Opéra de Lausanne

At the Opéra de Lausanne : Il barbiere di Siviglia by Paisiello (March 2007), La Périchole (December 2009).

Born in Columbia, Omar Porras trained in dance and theatre in Europe. In 1990, he created the Teatro Malandro in Geneva, a centre for creation, training and research. His theatrical technique based on the body of the actor, his projection in space and the use of masks are inspired by both Western and Eastern traditions.

In his performances he combines the arts of acting, mask work, dance and music. He explores classic texts: Marlowe’s Faust (in 1993), Shakespeare’s Othello (Comédie de Genève in 1995), Les Bakkantes based on Euripide (in 2000), Ay ! QuiXote based on Cervantès’ text (Théâtre Vidy in 2001), Pedro et le commandeur by Lope de Vega (Comédie Française in 2006) and Les fourberies de Scapin (Théâtre de Carouge in 2009). He takes equal pleasure in working with modern and contemporary texts, such as La Visite de la vieille dame by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (in 1993 and 2004), Strip-tease by Slawomir Mrozek and Blood Wedding by Garcia Lorca (in 1997) or Bertolt Brecht’s Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Théâtre Forum Meyrin in 2007).

As an actor, he has played in several of his creations. In 2006, Omar Porras approached the world of opera with Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Opéra National de Lorraine, Il barbiere di Siviglia by Paisiello at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, then in Lausanne in 2007. In the same year, he directed Die Zauberflöte at the Grand Théâtre de Geneva.

In the theatre, he has just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the creation of his Company, Teatro Malandro and has directed Bolivar : fragments of a Dream. In Japan, he also created a version of El Don Juan by Tirso de Molina with the SPAC theatre group (Shizuoka Performing Art Center).

At the same time Omar Porras has organised and directed numerous workshops for actors and dancers, in particular the Ateliers de Paris with Carolyn Carlson, at the Théâtre du Grand à Nantes and at the SPAC in Shizuoka. His take on La visite de la vieille dame by Friedrich Dürrenmatt won the Prix romand des spectacles indépendants in 1994 and Pedro et le commandeur was nominated for the Molière awards in 2007. Omar Porras was nominated for the 12th Prix Europe Nouvelles Réalités Théâtrales, with the support of the European Union. Columbia honoured him with the National Order of Merit in 2007 and the Medal of Cultural Merit in 2008.

Forthcoming projects: a new creation with the Teatro Malandro : Spring’s Awakening, based on Frank Wedekind and a performance in collaboration with the Alias Dance Company: Les Cabots.