Argentine set designer and playwright
Estela "Piqui" Scarlata (March 23, 1942 – August 3, 2023) was an Argentine set designer and playwright. She cofounded the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts with Carmen Zapata and Margarita Galban in 1972. She also worked for the Los Angeles Theatre Academy as a costume and set designer until 2019.
Early life.
Estela "Piqui" Scarlata was born in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 23, 1942. Her family has Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, and Brazilian heritage. She moved to Los Angeles, California in 1965.
Career.
Scarlata began her career as an art restorer in Santa Monica before becoming a set designer at Teatro 6 Actores, a 99-seat theatre in Hollywood, California. In the early 1970s, Scarlata became one of the first women to work as a carpenter at CBS Channel 2.
In 1972, Scarlata co-founded the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts (BFA) with Managing Producer Carmen Zapata and Artistic Director Margarita Galban, and served as its Production Manager/Technical Director and Set Designer-in-Residence. She continued to work with BFA, which was housed in the decommissioned Lincoln Heights Jail, for 37 years, during which time she designed sets for between 150 and 200 plays.
Scarlata has authored several plays. In 1975, she worked with dramatist C. Bernard Jackson to translate her play "La Factoria" into "Wanted: Experienced Operators", a musical about undocumented sweatshop workers. In the late 1980s, Scarlata also wrote a number of children's plays, including "Rainbow Red", "The Wiseman of Chichen Itza", and "Young Moctezuma", some of which toured LAUSD schools. In 2008, she wrote "Memorias del Tango," a musical about her family in Argentina.
Scarlata also served as Festival Coordinator for Reader's Theatre, a program she began at BFA in 1984 and ran until 2008, which featured a series of plays with audience discussion and feedback.
From 2011 to 2019, Scarlata worked as set and costume designer for the Los Angeles Theatre Academy (LATA). She also wrote and adapted several plays for the program.
Awards.
Scarlata won the Drama-Logue Award for Artistic Achievement in Set Design for "Doña Rosita La Soltera", shared with David Barber, in 1980, "The House of Bernarda Alba" in 1997 and 1998, and "The Misfortunes of a House" in 1998. In 1999, Scarlata was knighted by his majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain, and received the Official Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic for her commitment to preserving the Hispanic language and culture through performing arts.
References.
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