The Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos presented the premiere of “Vargas Llosa en escena” on April 17 at the Teatro Auditorio Mario Vargas Llosa, located in the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. The event brought together academic and cultural leaders, including Rector Dr. Jeri Gloria Ramón Ruffner de Vega, Juan Yangali Quintanilla of the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, and Dr. Marcel Velázquez Castro from the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences.
This production highlights how literature can be transformed into live performance through research and creative collaboration. The project began in a dramaturgy course at San Marcos, where students researched Mario Vargas Llosa’s works before adapting them for the stage.
The play featured fragments, characters, and atmospheres from Vargas Llosa’s dramatic universe. It was directed by Percy Encinas with Maureen Llewellyn-Jones as assistant director. Actors Willy Gutiérrez, Luis Baca, Liz Navarro, and Yasmine Incháustegui performed key roles from Vargas Llosa’s stories. Music was provided by Rafael Arenas and Estéfano Encinas; Arturo Vargas designed the set; Cynthya Ávila and Greyssi Patricio handled graphic design.
The coproduction involved both AIBAL (Asociación Iberoamericana de Artes y Letras) and San Marcos University with support from Cátedra Vargas Llosa and Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. This partnership aimed to bridge academia with artistic expression on stage.
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos is recognized as a public autonomous institution dedicated to advancing education, knowledge dissemination, research opportunities, community outreach programs, responsibility initiatives for equity and inclusion as well as national sustainable development according to its official website. The university operates several campuses throughout Peru including its central facility according to its official website.
San Marcos leads public universities in global rankings such as QS World University Rankings, Scimago Institutions Rankings, and Webometrics according to its official website. It offers more than 80 undergraduate programs along with postgraduate studies according to its official website.
The premiere served not only as an homage to Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa but also reinforced San Marcos’ role in promoting contemporary culture through innovative academic-artistic collaborations.
