Juan Rodolfo Amán Vargas

Stage Director of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba. National Theater Prize 2013

Native of Havana. Bachelor's degree in Hispanic American Language and Literature from the University of Havana. He has received courses in acting and directing from various Cuban and foreign theater artists. He is a graduate of the first course for Theater Instructors promoted by the National Theater of Cuba in 1961, although he began his work in stage direction in 1960 with the formation of an amateur group.

In the early years of his career he worked as an actor, mime and directing assistant. He directed an experimental theater hall during the years 1965-1969, sponsored by the National Unions of Medicine and Gastronomy, where he premiered several classic and modern titles from the universal repertoire. Since 1965 he has been artistic director of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba.

He has worked for the Covarrubias Brigades, Dramatic Center of Las Villas, Third World Theater, Latin American Popular Theater and the Teatro Irrumpe group, among others, in works by authors as diverse as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, T. Williams and Cubans Brene and Ferrer.

Stagings Directed
He has staged numerous titles, among which the following stand out:
Rigoletto and Il trovatore, by Verdi.
Il barbiere di Siviglia, by Rossini.
Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor, by Donizetti.
La bohème and Tosca, by Puccini.
I pagliacci, by Leoncavallo.
Halka, by Moniuszko.
Patria, by Hubert de Blanck.
Cecilia Valdés, by Gonzalo Roig.
El cafetal, by Ernesto Lecuona.
La viuda alegre, by Léhar.
Bohemios, by Vives.
He has created two versions of some of these works.

Theater Groups Under His Direction

Throughout his career he has directed various Cuban theater groups:
Covarrubias Popular Theater.
Dramatic Center of Las Villas.
Third World Theater.
Latin American Popular Theater.
Teatro Irrumpe Company.
Invited by the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico, he staged La traviata, by Verdi. He has also directed several opera titles in Colombia for several seasons.

Works
He is the author of the libretto for the Cuban opera La taza de café, with music by Juan Piñera (1994), based on the homonymous work by Rolando Ferrer and zarzuelas — Cecilia Valdés, versions of Roig's work, (1984 and 1998).

Awards
Omar Valdés Prize awarded by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.
National Theater Prize 2013.

He has taught at various national and foreign institutions. He received the Omar Valdés Prize awarded by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

Source: Ecured, La Jiribilla, Tablas Alarcos