Gustavo Ott

Gustavo Ott (January 14, 1963 - Caracas, Venezuela) Playwright, screenwriter, novelist and director. Founder of the Teatro San Martín de Caracas (1993). Ott's plays have won numerous awards, including the Tirso de Molina International Playwriting Prize (1998, Spain) for "80 Dientes, 4 metros y 200 kilos” (“80 Teeth, 4 Feet & 500 Pounds”); Ricardo López Aranda International Playwriting Prize (2003, Spain) for "Tu ternura molotov” (“Your Molotov Kisess”); 2nd Place, National Contest for Contemporary Creation and Innovative Playwriting of the Institute for Performing Arts and Music (2006, Venezuela) for “120 vidas x minuto” (“120 Lives a Minute”); and Second Place, Torreperogil Playwriting Prize (2007, Spain) for “Monstruos en el closet, ogros bajo la cama.”

Following his stage premiere in 1989 with “Divorciadas, evangélicas y vegetarianas,” (Divorcees, Evangelists, and Vegetarians), Ott has been widely produced both in Venezuela and internationally to critical and public acclaim, making his work "indispensable...for any anthology of Venezuelan theater" and a regular participant in international theater festivals. Some of Ott's success may be due to his commitment to a "theater that can be both commercial and worthwhile. That can experiment and draw audiences." Ott’s plays have been translated to English, Portuguese, German, French, Danish, Greek, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Turkish, Catalan and Creole.

Influences

In his twenties, Ott studied under José Ignacio Cabrujas and participated in the CELCIT Playwriting workshop given in 1988-1989 by Venezuelan playwright Rodolfo Santana, whom he once called "the father" of his work. Surely the two share a stiletto sharp comic sense and a metaphoric treatment of dramatic situation that confounds personal and political, individual and nation. Ott has often cited the "cordial relations" among Venezuelan playwrights and acknowledged the debt he owes to such "original models" as Isaac Chocrón, who also explores the subject of God in his work.

For an author who has claimed "you have to write for the world, not just your corner in it," international influences cannot be overlooked. For Ott, who has lived and traveled abroad extensively, these include Harold Pinter, someone the author recognizes "had an influence not only on my writings, but on my perception of art and even my dedication to literature." From Pinter, Ott moved naturally to an avid interest in the work of David Mamet, which included translating some of the American author's plays. Ott's close study of Mamet is clear in the poetic treatment of street dialogue, action language and rhythm marking much of his work, as well as minimal stage direction. Ott also cites other English-language playwrights who inform his work, including Kushner, McNally, Merber and Ridley, as well as a wide-range of novelists and poets from Borges to Coetzee, from William Blake to Walt Whitman.

Career

In 1988 “Teatro Cinco” was published in Venezuela with the plays "Los peces crecen con la luna" (1983), "El Siglo de las luces" (1986) and "Passport" (1988),the last on the subject of identity, arbitrariness, and immigration.

Ott's stage premiere, by the group TextoTeatro, came in 1989 with “Divorciadas, evangélicas y vegetarianas,” (Divorcées, Evangelists, and Vegetarians) a comedy on friendship. Other comedies followed, such as "Apostando a Elisa" (1990) and "Cielito lindo" (1990). In 1991 he opened one of his most acclaimed works, "Pavlov: 2 segundos antes del crimen,” (Pavlov: Two Seconds Before the Crime) where Ott’s hallmark “cruel and unusual humor” was already on display. GALA’s (Washington, D.C.) production of this play in 1995, under the direction of Abel Lopez, marked Ott’s debut on the American stage.

During those years Ott wrote for wide audiences, with pieces like “Nunca dije que era una niña buena” (1992 - Who Ever Said I Was a Good Girl), a play that deals with youth gang violence, also produced in the U.S. by GALA. With “Good girl…” Ott founded the Teatro San Martín de Caracas (TSMC), while that same year Madrid’s Cuarta Pared inaugurated its Lavapies Theater with “Passport”, directed by Javier Yagüe. “Linda gatita” ("Minor Leagues", formerly "I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat") also opened that year, chronicling the search for affection in relations between North and South America, as well as “Quiéreme mucho” (The Very Thought of You) TSMC, 1993, where a pair of stories on love and immigration in two different generations are told with the symmetry of an Escher painting.

