Fine Arts Professor Uses Theater as Tool of Social Change, Voice for The Voiceless
Roberto Gutierrez Varea grew up in Argentina at a time when military coups were widespread, and intellectual freedom was not. He was forced to put aside his love of the arts in a country where creativity was being repressed and theater schools were being shut down.
“After a while, I couldn’t live with myself not doing something about what was going on,” he said. “So I began to work for a creative force in the midst of destruction. I was there for the transition into democracy, the rebirth of the arts.”
Needing to distance himself from his country in order to gain perspective on the violence he had witnessed, he moved to California to study theater. After earning an MFA from the University of California, San Diego, he moved to San Francisco and became active in the theater community. He is now an assistant professor of fine and performing arts at USF.
“It took me a long time to realize my mission in my work,” he said. “I focus on underrepresented communities, the voiceless. I work with people who often do not see themselves on stage.”
Gutierrez Varea is the founder of the locally acclaimed Soapstone Theater, a theater company dedicated to issues of restorative justice, where performers are ex-offenders and crime survivors. Theater and social change can be deeply connected, Gutierrez Varea says, and theater can be a transformative experience for those involved on the stage and in the audience.
“I am very aware of how Soapstone productions have affected our audiences, just by telling the stories of survival,” he said. “Theater, like many other things, plays an important role in this process of restoration and awareness.”
Gutierrez Varea began teaching theater at USF in August 2000. His charge is to teach students about theater and social issues, while bringing the community into USF and USF into the community.
This month, he is bringing together USF students and members of Soapstone for The Good Person of Setzuan, a play by Bertold Brecht that tells the story of a search for one good person among urban chaos and immorality.
Gutierrez Varea is helping to develop a course for theater majors with an emphasis in social justice. Students will spend one semester living and learning in another community, such as working with migrant workers in the Bay Area. Students will then create an original work based on their experiences. The production will be featured at USF and the cast will also take the show off campus and into the community that is the subject of the performance.
The university’s commitment to social justice is what attracted him to USF, he said. “It is a way to make an urban university absolutely present and engaged with the community is serves,” he said.
The Good Person of Setzuan plays at 8 p.m. April 19, 20, and 21 at The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 620 Sutter St. For information, call (415)422-6070.
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