Sergio Blanco

The French-Uruguayan playwright and theatre director Sergio Blanco, who spent his childhood and adolescence in Montevideo and now makes his home in Paris, has devoted his career to the stage after completing studies in Classical Philology and theatre directing at the Comédie Française. Throughout his distinguished path, his plays have earned repeated recognition and a host of awards, including the National Playwriting Prize of Uruguay, the Montevideo City Playwriting Prize, the National Theatre Fund Prize, the Florencio Award for Best Playwright, the International Casa de las Américas Prize, and the Theatre Awards Best Text accolade in Greece. In 2017, his play Tebas Land was honoured with the prestigious Off West End Award in London, and in 2021, he received another Off West End Award as Best Playwright for his text La ira de Narciso. That same year, he was awarded the Florencio Prize for Best Actor for his performance in his autofictional lecture Memento mori. His work entered the repertoire of the Comedia Nacional of Uruguay in 2003 and 2007 with his plays .45’ and Kiev, and in 2022 with his play El salto de Darwin. His most recognised works include Slaughter, .45’, Kiev, Barbarie, Kassandra, El salto de Darwin, Tebas Land, Ostia, La ira de Narciso, El bramido de Düsseldorf, Cuando pases sobre mi tumba, Cartografía de una desaparición, Las flores del mal, Tráfico, Memento mori, Divina invención, Zoo and Tierra. In addition to being published and staged in his home country, the majority of his plays have been translated into several languages and published internationally. In recent years, his works have not only continued to appear on his native stages, but have also premiered in countries across Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania—including Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Peru, the United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland, Latvia, Belgium, Turkey, India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. A specialist in Performative Writing, he has guided numerous workshops and artistic investigations throughout Latin America and Europe, each culminating in striking large-scale performances and public interventions. Among his most notable projects are Escenas de Penitencias y Autopsias, 10 dramaturgos en la plaza pública, Louvre/Banlieue, Africa Street, Susurrantes, and Campo Blanco, created alongside Uruguayan photographer Matilde Campodónico. In common with his practice as a playwright and director, Blanco has forged a vibrant academic path, leading seminars, courses, and lectures in universities and cultural centres throughout Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Appointed in 2013 as Artistic Director for Universidad Carlos III de Madrid's Crossing Stages project, he orchestrated a two-year dialogue between European universities and creative institutions. That same year, the Comedia Nacional of Uruguay invited him to helm the inaugural National Seminar on Playwriting, followed by a yearlong research journey in 2014—commissioned by the National Institute of Performing Arts of Uruguay—where, together with eight researchers, he examined the poetics of La Autoficción: decirse en escena (Autofiction: Saying Oneself on Stage). In August 2013, Sergio Blanco premiered Tebas Land. In 2015, he debuted Ostia, a play performed by himself alongside his sister, the actress Roxana Blanco, and La ira de Narciso, with the participation of playwright, director, and actor Gabriel Calderón. In 2017, his autofiction El bramido de Düsseldorf premiered in Montevideo. The year 2019 saw the premieres of Tráfico in Bogotá, Cuando pases sobre mi tumba in Montevideo, and Memento mori in Barcelona. Throughout 2020, responding to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, Blanco created and directed COVID-451, a production staged across several cities featuring healthcare professionals from various hospitals. In December 2021, El salto de Darwin took the stage at Madrid's Teatro Español, while in May of the same year, Divina invención premiered at the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico. March 2022 marked the unveiling of Zoo at Milan's Piccolo Teatro, hailed as Best Foreign Show, and later that year, Uruguay's Comedia Nacional embraced El salto de Darwin in its season. Blanco's remarkable career was lauded with the Silver Morosoli Prize in December 2022 and the revered Alas Prize in August 2023, celebrating his lasting impact on Uruguayan culture. In November 2023, he presented his production Tierra in Montevideo. In May 2024, he received the Zoenadrama Award for Best Playwright in Athens. Later, in August 2024, he directed Confesiones in London, followed by a staging at Uruguay’s Comedia Nacional in September. His text Kassandra was also transformed into an opera and premiered at Buenos Aires' Teatro Colón that year. Over recent years, his works have appeared at prestigious festivals around the globe, and with performances across five continents, he is recognised as one of the most frequently produced dramatists writing in Spanish today.