New York Premiere | Presented in partnership with Under the Radar Festival
Friday and Saturday at 7 PM · Sunday at 3 PM · Performed in English · Best suited for ages 12 and up
Directly from Paris, Cuervo is a haunting multimedia theater performance honoring the legacy of Chilean playwright Óscar “Cuervo” Castro, who founded Teatro Aleph in Santiago de Chile in 1967. In 1974, Óscar and his sister Marietta were arrested by agents of Pinochet’s Chilean military dictatorship. Despite the extreme violence they experienced in captivity, Óscar turned his despair in Chile’s concentration camps into a work of art. Astonishingly, Cuervo, as his friends and colleagues called him, found a way to stage a new play each week in the camps’ dining halls, transforming the lives of hundreds of prisoners. After being released, Óscar found shelter in the French Embassy and was later invited by French luminaries such as Ariane Mnouchkine and Claude Lelouch to rebuild his life and his beloved theater in Paris, now named Théâtre Aleph.
In April of 2021, Castro passed away in France. Three years later, his sons Cosme and Óscar Jr., now working in Paris, crossed half the world and the Andes with cameras in hand alongside their father’s unpublished theatrical autobiography, Théâtrographie. Guided by that narrative, they set out to find his former fellow prisoners, friends who had shared his playfully creative attempts at psychological survival. They visited the camps where he was detained and tortured, retracing his steps through harsh years of political suppression and theatrical bravery.
The result is this freshly reimagined Cuervo, adapted and directed by Cosme Castro and Óscar Castro, Jr. from an excerpt of Théâtrographie: a theatrical, audiovisual, and testimonial adaptation that includes a staged reading enriched with audiovisual sketches, silhouettes, and photographic images of crucial spaces captured by his sons half a century later. Journeying through memory and highlighting art as a means of resistance and resilience in the face of oppression, this cautionary tale is more timely than ever.
Presented in Partnership with Under the Radar – utrfest.org
Event Details
Pregones Theater
575 Walton Ave, Bronx, NY 10451
(b/w 149 & 150 Streets)
Subway #2, 4, 5 to
149 Street & Grand Concourse
Just one block from the station!
Questions? Call us at 718-585-1202
January 15-17, 2027
Friday and Saturday at 7 PM
Sunday at 3 PM
Performed in English · Best suited for ages 12 and up
Created by:
Théâtre Aleph & La Comète Films
Adaptation / Direction:
Cosme Castro
Óscar Jr. Castro
English Reading:
Stanley Weber
Illustrations:
Jeanne Frenkel
Musical Composition:
Lou Rotzinger
OSCAR JR. CASTRO, The youngest member of the Chilean theatre family Teatro Aleph, Óscar Jr. Castro grew up on stage. Afterseveral years working as first assistant director for La Comète Films (Jour de Gloire – live feature on Arte.tv; Georges sauve le monde – presented at Théâtre Monfort), he co-founded in 2017 a collective of directors, screenwriters, and art directors La Piscine Films, together with his creative partner Jeanne Sigwalt. Together, they have co-directed numerous music videos with the support of the French National Centre for Cinema (CNC), including: Les Louanges feat. Ichon – Sur la Mélodie (2023); Bro feat. Ichon – T’étais pas là (2023); Dada – Demain (2024); Hiru – La lluvia cae (2025). In 2023, he directed his first fiction short film, Rocket’s Stadium, selected for the official competition of the Grenoble Outdoor Short Film Festival (Festival du Film Court en Plein Air de Grenoble) and the Gindou Film Festival.
STANLEY WEBER, With a classical training that took him through the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris and the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), He was first noticed in the international TV series Borgia. Since then, he has appeared in several English-language series such as Outlander and Black Mirror. For cinema, he has worked in France under the direction of Claude Miller and Martin Provost, and abroad in films such as Pilgrimage. On stage, he has performed notably in Le Pays Lointain at the Odéon, directed by Clément Hervieu-Léger, and in Anna Christie, directed by Jean-Louis Martinelli at Théâtre de l’Atelier.
JEANNE FRENKEL, French theatre director, illustrator and visual artist, Jeanne Frenkel supports and manages film, stage, and musical projects. Her career began in graphic design, creating album covers, music videos, and concert scenography (2010–2015). Her exploration of theatre and stage creation seeks to delve into themes of design and space, bridging event production and stage direction with her own Installations and audiovisual creations.
LOU ROTZINGER, French composer and multi-instrumentalist, Lou Rotzinger was born in Paris in 1987. A self-taught musician, he composes for films and documentaries and has performed on stage with numerous artists. (Anna Chedid, Les Nuits du Lou, Marc Melià, Romeo Poirier, Loïc Fleury, Vincent Moon). He has worked as a composer on soundtracks for creations by La Comète (metacinema), Jeanne Frenkel, and Cosme Castro. He has released three studio albums and collaborated with numerous audiovisual, stage, and photographic artists.
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar – utrfest.org
Olga Garay-English, Senior Advisor and Producer for the U.S. tour
José Zambelli, tour co-producer
The 2027 U.S. tour and New York Premiere of Théâtre Aleph & La Comète Films’ Cuervo is supported by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation through the Theatre & New Forms program, and with additional support from the Olga Garay-English and Dr. Kerry English Legacy Trust.
This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Governor’s Office and the New York State Legislature. Pregones/PRTT is proud grantee of the National Latinx Theater Initiative, an initiative by The Latino Theater Company. For a full list of our funders, click here.
Members enjoy the best prices and early access!
The actors and stage managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. This Theater operates under an Actors’ Equity Association Off-Broadway NYC-LOA.