Jorge Arturo Vargas, Artistic Director

Vargasis the artistic director of Teatro Línea de Sombra (since its inception in 1993. He has a degree in theater from Juárez University of Durango and University of Mexico. In the mid 1980s he studied  under Jerzy Grotowski at École de Mime Corporel Dramatique, in Paris, which led to his first work, Galería de Moribundos (Gallery of dying men), that established Vargas’ in physical and visual theater.  He subsequently trained with the International Theatre School for Latin America and the Caribbean in Havana, Cuba (1990), and Tlaxcala, Mexico (1994.) Until 2010, he alternated between devising experimental theater and directing plays written by authors such as Roland Schimmelpfenning, Jon Fosse, Anthony Neilson, Neil LaButte and Lars Noren. The Association of Theater Writers and Critics (UCCCT) twice recognized Vargas and Teatro Línea de Sombra (TLS) with Best Theatre Group in the Provinces (1982, 1991), and Vargas with two awards for Best Research Theatre Director (2001,  2005). Their work tour throughout Mexico and have toured to major festivals and theaters in France, Argentina, the US, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Spain, Finland, Russia, Korea, Slovenia, and Macedonia.  

Amarillo, the hallmark work by Vargas with TLS, received the Latin ACE Award for Best Foreign Production in New York, in 2012; and the Audience Award for the Best Performance of the 21st Exponto International Performing Arts Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Universal Forum of Cultures Monterrey commissioned Vargas to create and direct The Forge of the World, a large-scale performance piece inside Oven 3 of Fundidora Park in Monterrey.  More than a million spectators attended its 80 performances.   Vargas is artistic co-director of the International Encounter of Contemporary Scene, Transversales (Transversals), since 1998 and belongs to the National System of Art Creators since 2001.  He has taught for more than thirty years in various cultural, private and independent institutions and has taught workshops in and outside the country.  His latest projects are: “Carnaval de Abandonados” (Carnival of the deserted ones): a laboratory, ethnography and dramatic happening about impulsiveness, the ephemeral and the festivities.  This research began in 2015 in communities subjected to exclusion and marginalization. It is a trans-disciplinary project coordinated by the anthropologist Rodrigo Parrini and collectively directed by Eduardo Bernal, Alfadir Luna and Jorge Vargas, and, “Amarillo en la ruta migrante”, (Yellow on the migrant route) a communal artistic intervention which takes place in the migrant shelters located on the cities of Tenosique, Amatlán de los Reyes, Ixtepec and soon in Saltillo, Coahuila.  The company has integrated a multidisciplinary group of collaborators including visual artists, musicians, set designers, academics, sociologists and journalists.  Although the creative work is mainly related with the field of theatre, the company has an educational program of contemporary performing arts and produces an annual international theater festival (12 editions) called Transversales, Encuentro Internacional de Escena Contemporánea, an international conference for artistic exchange about trends in the field.