Myrna Casas

Myrna Casas (January 2, 1934 – November 9, 2022) was a Puerto Rican experimental playwright, director, actress, and theatre scholar. She was the co-founder and artistic director of the company Producciones Cisne.

Early life Casas was born in San Juan to Carmen Busó Carrasquillo and Sixto Casas Semidei. She studied Drama at Vassar College, graduating in 1954, and earned a master's degree in acting at Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1961. She went on to study at New York University where she obtained a doctorate in Theatre education in 1974.

Career A member of the sixties generation, Casas's work addressed Puerto Rican national identity through both absurdist and realist plays. She also explored the themes of women in patriarchal societies, as in her play Eugenia Victoria Herrera. Her 1988 play The Great Ukrainian Circus (El gran circo Ucraniano) has been performed regularly and examined by scholars.

Casas for many years taught at the University of Puerto Rico in the drama department, which she also directed for several years. She acted in the 1950s and served in the San Juan municipal assembly from 1996 to 2000. She has been compared to other Puerto Rican women in theatre, such as Victoria Espinosa and Gilda Navarra.

Personal life and death Casas died on a November 9, 2022, at the age of 88. She was buried at the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.

Works Casas wrote more than 30 plays, including:

Casas also wrote an opera libretto, El mensajero de plata.