Gustavo Ott es un dramaturgo venezolano contemporáneo galardonado con numerosos premios nacionales e internacionales. Es autor de unas cuarenta obras escritas desde los años ochenta hasta la actualidad y representadas en varios países del mundo. El objetivo de este artículo es acercarse al teatro de Gustavo Ott con el fin de constatar la importancia que cobra el tiempo en su producción y analizar cómo funciona en la estructura dramática. Su interés por el tiempo se manifiesta en varios niveles, desde consideraciones de carácter filosófico, científico, hasta su manejo dramatúrgico mediante varios recursos y procedimientos. Se estudian en el trabajo las alteraciones de la duración y del orden del tiempo, vistas desde la perspectiva de la relación entre el tiempo diegético y el escénico, así como el tiempo irreal, onírico (sueños, alucinaciones) y el tiempo alternativo.

‘To be’ vs. ‘to appear to be’ – the relativity of innocence and guilt in plays of Pavlovsky, Diament, and Santana The aim of this paper is to compare three dramatic works by Latin-American playwrights: Argentinians Eduardo Pavlovsky and Mario Diament, and Rodolfo Santana from Venezuela. The three dramatists belong to a fairly the same artistic generation (they were born in, respectively: 1937, 1942, and 1944). The examined works originate in approximately the same period of time (Los criminales by Santana was published in 1968, La mueca by Pavlovsky and Crónica de un secuestro by Diament in 1971). These three texts demonstrate intriguing similarities in their dramatic structure. The central dramatic devices employ antinomies between the notions of ‘being’ and ‘appearing to be’, as well as gradual ascertainment of characters’ personal experiences from a standpoint of guiltiness and innocence. The intensity of interpersonal relations between characters is marked with various kinds of violence, where victims may become oppressors, and possibly contrariwise. The confinement of characters in a limited space prompts penitence and soul-searching.

“Crossing the Northern Border”: illegal immigration depicted in Mexican drama Hugo Salcedo, Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda, Jaime ChabaudThis paper presents a comparative study of three Mexican dramas: Los ilegales 1979 by Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda, El viaje de los cantores 1988 by Hugo Salcedo, and Oc ye nechca érase una vez 2008 by Jaime Chabaud. These plays share the theme of Mexican citizens’ immi­gration to the USA. The ways in which parts of a dramatic play such as character, time and set­ting are constructed, will be examined to decipher how the authors’ focus on the most alarming feature of the Mexican reality, namely mass migration. The reasons behind the mass emigration from Mexico to the USA are both economy and people’s lack of sense of security. As this study delineates, the mass emigration depicted in the presented dramas is characterized as illegal and inhumane. The analysis of the three dramas demonstrates that their dramatic structures convey a definite ideological message.