ROBERTO RAMOS-PEREA (English bio) Born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, on August 13, 1959. Playwright, stage director, screenwriter, actor, historian, critic, and sociologist of Puerto Rican theater and cinema. He completed higher studies in Playwriting, Dramatic Text Analysis, and Stage and Screen Acting at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City, and continued those studies at the University of Puerto Rico and through independent studies in various academies around the world. He has been a University Professor of Playwriting, History and Sociology of Theater, Romantic Literature, and Afro-Descendant Puerto Rican Literature. He was Founder in 2010 of the Alejandro Tapia y Rivera Institute and Artistic Director of its National Theater Company. He is also Director General of the National Theater and Film Archive. He was a journalist and columnist for the daily newspapers El Reportero, El Vocero, El Mundo, Puerto Rico Ilustrado, and Revista VEA. He has premiered and published over one hundred plays in Puerto Rico and in countries such as Japan, the United States, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and the Dominican Republic. His works have been translated into English, French, Czech, Polish, Portuguese, and Japanese. He has directed over a hundred stage productions in Puerto Rico and abroad and has been awarded by national and international institutions such as the City Council of Seville, Casa de las Américas in Cuba, the PEN Club of Puerto Rico, the Ricardo Alegría Foundation, the Víctor Hugo Medal, the Institute of Puerto Rican Literature, and the Ateneo Puertorriqueño. In 1992, the Ministry of Culture of Spain awarded him the Tirso de Molina Award for his play Lie to Me More (Miénteme más). Spain's Tirso de Molina Award is the highest honor presented to a Spanish-speaking playwright in the world. The play premiered and was published in Spain, and has premiered in several Latin American countries. In the same competition, his play To Die at Night (Morir de noche) was among the six finalists chosen for the award. He has written and directed the Puerto Rican feature films Silencing Love (Callando amores, 1996), Revolution in Hell (Revolución en el infierno, 2004), After Death (Después de la muerte, 2005), Iraq in Me (Iraq en mí, 2007), The Blaze(La llamarada, 2015), Welcome, Don Goyito (Bienvenido, Don Goyito, 2017), and Vejigantes (Vejigantes, 2021), as well as the feature-length documentary Tapia: The First Puerto Rican (Tapia: el primer puertorriqueño, 2009). He has published the short story collection Child's Blood (Sangre de niño, 1976) and the essays Perspective of New Puerto Rican Playwriting (Perspectiva de la Nueva Dramaturgia Puertorriqueña, Ateneo, 1989), Contemporary Puerto Rican Theater 1982-2003 (Teatro Puertorriqueño Contemporáneo 1982-2003, Gaviota, 2003), 4 F*ed-Up Essays and a Play (4 ensayos jodidos y una obra de teatro, Puerto, 2012), and the compilation Reluctant Prose (Prosas de mala gana, Le Provincial, 2022).
Publicaciones Gaviota publishes his Selected Plays (Teatro Escogido) in seven volumes. Editions Le Provincial and Gaviota also publish his most recent and successful plays: Module 104 (Módulo 104, 2nd ed., 1994), Bad Blood(Malasangre, 3rd ed., 2017), God's Witch (Bruja de Dios, 2012), Urgent Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico urgente, 2013), The Lady of the Camellias/Marianela (La dama de las camelias/Marianela, 2014), and his Puerto Rican historical plays Joys of Inquisition (Gozos de Inquisición, 2014), Black Enlightened One (Iluminado negro, 2015), For Being a Faggot-1843 (Por maricón-1843, 2016), The Governor's Mistress (La amante del Gobernador, 2017), Yours Always, Julita: The Loves of Julia de Burgos and Luis Lloréns Torres, Unpublished Letters and Poems (Tuya siempre, Julita: los amores de Julia de Burgos y Luis Lloréns Torres, cartas y poemas inéditos, 2018), The Yankee Teacher (La maestra yanqui, 2018), My Laura: Story of a Poem (Laura mía: historia de un poema, 2019), Stray Bird (Ave sin rumbo, 2020), Guerrilla Magdalena (Magdalena guerrillera, 2020), Fatal Water (Aqua funesta, 2021), Baldorioty (Baldorioty, 2022), and Faded (Faded, 2022). EDP University Press publishes several of his books, including his short plays collection Censored (Censurado, 2016). He has adapted major classic Puerto Rican literature for the stage, such as The Undertow(La resaca), The Blaze (La llamarada), The Pond (La charca), El Josco (El Josco), The Legend of 20 Years (La leyenda de los 20 años), Barren Island (Isla Cerrera), Boricua Fantasy (Fantasía Boricua), and The Countryman (El Gíbaro), among many others. He is currently working on the DICTIONARY OF 19TH-CENTURY PUERTO RICAN DRAMATIC LITERATURE, the DICTIONARY OF PUERTO RICAN FEATURE FILMS, and the case study History of Theater Censorship in Puerto Rico. As a theater historian, he has also published History of New Puerto Rican Playwriting (Historia de la Nueva Dramaturgia Puertorriqueña, Intermedio de PR, 1987); Recovered Works of Celedonio Luis Nebot de Padilla (Obras Encontradas de Celedonio Luis Nebot de Padilla, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, 2008); Complete Works of Manuel María Sama (Obras Completas de Manuel María Sama, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, 2007); the comprehensive study 19th Century Black Puerto Rican Literature Written by Black Authors (Literatura Puertorriqueña Negra del siglo XIX escrita por negros, Gaviota, 2012); and the extensive biographical treatise Tapia: The First Puerto Rican (Tapia: el primer puertorriqueño, Gaviota, 2016). In press and preparation, he has the books History of the Black Puerto Rican ‘Intelligentsia’ (Historia de la ‘intelligentsia’ puertorriqueña negra, Gaviota, 2022) and Clara Lair: The Governor's Mistress. Critical Biography and Collected Works of Mercedes Negrón Muñoz (Clara Lair: la amante del Gobernador. Biografía crítica y obras recogidas de Mercedes Negrón Muñoz, Gaviota, 2022). He currently lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and is an enthusiast of esotericism and astronomy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF Roberto Ramos-Perea IN INTERNATIONAL BOOKS • Balderston, Daniel; González, Mike. Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2004.
• Banham, Martin; Hill, Errol; Woodyard, George. The Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 1994. (pp. 221, 223) • Banham, Martin. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 1995. (p. 903) • Brockett, Oscar; Hildy, Franklin J. History of the Theatre. Allyn and Bacon, Ninth edition, 2003. (p. 527) • Brockett, Oscar; Hildy, Franklin J. History of the Theatre. Allyn and Bacon, Tenth edition, 2008. (p. 510) • Cortés, Eladio; Barrea-Marlys, Mirta. Encyclopedia of Latin American Theater. Greenwood Press, 2003. (pp. 413, 436) • Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Daniel. Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre. Routledge, 2002. (p. 252) • De la Fuente, Ricardo; Amezúa, Julia. Dictionary of Ibero-American Theater (Diccionario del Teatro Iberoamericano). Madrid, Spain: Ediciones Almar, 2002. (p. 297) • Harvell, Tony A. Latin American Dramatists Since 1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide. Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2003. • King, Kimball. Western Drama through the Ages: A Student Reference Guide. Greenwood Press, 2007. 2 volumes. (Vol. 1, p. 206) • Rubin, Don; Solórzano, Carlos. World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: The Americas (1st ed.). Routledge, 2001. (pp. 384-385)