its third oldest overall and second c ...

(2005), the University of Tennessee (2006), the Puerto Rican Senate (2004), and SOGEM (Sociedad de Escritores de México) (1990). In 2019 the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón dedicated the celebration of World Theatre Day to Casas.

References