Translated from Sonata en la Playa / Canción de Cuna / Scherzo (Diálogo de la Estatua) / Allegro (Comedia en un acto) by Rafael Guizado ( 1945 – 1959 )
Duration: 90 minutes Genre: Comedy
“To hear the birds sing, to see the wind and light scattered in space; and not thinking, not doing, not saying anything, having life suspended above time…shoes covered in mud, worn in clothes, tanned skin, and to embrace freedom like a lover…”
– Rafael Guizado
from Allegro, the third chapter of Cinco Veces Amor
Bogotá. Edit. Iqueima. Lib. Suramérica. 1948
In my translation and adaptation, Allegro is the fourth movement in SYMPHONY FOR SIX ACTORS by Rafael Guizado.
Synopsis
Four brief one-act plays with musical tempos and tones, recurring themes, and authored by Colombian radio theater pioneer Rafael Guizado, have been arranged and adapted to represent the movements of a symphony for actors. Not unlike Dr. Guizado’s pursuit of new forms of contemporary theatre, this compendium of translations, with one adaptation, is an experiment. The goal has been to collect, translate, and present the ten to thirty minute pieces in a way that increases their producibility for new audiences.
Production History
2017 Directed by Kate O’Connor at Cervantes Theatre in London, U.K. for Out of The Wings Festival of Play Readings. https://ootwfestival.com/symphony-for-six-actors/
Availability
English: Unpublished
Spanish: The 1st, 3rd, and 4th movements are available individually. Guizado, R. (1959). Sonata en la playa. Fantasía en un acto. Barranquilla: Imprenta Departamental. Guizado, R. (1948). Scherzo: (diálogo de la estatua). Bogotá. Guizado, R. (1947). Allegro: Comedia en un acto. Bogotá.
Critical Response
Rafael Guizado reaches remarkable heights in his small, delicately crafted works Scherzo and Allegro.
Teatro Colombiano Contemporaneo Antologia, por Moises Perez Coterillo, 1992, Fondo de Cultura Economica http://ciruelo.uninorte.edu.co/pdf/BDC05Parte1.pdf
The stories of Rafael Guizado, an excellent playwright and accomplished storyteller, also appear in 1948 with much success – Cinco Veces Amor followed almost immediately by Renuncia Ministerial (1949)
Ensayo de un Diccionario de la Literatura Colombiana por Nestor Madrid-Malo 1967 http://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/viewFile/4443/4669
Rafael Guizado, founding director of the National Radio, tried to approach more modern forms of writing for the stage, with pieces such as Verano, Complemento or Allegro.
EL TEATRO EN COLOMBIA EN EL SIGLO XX Por Carlos José Reyes. Revista Credencial Historia. (Bogotá – Colombia). Edición 198 Junio de 2006 https://www.banrepcultural.org/biblioteca-virtual/credencial-historia/numero-198/el-teatro-en-colombia-en-el-siglo-xx
Madrid Malo, N. (2015). Breve noticia sobre el cuento en Colombia. Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico, 11(10), 108-120. Recuperado http://publicaciones.banrepcultural.org/index.php/boletin_cultural/article/view/3951/4122
Rafael Guizado, an excellent playwright turns to storytelling with much success, collected in Cinco Veces Amor and Renuncia Ministerial, two series of stories where the everydayness of love and the sterility of political pettiness are the keys which bring us together.