In 1996 Avispa Publishers in Madrid published two volumes containing six plays covering Ott’s early work. In 1997 "Las piezas del mal" was published in Caracas, collecting, along with "Pavlov," plays like "Gorditas", 1994 (Fat Chicks) for a female cast on the subject of ambition, and "Corazón pornográfico" (1995),a comedy that analyzes crime in a style that oscillates from realism to comic book. In 1996 Ott began his most important group of plays to that date, which he called “Pentagram,” composed of five plays in what he dubbed “the Latin American macabre style.” These are "Comegato" (1997-Caracas Municipal Theater Award, 1998-Casa del Artista Award), a work on the dilemma between decency and crime; "Fotomatón"(1997- Caracas Municipal Theater Award, 1999-Casa del Artista Award), an autopsy of the Latin American soul; “80 Dientes, 4 metros y 200 kilos” (80 Teeth, 4 Feet and 500 Pounds)(Tirso de Molina International Playwriting Prize-1998, First Runner-up, Princess Grace Award-2001; Caracas Municipal Theater Award-2002; CELCIT Award-2002), an epic piece on the subject of guilt; “Tres esqueltos y medio” (finalist Jose Ignacio Cabrujas Prize-1998), a play on the macabre intersection between transcendence and the criminal present; and “Miss”(Celcit Award-2002), an epic piece on Latin American ambition.

In 2002 Casa de América in Madrid published "Dos amores y un bicho,” (Two Loves and a Creature)a play that opened a new period in Ott’s style, with few ties to his previous work, particularly in its use of form, subject and language. "Two Loves...” is a play about hatred and was immediately translated to English, French, German, and Creole, premiering in Caracas in 2004, under direction of the author. As "Deux amours et une petite bette,” the play opened in December 2003 in Lyon, France. That year, his one-man show “Bandolero y malasangre,”translated by Francoise Thanas, was premiered by Scene Nationale in Potiers, France, and later premiered in Catalan by the group Diverbia in Valencia, Spain. The play was published in Cuba’s Conjunto magazine in 2004.

Ott was chosen in 2002 and 2003 to participate in the “New Work Now!” program at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York, with "80 Teeth…” and “Two Loves and a Creature," both translated by Heather McKay, as well as the Playwriting Program of La Mousson D’Ete in France and "La Mousson a Paris" in the Comedie Française, with “Photomaton,” translated by Françoise Thanas and directed by Michel Didym. In 2005 “Deux amours” was presented again in the Studio of the Comedie Française, also translated by Thanas, under the direction of Vicent Colin.

In 2004, in Santander, Spain, "Tu ternura molotov" (Your Molotov Kisses) Ricardo López Aranda Prize, a play on the interrelation of intolerance and [...], was published. “Molotov” premiered the same year in the Teatro Cuyás of la Palma on Grand Canary Island, staged by Profetas de Mueble Bar and also in Argentina (CLECIT, 2006), Mexico (Teatro Xola, DF, 2006), Portugal (AL-MaSRAH Teatro, Algarve), Washington, D.C. (GALA, 2008), Colombia (Teatro Nacional, 2008), California (Teatro de las Américas, 2008), Caracas (2009) and was presented in English by The Kitchen Dog Theater of Dallas as part of its “New Plays” program in 2007.

In 2006 Ott opened his first comedy in 10 years, "Pony," on fraud both personal and political. That same year, the Quartiers D´Ivry program in Paris presented “Deux amours…” and “Photomaton,” directed by Elizabeth Chailloux. Also in 2006, Ott took 2nd Place in the National Contest for Contemporary Creation and Innovative Playwriting of the Institute for Performing Arts and Music, Caracas, with “120 Lives a Minute” a piece on catastrophe and the meaning of art and country, premiered in Caracas, under direction of the author in 2007. “120 Lives a Minute” opened in English in a production for Ohio Northern University, USA, directed by Otto Minera.

In 2008 Spain’s Asociación de Autores de Teatro published “Monster in the closet, Ogre under the bed” a piece on the victims of the 9/11 attacks, while Mexico’s Paso de Gato published “Passport” in its Cuadernos de Dramaturgia Internacional. That same year, Lagoudera Publishers in Athens published “Tu ternura molotov,” translated by Stamatis Polenakis and “Chat” (2008), a play about collective perversity in virtual communication, translated by Stamatis Polenakis, D. Siuva, Cleopatra Eleotriviari, S. Cufopulu, A. Sarafi, C. Tsocalidu and I. Lasopulu. Both Greek translations were overseen by Maria Jatziemanuíl.

Meriwether Publishing Ltd in the U.S. included selections from his plays in English translation by Heather McKay in “Audition Monologs for Student Actors” (1999); International Plays for Young Audiences (2000); “ Audition Monologs for Student Actors II” (2001) and “New Audition Scenes and Monologues from Contemporary Playwrights: The Best New Cuttings From Around the World” (2003, 2005 and 2007). Ott’s plays have also been published in Spain, France, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Greece, and Venezuela.

