Héctor Manuel Vidal

Héctor Manuel Vidal (26 August 1943 – 12 January 2014) was a Uruguayan theater director.

Héctor Manuel Vidal
Born(1943-08-26)26 August 1943
Las Piedras, Uruguay
Died12 January 2014(2014-01-12) (aged 70)
Montevideo, Uruguay
OccupationTheater director
Spouse(s)Margarita Musto
ChildrenMaría Vidal Musto
Awards

Biography

Héctor Manuel Vidal's training in stage arts began at the school of the group Club de Teatro, in which he performed in over 40 plays. He made his debut as an actor under the direction of Antonio Larreta in Chips with Everything, by the English playwright Arnold Wesker. His first experience as a director was in 1969 with La víspera del degüello, by the Chilean Jorge Díaz, staged internally. His premiere as a director before the public was in 1974 at the Teatro El Tinglado, with Woyzeck by Georg Büchner.[1]

Two of his plays, Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco and Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht (1983), premiered during the 1973-1985 civic-military dictatorship. From these premieres, and given their topics, theater critics recognized Vidal's ability to choose the most appropriate works and themes for the socio-political context of his country. Another important work in his career as a theater director was Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, about the life of Alan Turing, with more than 300 performances.[1]

Other plays included Don Mendo's Revenche by Pedro Muñoz Seca, Inodoro Pereyra (The Renegade) by Roberto Fontanarrosa, No Man's Land by Harold Pinter, A Respectable Wedding by Bertolt Brecht, and La Gatomaquia by Lope de Vega.[1] In his more than four decades as a theater director, he also directed works by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Maurice Maeterlinck, Shakespeare, Henry Miller, and Jean-Luc Lagarce, among others.[2]

Vidal joined the Communist Party in 1961. Before the 1973 coup d'état he wrote for the newspaper El Popular, a party press organ, and its political humor supplement Misia Dura. He worked at Banco de la República until he resigned to dedicate himself to the theater. Years later he left the party.

He was general and artistic director of the Comedia Nacional twice – from 1996 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2006.[2] In 2006 he resigned due to disagreements with the Intendency of Montevideo's Department of Culture.[3]

He was the husband of actress and theater director Margarita Musto.[1] His daughter María Vidal Musto is a theatrical actress.[4]

Awards

Further reading
  • "Entrevista central a: Héctor Manuel Vidal" [Central Interview with: Héctor Manuel Vidal] (PDF). Socio Espectacular. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015.
  • Alfonso, Javier (16 January 2014). "Héctor Manuel Vidal (1943–2014) Esencial y poderoso" [Héctor Manuel Vidal (1943–2014) Essential and Powerful]. Búsqueda (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
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References
  1. Abbondanza, Jorge (13 January 2014). "Ante la muerte de un enorme director" [Before the Death of a Huge Director]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  2. "Hector Manuel Vidal" (in Spanish). Comedia Nacional. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  3. "Renuncia director de La Comedia" [Director of La Comedia Resigns]. El País (in Spanish). 12 July 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  4. Reyes, Carlos (15 June 2010). "María Vidal, con toda una carrera por delante" [María Vidal, with a Whole Career Ahead]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  5. "A los 70 años falleció Héctor Manuel Vidal, figura mayor de nuestro teatro" [Héctor Manuel Vidal, Major Figure of Our Theater, Passes Away at 70]. Diario El Pueblo (in Spanish). 16 January 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  6. Directores teatrales del Uruguay: 50 retratos [Theatrical Directors of Uruguay: 50 Portraits] (in Spanish). Editorial Proyección. 1994. p. 162. Retrieved 17 April 2018 – via Google Books.
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