Myrna Casas papers, 1934-2020
Filter Online content
Collection context
- Creator:
- Casas, Myrna (1934-2022)
- Extent:
- 20 Linear Feet (27 ms boxes (boxes 1-26, 29), 4 rscs (boxes 27, 28, 30, 33), one flat box (box 31), one tall ms box (box 32))
- Language:
- The collection is primarily in Spanish, with some correspondence, plays, books and papers in English and very few items in French.
- Scope and content:
-
The Myrna Casas papers document the professional career and creative output of Puerto Rican playwright, director, educator, and cultural administrator Myrna Casas (1934–2022). The collection spans more than five decades and reflects her work as a playwright, her leadership of the theatre company Producciones Cisne (1963–2004), her academic career at the University of Puerto Rico, and her later administrative roles in Puerto Rico's Centro de Bellas Artes.
Materials include drafts and annotated typescripts and manuscripts of plays, production files, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, CD-ROM, thumb drives, books, magazines, correspondence, dissertations and academic papers, teaching materials, programs, playbills, sketches, scrapbooks, ephemera, photographs, and administrative and financial records.
The papers are particularly strong in documenting Casas's playwriting, which encompasses psychological realism, theatre of the absurd, avant-garde and experimental theatre, historical drama, musical theatre, opera, zarzuela, and children's theatre. Notable works represented include Cristal roto en el tiempo (1960), Absurdos en soledad (1963), La trampa (1964), Cuarenta años después (1973–1974), Sueños de antaño (1985), and El gran circo Ucraniano (1988), the latter awarded the National Dramaturgy Prize by the Puerto Rico Critics' Circle. Later materials document her turn toward monologues and small-cast works focused on gender, power, memory, and family relationships, as well as her extensive contributions to theatre for children and young audiences. Additionally, the collection contains over 20 typescripts by other mostly Puerto Rican playwrights, most notably René Marqués' Los Soles Truncos, as well as programs and playbills from non-Casas productions ranging from the 1950s to the 2010s.
The collection includes Casas' work as an administrator and director of the Centro de Bellas Artes (CBA) with a range of materials ranging from monthly meeting minutes, strategic plans, quarterly reports, marketing materials, correspondence, magazines, critical reviews, cultural newspaper advertisements, financial documentation, and community outreach materials.
The papers also include Casas' notebooks, loose-leaf manuscripts, diaries, poems, personal photos, early and late academic materials and works, and personal ephemera. Together, the collection provides insight into her early and sustained experimentation with theatrical form and her influence on Puerto Rican theatre and cultural life.
The collection contains a large number of photographs that could not be easily matched to their corresponding theatrical productions, including onstage photos, rehearsal and cast members that could not be identified. The actor Josie Perez's scrapbook with photographs is also included here. There are also personal photographs from Casas' early life, college years and personal life.
Casas personally helped to arrange the donation of her papers to the RBML in 2020 due to a concern for flood risks and infrastructure in Puerto Rico. Some of the materials in the collection were professionally handled and underwent mold remediation before arriving at the RBML.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Myrna Casas Busó was born on January 2, 1934, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the daughter of Sixto Casas Semidei and Carmen Busó Carrasquillo. Her passion for the performing arts began in childhood, making her stage debut in the children's production Pinocho at the Teatro Riviera.
Casas pursued formal education in theatre in the United States. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Vassar College in 1954, a master's degree in acting from Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1961, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre Education from New York University in 1974.
After completing her studies, Casa entered academia in 1955, joining the University of Puerto Rico as a theatre educator. She taught history of theatre, acting, and direction, eventually serving as Director of the Department of Drama for several years. During her long academic career, she influenced generations of Puerto Rican theatre practitioners and students. Casas co-founded the theatre company Producciones Cisne (1963 to 2004) with Josie Pérez and Gilda Navarra, serving as its artistic director. Under her leadership, the company produced and staged more than fifty theatrical works, many of which showcased her own writing, interpretations, translations, and adaptations. Under her artistic direction, Producciones Cisne served as a "seedbed" and launching platform for generations of Puerto Rican actors, directors, and theater professionals, many of whom regarded her as a teacher and mentor. The company earned the respect and admiration of both the artistic community and the general public, solidifying Myrna Casas's reputation as a "grand dame of theater" and a central figure in Puerto Rican culture.
Myrna Casas's dramatic works span more than five decades and encompass a wide range of theatrical forms, including psychological realism, theatre of the absurd, avant-garde theatre, musical theatre, opera, zarzuela, and children's theatre. Beginning with Cristal roto en el tiempo (1960), her early plays explore psychological tension, family conflict, and social decay, often set against symbolic or deteriorating domestic spaces. During the 1960s and 1970s, Casas became a leading figure in Puerto Rican absurdist and experimental theatre with works such as Absurdos en soledad, La trampa, Epígrafe 3, and El improntu de San Juan, which critique existential confinement, theatrical conventions, and Puerto Rican social realities through fragmented structures and metatheatrical devices.
Her later work expanded into historical drama and large-scale productions, including Cuarenta años después, which draws on Puerto Rican historiography, and Sueños de antaño, a zarzuela set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico. From the mid-1980s onward, Casas also produced an extensive body of children's and family theatre, including musical adaptations of Pinocchio, Aladdin, and Don Quijote, as well as original works for young audiences. One of her most significant plays, El gran circo Ucraniano (1988), received the National Dramaturgy Award from the Puerto Rico Critics' Circle and is widely regarded as a landmark of twentieth-century Puerto Rican theatre. In her later career, Casas increasingly turned to intimate forms such as monologues and small-cast plays, focusing on themes of gender, power, memory, obsession, family dynamics, and domestic violence. Works such as Tres noches tropicales y una vida de infierno, Juegos de obsesión, Las reinas del Chantecler, Verano verano, and Otoño foreground women's voices and interior lives. Across her oeuvre, Casas demonstrates sustained experimentation with form and genre while engaging critically with Puerto Rican identity, social structures, and the role of women in society.
In addition to her academic and artistic work, Casas served as a municipal assembly member for the city of San Juan from 1996 to 2000 and was later named General Manager of the Centro de Bellas Artes (CBA) Luis A. Ferré in Santurce. Her tenure as the CBA director (2009 to 2013) led to an increase in financial stability and in public programming, as Casas established and managed dynamic cultural programming, including 28 events with 104 performances and an attendance of approximately 45,000 people in one period. She also secured funding for new artistic initiatives, such as the "Thursdays at the Fine Arts Center" program in the Center's plaza, an initiative to bring the arts closer to the public.
Throughout her life, Casas received honors from cultural and educational institutions, including the Puerto Rican Senate, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, and the Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Her papers and manuscripts were acquired by the Columbia University Libraries in 2020 as part of the Latino Art and Activism Archives.
Myrna Casas died on November 9, 2022, in San Juan at the age of 88. She was buried at the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
This collection is located off-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Mold remediation was performed on the entire collection in 2021. Although all materials can be used in the reading room, patrons that are sensitive to mold may still experience a reaction to materials that have been cleaned.
- Terms of access:
-
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
- Location of this collection:
- Before you visit:
- Researchers interested in viewing materials in the RBML reading room must book an appointment at least 7 days in advance. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to 5 items per day.
- Contact:
- rbml@library.columbia.edu