From square to theater. Strategies and spaces for artistic production in a community theater group/De la plaza a la sala. Estrategias y espacios de produccion artistica en un grupo de teatro comunitario/Da praca para o teatro. Estrategias e espacos de producao artistica em um grupo de teatro comunitario

This article studies the development of artistic-community experiences in Buenos Aires through the case of the Catalinas Sur Theater Group in La Boca. This is a pioneer group of the local community theater formed during the democratic opening after the last dictatorship (1976-1983). Community theater seeks to promote citizen participation in culture, the creation of alternative artistic circuits and the recovery of invisiblized stories in the communities. I analyze the change of context during the second half of the 90s in the field of cultural policies where a democratizing paradigm was articulated with forms of participatory democracy and commercialization of culture. The article wonders about the implications of that change of context in the mode of artistic production of Catalinas Sur, the cultural management strategies they deployed and the emerging links established with state agents.