Plays

Published Work

• Η ΤΡΥΦΕΡΗ ΣΟΥ ΜΟΛΟΤΟΦ & CHAT, Trans. Stamatis Polenakis, D. Siuva, C. Eleotriviari, S. Cufopulu, A. Sarafi, C. Tsocalidu and I. Lasopulu; Lagoudera Publishers (Athens, 2008). ISBN: 978-960-7893-54-3

• "Monstruos en el clóset, ogros bajo la cama" in Ícaro y Monstruos en el clóset, ogros bajo la cama, Asociación de Autores de Teatro (Torreperogil, 2008). ISBN:978-84-96837-04-1

• 120 vidas X minuto, Fund. Ed. el perro y la rana (Caracas, 2007). ISBN:978-980-396-531-0

• Passport!, DRAMA Ed., Trans. Thomas Hauger (Grasten, Denmark: 2007). ISBN: 978-87-7865-682-7

• "Sin su pasado puñal" in El Diván: 25 autoconfesiones Ed. El Milagro (Mexico City, 2003). ISBN: 968-6773-83-5

• Divorciadas, Evangélicas e Vegetarianas, Ed.3 & Pronto, Trans. Marcio Gallacci Pereira (Salvador, Brazil: 2005).

• Scenes from “Two Loves and a Creature” and “Your Molotov Kisses” in New Audition Scenes and Monologs from Contemporary Playwrights: the best new cuttings from around the world, ed. Roger Ellis, Meriwether Publishing Ltd. (2005). ISBN: 978-1-56608-105-4

• Tu ternura Molotov Ed. Ayuntamiento de Santander (Santander, 2004). ISBN: 84-86993-69-5

• Photomaton, Ed. Les Solitaires Intempestifs, Trans. Françoise Thanas (Besançon, France: 2003). ISBN: 2-84681-61-3

• "Bandolero y Malasangre" in Conjunto, No. 127 (Havana, Cuba) January-March 2003.

• Monologue from “Who Ever Said I Was a Good Girl?” in New Audition Scenes and Monologues from Contemporary Playwrights: The Best New Cuttings From Around the World, ed. Roger Ellis, Meriwether Publishing Ltd. (2003).

• "Dos amores y un bicho" in Nueva Dramaturgia de Venezuela Ed. Casa de América (Madrid, 2002). ISBN: 84-88490-58-5

• Gorditas Ed. Fundación Autor (Madrid, 2001). ISBN: 84-8048-425-X

• Monologue from “80 Teeth, 4 Feet & 500 Pounds” in Audition Monologs for Student Actors II, Meriwether Publishing (2001). ISBN: 978-1-56608-073-6

• Gustavo Ott I (Divorcidadas, evangélicas y vegetarianas; Quiéreme mucho; El siglo de las luces) Ed. Avispa (Madrid 2000). ISBN:84-95489-14-7

• Gustavo Ott II (Gorditas; Tres esqueletos y medio; Apostando a Elisa) Ed. Avispa (Madrid 2000). ISBN: 84-95489-15-5

• “Minor Leagues” in International Plays for Young Audiences, Meriwether Publishing (2000). ISBN: 978-1-56608-065-1

• 80 Dientes, 4 Metros y 200 Kilos Ed. Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica (Madrid, 1999). ISBN: 84-7232-820-1

• Monologue from “Who Ever Said I Was a Good Girl?” in Audition Monologs for Student Actors, Meriwether Publishing (1999). ISBN: 978-1-56608-055-2

• Antología culpable Ed. FUNDARTE (Caracas, 1997). ISBN: 980-253-332-7

• "Divorciadas, evangélicas y vegetarianas" in Antología crítica del teatro breve hispanoamericano. 1948-1993 Ed. María Mercedes Jaramillo and Yepes, M., Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, Colección Teatro (Medellín, 1997).

• "Divorciadas, evangélicas y vegetarianas" in Dramaturgia: Voces Nuevas Fund. CELARG (Caracas, 1991). ISBN: 980-6197-16-X

• 8 Piezas and two plays, Vols. I and II, Ed. Textoteatro (Caracas, 1991). ISBN:980-07-0665-8

• Teatro Cinco, Ed. Textoteatro (Caracas, 1989). ISBN:980-300-622-3

Bibliography

• GUSTAVO OTT´S DRAMATIC COCKTAILS, by Bárbara Mujica, Americas Magazine. June 2005

• "A Manera de Introducción", Orlando Rodriguéz in Teatro Venezolano Contemporaneo, Centro de Documentación Teatral, Quinto Centenario, Fondo de Cultura Económica (Madrid, 1991).