On Thursday, June 19, The Georgetowner’s Cultural Leadership Breakfast Series will present a talk by playwright Gustavo Ott, artistic director of GALA Hispanic Theatre. Admission to the event, at 1310 Kitchen & Bar, 1310 Wisconsin Ave. NW, is $40, payable in advance at georgetowner.com or via Eventbrite.
When he became GALA’s artistic director at the start of 2024, the Venezuelan-born Ott succeeded Argentinian-born Hugo Medrano, who founded Grupo de Artistas LatinoAmericanos Hispanic Theatre in 1976 with his soon-to-be wife, Rebecca Read. Medrano, who died in May of 2023, was the much-honored Spanish-language company’s producing artistic director for nearly half a century. Since 2005, GALA’s home has been the historic Tivoli Theatre in Columbia Heights.
Gustavo Ott founded and served for two decades as executive artistic director of the Teatro San Martín de Caracas, as well as the city’s international theater festival. In 2023, he became executive artistic director of Teatro Dallas. Also a director, translator and novelist, Ott has written more than 50 plays, which have been translated into over a dozen languages. At the June 19 breakfast, he will share his view of GALA’s role in the nation’s capital and discuss the challenges and rewards of being an artistic director, a director and a writer all at once.
Doors open at 1310 Kitchen & Bar at 8:30 a.m. for a light buffet breakfast; the program will follow from 9 to 10 a.m. To purchase tickets, click HERE.
Since 2014, The Georgetowner’s Cultural Leadership Breakfast Series has presented 64 insider talks by leaders of area museums; opera, theater and dance companies; music ensembles; performing arts venues; and other cultural organizations.