Vargas to Present Lecture In UB International Theater Program

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Maria Vargas, associate professor of Spanish in the University at Buffalo Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, will discuss the play ³Waiting for the Italian² by Venezuelan writer Mariela Romera as part of the UB International Artistic and Cultural Exchange (IACE) Program.

Vargas¹ talk, titled ³Songs, Soaps, Cinema: Mixed Genres in ŒWaiting for the Italian,¹² will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 7, in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus.

Admission is $3 and the public is invited to attend. The box office will be open one hour prior to the lecture. Call 645-ARTS for further information.

The prize-winning Romera has worked in theater as a writer, director, actress, producer and stage designer in her native Venezuela. In ³Waiting for the Italian,² staged in 1988 by the New Theater Group of Caracas, Romera recreates the mien of the 1940s by incorporating elements from such period genres as music, soap opera and film. The play depicts a plan by four middle-aged women to hire a discreet and ideal lover who will satisfy them sexually.

Vargas will examine how Romera harmoniously blends visual and auditory genres into the main plot of her drama in an effort to depict the lives of the middle-class, middle-aged sector of Venezuelan society. She also will consider how the flawless weave of Romera¹s text fuses life and art. Music that recalls the youth of the characters, as well as slides and film clips, will be incorporated into the lecture to capture the mood Romera so effectively creates on-stage.