Rodolfo Santana, Venezuelan playwright.

Abstract

This text is an autobiographical and critical testimony by Guillermo Schmidhuber, recounting his intellectual and personal friendship with Venezuelan playwright Rodolfo Santana through a narrative reconstruction of their shared experiences across several international theatre gatherings. The central aim is to show how creative exchange, sustained collaboration, and the formation of the Iberoamerican Dramaturgy Study Group—GEDI, also known as “La Patota”—shaped new methods for training emerging playwrights through a workshop model based on critical reading, mentor-student correspondence, and in-person revision of works in progress. Methodologically, the article relies on a testimonial and chronological approach, drawing from personal memories, anecdotes, letters, and key episodes from festivals, congresses, and dramaturgy workshops held in Washington, Puerto Rico, Caracas, Madrid, and Guadalajara. Its objectives include preserving Santana’s legacy, highlighting his contributions to Latin American dramaturgy, and documenting how his humor, ideas, and leadership fostered a space of creative fraternity. In terms of scope, the text provides a valuable primary source for the recent history of Iberoamerican dramaturgy and rescues personal documents and experiences that illuminate collective creative processes