China Zorrilla
| China Zorrilla | |
|---|---|
 Zorrilla in 1970 | |
| Born |
Concepción Zorrilla de San Martín Muñoz March 14, 1922 Montevideo, Uruguay |
| Occupation | Actress |
China Zorrilla (Spanish: ['tʃina so'riʒa], born Concepción Matilde Zorrilla de San Martín Muñoz; March 14, 1922) is an award-winning Uruguayan theater, film and television actress.[1][2]
She has made over 40 appearances in film and TV since 1971. She started her career in Uruguay, moving later to Argentina where she lived for over 35 years, being active in Argentinian TV, theater and cinema. Nowadays, China lives in Uruguay. She is a popular star in the Rioplatense area, and is regarded as one of the Grand Dames of the South American theater stage.
In 2008, Zorrilla was awarded the distinction of Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) by the French Government. In 2011, the Correo Uruguayo (the national postal service in Uruguay) released a print run of 500 postage stamps dedicated to Zorrilla.[3]
Early life
Zorrilla was born in Montevideo into an aristocratic Uruguayan family. She is the daughter of sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891–1975) and Guma Muñoz del Campo.[2] Her father was a disciple of Antoine Bourdelle and created several monuments in Uruguay and Argentina. Her paternal grandfather was Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, who is considered Uruguay's National poet. Her older sister, Guma (1919–2001), was a theater costume designer.
She grew up with her four sisters in Paris. In Montevideo she attended Sagrado Corazón school. In 1948 she earned a British Council scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she studied under the Greek actress Katina Paxinou.
Uruguay
Zorrilla made her debut in Paul Claudel's The Tidings Brought to Mary. She joined the National Comedy of Uruguay and worked at the Solís Theatre, where Margarita Xirgu directed her in García Lorca's Blood Wedding and other classics.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Zorrilla appeared in Mother Courage and Her Children, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tartuffe. The Seagull, Wilder's Our Town, Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot and plays by Pirandello, Peter Ustinov, Tirso de Molina, Lope de Vega, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, J. B. Priestley, Ferenc Molnár and others. She received critical acclaim for her performances in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker and in Hay Fever as Judith Bliss.[4]
With actor Enrique Guarnero and writer Antonio Larreta, she co-founded the TCM (Teatro Ciudad de Montevideo). The company toured Buenos Aires, Paris and Madrid, where they won the Spanish Critics Award for their stagings of García Lorca and Lope de Vega.
Between 1964 and 1966, Zorrilla lived in New York where she worked as a French teacher and Broadway secretary. In New York she gave performances of Canciones para mirar, a children's musical based on texts by Argentinian poet Maria Elena Walsh. As correspondent for the Uruguayan newspaper El País, she covered events such as the Cannes Film Festival.
As opera director she directed Puccini's La bohème, Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the Solís Theatre and Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata. She also hosted a talk show for many years.
Argentina
In 1971 Zorrilla made her film debut at age 49 in Un Guapo del 900, directed by Lautaro Murúa and starring Alfredo Alcón. The following summer she replaced Ana María Campoy in Butterflies are Free, which was performed in the city of Mar del Plata. She then moved to Argentina where she has had a remarkable career in television, theater and cinema.
From 1973 to 1977 she was forbidden by the military regime from performing in Uruguayan theatres. After the country's return to democracy in the 1980s, Zorrilla made a comeback at the Teatro Solís.[5]
During the mid-1970s, Zorrilla made numerous national and international tours, and appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in Barcelona,[6] Bogotá, Lima, Caracas, Tel Aviv, Miami, San Juan, Santiago, Montevideo, Punta del Este, São Paulo and Asunción, among other cities.
In the theater, she has portrayed historical figures such as Emily Dickinson in William Luce's The Belle of Amherst, Victoria Ocampo (by Monica Ottino), Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters and performed in plays by Jean Cocteau, Lucille Fletcher, Oscar Viale and Jacobo Langsner. She also reprised the part of Judith Bliss in Hay Fever .
In the last decade, she has obtained an outstanding success (and four awards as "Best actress in a play") as sculptor Helen Martins in Athol Fugard's The Road to Mecca and as Eve in an adaption she made of Mark Twain's Eve's Diary (The private diary of Adam and Eve).
In 1995 she assumed the role of Persephone in Stravinsky and Gide's Perséphone in Buenos Aires.
Zorrilla has also adapted, directed and produced several plays and musicals: Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters, Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men, Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear and Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers.
She has worked in several films. She won Best Actress in La Habana Film Festival for her role in "Darse Cuenta". She left indelible performances in Summer of the Colt (a Canadian coproduction), Maria Luisa Bemberg's Nobody's Wife, The Jewish Gauchos, the coproduction The Plague (starring William Hurt and Raúl Juliá), Edgardo Cozarinsky's Guerriers et captives (with Dominique Sanda and Leslie Caron), Manuel Puig's "Pubis Angelical",[7] Adolfo Aristarain's Lasts Days of the Victim and in the cult classic Argentinian black comedy Esperando la carroza (Waiting for the Hearse) (1986).
