ABSTRACT
Popular theater is one aspect of popular culture that has received a fair amount of attention outside of Chile. Many non-Chileans have been intrigued by the ways in which the pungent and localized pageants, comedies, songs, and burlesques can be used to express both defiance and hope. Carlos Ochsenius has written numerous articles and books that not only outline the tremendous variety of theatrical efforts developed since 1973 but also organize and order these efforts with categories of his own devising. The following chapter offers a sampling of the variety in popular theater and gives a brief description of its history. In Ochsenius’s view, the ultimate challenge will be to transfer the most valuable lessons of popular theater—its creativity, irreverence, and irrepressible vitality—to a post-Pinochet Chile.
