Gustavo Ott, Award-Winning playwright and artistic director of Teatro San Martin, Caracas
TSMC is a fully-funded space in a rough neighbourhood in Caracas, where one of the Bush’s producers is from. Not only do they produce amazing new writing (they’ve just had a very successful five-week run of the award-winning Tres noches para cinco perros) but the theatre is free, and members of the local community fill the theatre every day - sometimes the same people come in every day and actors often have to improvise lines or else the audience will deliver them as well!
Carolina shared this anecdote:
David Villegas, producer and one of the main actors, told me once that one day he was wondering if the community would come in every day if, instead of a play, they had a big banner saying ‘come in to clean’. The theatre was in such a state and needed a big scrub, so he did. The day turned into a massive cleaning party - the members of the local community turned up and cleaned the theatre up - ending with some of the community members on the main stage doing karaoke with the mops as mikes. I’d love to think we’ll achieve that level of engagement with our community one day.