Zorrilla obtained wide critical and audience recognition for her performances as the Mother in Conversaciones con mamá in 2005 (2004 Best Actress Award at the 26th Moscow International Film Festival[8] and the Málaga Film Festival) and as Elsa in Elsa & Fred,[9][10] which won her several awards, including the Silver Condor for Best Actress.
Honors
She was awarded the Orden de Mayo by the Argentinian government and the Orden Gabriela Mistral by the Chilean government and awards in her native country.
She was declared "Illustrious Citizen" in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and other Argentinian cities and two theaters bear her name.
In 2008 she was made Knight (Chevalier) of the Légion d'honneur by the French Government.[11]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Tocar el cielo | Imperio |
| 2005 | Elsa y Fred | Elsa |
| 2004 | Conversaciones con mamá | Mamá |
| 1997 | Sin querer | |
| Entre la sombra y el alma (short film) | ||
| 1996 | Besos en la frente | Mercedes Arévalo |
| Lola Mora | ||
| 1995 | Fotos del alma | Esthercita |
| La nave de los locos | Dr Marta Caminos | |
| 1994 | Guerriers et captives | |
| 1992 | Cuatro caras para Victoria | Victoria Ocampo IV |
| La Peste | Emma Rieux | |
| 1991 | Dios los cría | |
| El verano del potro | Ana | |
| 1989 | Nunca estuve en Viena | Carlota |
| 1986 | Pobre mariposa | |
| 1985 | Waiting for the Hearse | Elvira Romero |
| Contar hasta diez | ||
| 1984 | Darse cuenta | |
| 1982 | La invitación | |
| Pubis angelical | ||
| Últimos días de la víctima | Beba | |
| Señora de nadie | ||
| 1975 | Los gauchos judíos | |
| Triángulo de cuatro | ||
| Las sorpresas | ||
| 1974 | The Truce | |
| 1973 | Las venganzas de Beto Sánchez | Teacher |
| 1972 | La Maffia | Assunta |
| 1971 | Un Guapo del 900 |
Television
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Mujeres asesinas | Inés Quinteros (1 episode) |
| 2004 | Los Roldán | Mercedes Lozada |
| Piel naranja años después | Doña Elena | |
| 2003 | Son amores | Margarita (uncredited) |
| 2002 | 099 Central | Dora (uncredited) |
| 2001 | Enamorarte | Mercedes "Mechita" Dugan viuda de Juarez |
| Las amantes | ||
| 1998 | Gasoleros | Matilde |
| 1997 | El arcángel | |
| Ricos y famosos | Catalina | |
| Rodolfo Rojas D.T. | Tina | |
| 1996 | La salud de los enfermos (TV film) | Mother |
| 1995 | Leandro Leiva, un soñador | |
| 1990 | Atreverse | |
| 1980 | El solitario (miniseries) | Melani Duvalie |
| 1979 | Chau, amor mío | Ana |
| 1976 | Los que estamos solos | Doña Barbarita |
| 1975 | Piel naranja | Elena |
| 1974 | Mi hombre sin noche | Casilda |
| 1971 | El tobogán | Rosa |
| 1973 | Pobre diabla | Aída Morelli |
References
- ↑ Blau, Eleanor (28 October 1983). "Spanish 'Emily' at Hunter". New York Times. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fischer, Diego (2012). A mí me aplauden. Uruguay: Sudamericana. p. 450. ISBN 978-9974-701-22-9.
- ↑ "Serie Mercosur - Actores Nacionales - Homenaje a China Zorrilla" (in Spanish). Correo Uruguayo.
- ↑ Allá lejos y hace tiempo: China Zorrilla
- ↑ "El regreso de China Zorrilla tuvo un claro valor simbólico: Al estrenar Emily tendió un puente para el reencuentro de todos los uruguayos - Catálogo Acceder" (in Spanish). Retrieved November 27, 2011.
- ↑ "China Zorrilla Había una vez" (in Catalan). Barcelona Cultura.
- ↑ Levine, Susan. Manuel Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fictions. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-299-17574-0. p. 421
- ↑ "26th Moscow International Film Festival (2004)". MIFF. Retrieved 2013-04-07.
- ↑ Catsoulis, Jeannette (27 June 2008). "Marching Noisily Toward Late Middle Age". The New York Times.
- ↑ Stein, Ruthe (18 July 2008). "'Elsa & Fred' explores love after 80". The San Francisco Chronicle.
- ↑ "China Zorrilla recibió la mayor distinción que otorga Francia". El País (in Spanish). September 6, 2011.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to China Zorrilla. |
- China Zorrilla at the Internet Movie Database
- Diego Fischer, A mi me aplauden (Montevideo 2012), Biographical Essay (Spanish)
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