Raquel Carrio Ibietatorremendía

Raquel Carrió Ibietatorremendía is a Dr. C. Associate Professor of Dramaturgy and a fundamental figure in the training of new generations of theater artists in Cuba. In addition to being a recognized playwright and essayist, she obtained her degree in Philology from the University of La Habana. Her contribution to the Cuban theatrical world has been invaluable.

Founder of the Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Arts of La Habana and of the International School of Theater of Latin America and the Caribbean (EITALC). Associate Professor of Dramaturgy and Methodology of Theatrical Research.

Among her most outstanding achievements, Carrió Ibietatorremendía is founder of the Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Arts of La Habana and of the International School of Theater of Latin America and the Caribbean (EITALC). She has also served as a teacher at the International School of Film and has been an associate professor at the ISA (Higher Institute of Art), as well as an advisor to the renowned Teatro Buendía since its founding.

Artistic Career
From the moment she joined the experiments of the emerging Buendía, Raquel Carrió contributed her knowledge, her poetic and investigative faith, becoming one with the theatrical metaphor that Flora Lauten conducts. Hence, her searches in the myth of the Cuban, and in some of its main representatives Martí, Lezama, Piñera, Cabrera, Vitier, etc., have served as pillars for many of the group's findings.

She stands out not only for her academic and teaching work, but also for her participation as a researcher in the sessions of the International School of Theatrical Anthropology (ISTA) under the direction of Eugenio Barba.

She has received numerous awards and distinctions for her essays and critical studies: Contemporary Cuban Dramaturgy, Critical Studies; Recovering the Memory of Fire, among others. She has given lectures, workshops and seminars at universities and cultural institutions in Latin America, Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Australia and participated as a researcher in the sessions of the International School of Theatrical Anthropology (ISTA) under the direction of Eugenio Barba.

Dramaturgy advisor to Teatro Buendía since its founding in 1986 advising productions such as Las ruinas circulares, Otra tempestad, Bacantes, La vida en rosa, Carrió has written texts for the stage: singular treatises on spectacular dramaturgy that refract on the Buendía stage, for which they are consciously conceived.

Rather than adapting, Raquel reinterprets, rewrites the original sources in a display of questions, already dear to the entire history of Buendía. At the same time, she has continued to provide valuable essays that confirm her belief in group theater, in the capacity of the theatrical collective as a laboratory, as well as the tenacity with which an active reading of Cuban and foreign theatrical tradition can be woven together.

Her texts on The Tempest by Shakespeare, The Bacchae by Euripides, and now Charenton, on Marat-Sade by Peter Weiss, argue her singularity as a creator of texts that emerge for that mirror-stage that is Buendía two decades after its founding. She has obtained recognition from the public and specialized critics.

She has published through Ediciones Alarcos, of the Tablas-Alarcos Editorial House, the theatrical text Otra tempestad, in co-authorship with Flora Lauten.

Some Books
Contemporary Cuban Dramaturgy: Critical Studies, Pueblo y Educación Publishing House, 1988.
Otra tempestad, Ediciones Alarcos, 2000.

The jury in charge of awarding the 2024 National Theater Prize was made up of outstanding personalities from the Cuban theatrical field, such as Fátima De La Caridad Patterson Patterson, Carlos Pérez Peña, Carlos Díaz, Kikin Kiñones and Omar Valiño himself. Their unanimous choice of Raquel Carrió Ibietatorremendía as the winner highlights the importance and impact of her work on the Cuban theatrical scene.

With this well-deserved recognition, Raquel Carrió Ibietatorremendía is consolidated as an indispensable figure in the development and promotion of theater in Cuba. Her dedication and excellence have left an indelible mark on the theatrical field, and her legacy continues to inspire future generations of Cuban artists.