THE AUTHOR & DIRECTOR

Carmen Toledo

SOME BIOGRAPHY DATA:

Carmen was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. She graduated in Theatre Techniques and Theatre Direction at the Multidisciplinary School of Dramatic Art (EMAD), in Montevideo, and started her professional career working as Assistant Director for most of the theatre directors of that time in Uruguay, and in a lot of theater spaces, then she diversified into other roles: Lighting Designer, Teacher & Theater Instructor, Masks & Props maker, Scenographer & Technical Assistant, Wardrobe Assistant, Sound Engineer, Executive Producer & Production Assistant, Stage Assistant, Prompter, TV Assistant, among others.

Later she was trained in Cultural and Services Marketing, Events Organization and Intellectual Property.

She was part of the team of the National Comedy of Uruguay for five years, as Stage Assistant and Director Assistant of various productions, among them: The castle, by Franz Kafka and Happy days, by Samuel Beckett. With this cast she participated in International Theater Festivals in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Asunción (Paraguay), Caracas (Venezuela), Bogotá (Colombia), Mérida (Spain) and Sevilla (Spain).For more than three years he worked for the Braille Foundation of Uruguay as a sound technician for the recording and management of Talking Books for the Blind.

After directed by herself her first theatre plays: The left-handed woman, by Peter Handke, Tango-Mito, by Víctor Manuel Leites and Chantecler, proper adapted version from Edmond Rostand’s original play, she tooked on the responsibility as a Cultural Manager in a cultural complex of a theater and a museum from de Author’s Rights Association of Uruguay, so she interrupted her career as a theater director, which it lasted after the 15 years that she later lived in Madrid (Spain), where she worked in another non artistic matters and held Scenic Games Workshops in Neighborhood Communities, promoting the social integration of adults and children.

Carmen’s life could be defined as that of a “traveling ant” or “a rolling stone”, a constant search for spaces to learn, create and share that does not stop and that sometimes has led her to diversify into other roles, artistics or not, that she would has not imagined as Artists’ Manager, Deejay, Recording Engineer & Sound Editor, Restaurant Cashier, Waitress, Radio Announcer, Showcases’ Designer, Laboratory Assistant and also actress in a little role.

Carmen loves theater, animals (specially cats) and philosophical talks, a good book, enjoying good company and solitary moments to meditate and write, walking, to see new places, take pictures and learn from those places and people. She is passionate about History, Painting and Music, of the most varied, that has accompanied her since she was a child, which is why Carmen is a great ear musically: as a teenager she listened to Classical music, Tango and French music; then she had her rock era and finally her heart turned to pop. If she has to choose artists musically she sure would say: Wagner, Freddy Mercury, Marie Fredriksson, Madonna, Nicole Scherzinger. Music, cinema and theater aesthetically move her to make her laugh or cry, that is why she vibrates with these disciplines and tries to link them, in some way, in her creations.

Carmen is a lonely soul, but if she wasn’t, she surely would be a pop star. She has lived in Amsterdam since 2018, continues to struggle to have a stable job and with her lack of time to learn the Dutch language and has actively joined the organization of the Inter.Nos Festival, a multidisciplinary cultural event that takes place in Juan C. Tajes Art-Studio & Microteatro, Amsterdam, and also collaborates with various other activities related to this space.

In 2020 she resumed her vocation, as writer and director of THE RED BOX, her fisrt monologue wrote in English language, that was played by actress Grainne Delaney during the D10 Festival, in February of this year, in Amsterdam. After this event, she decided to transform the initial monologue in a bigger project, that’s how she developed the play that she’s premiéred in December 2020 with a team of four talented actresses originals from different countries, all residents in The Netherlands, and finally made a season during 2021, inspite the delay and intermitent closes of the theatres because of the corona pandemic.

You can know more details about Carmen’s artistic career through:

https://mctoledog.wixsite.com/carmentoledo

Images:

1 – photo by Ricardo Cuadros

2 – press article

3 – Chantecler, adapted & directed by Carmen Toledo – photo by Diana Mines

4 – program of Happy days – Samuel Becket