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Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. There is something quiet, yet persistent, about the international movement of Argentine theater. It does not follow an indiscriminate expansion, but rather a more deliberate strategy: carefully selecting which works travel, with which actors, and to which stages. Within this framework, Argentina’s Club Media is carving out a distinctive path, one that prioritizes long-term presence over one-off tours, and artistic identity over commercial scale. The company is now landing in the United States with El Brote, one of the most acclaimed productions to emerge from Argentina’s recent independent theater circuit. Starring Roberto Peloni, the play arrives in New York and Miami as part of a broader international circuit that Club Media has been steadily building across key cultural hubs including Madrid, alongside its base in Buenos Aires. As Marcelo Chao, founder and CEO Club Media International, emphasizes in this interview, Club Media’s ambition extends beyond simply exporting productions. Its strategy is rooted in establishing a sustained platform for contemporary Argentine theater in global cities. The goal is not just visibility, but continuity, creating an ecosystem where Argentine works can return, evolve, and connect with new audiences over time. In that context, a seemingly small detail becomes central to the project: El Brote will be performed with English subtitles. Far from incidental, this decision underscores the company’s commitment to accessibility and cross-cultural dialogue. By opening the work to non-Spanish-speaking audiences, Club Media is actively broadening the reach of Argentine theater, positioning it within a more inclusive international conversation. At a time when global circulation in the performing arts often depends on large commercial infrastructures or widely recognizable titles, Club Media’s approach feels notably different. El Brote is not driven by spectacle or brand recognition, but by performance, text, and a strong artistic identity. The play itself, centered on the emotional and psychological fragility of an actor confronting his own craft, serves less as a singular flagship and more as a representative example of the kind of theater the company seeks to bring abroad: rigorous, actor-driven, and deeply rooted in its cultural origins. This expansion is also geographically strategic. The underlying vision is clear: to position Argentine theater as a consistent and evolving presence on the global stage. For now, El Brote marks a significant step in that direction, bringing a piece of Buenos Aires’ independent theater scene to U.S. audiences without diluting its essence. With this U.S. debut, Club Media is not just touring a play, it is testing a model for how independent theater can travel, connect, and endure beyond its place of origin. El Brote dates: New York: May 18 and 20, at SoHo Playhouse. Miami: May 21 and 23, at The Alan & Diane Lieberman Theater at JCC.

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00:00Marcelo, the play El Brote is coming to New York and Miami.
00:05What can the audience expect?
00:08Okay, yes, they are going to perform.
00:11They have one show in New York and two shows in Miami.
00:14I think they can expect a high-level drama theater play.
00:22You know, El Brote has won many, many awards over the last three years
00:26that has performed around the world.
00:28And I think it's one of the examples of the plays that Argentina can show the world.
00:36You know, you have a talented director that has been awarded multiple prizes
00:41in the Hispanic world, Argentina and Spain, basically Mexico as well.
00:47And you have a very talented actor that has done the show for three years
00:52and now is coming for the first time to the U.S.
00:58in an open performance.
01:00I mean, it has been, it was presented two years ago at a festival in Chicago
01:08as part of the festival.
01:10But this is the first time it's going to go and perform openly.
01:14And we're very happy to take it there.
01:16We're very proud of that, you know, really.
01:18At our company, at Club Media, we are embarking on this idea that Hispanic culture can be,
01:26you know, expanded outside our natural boundaries.
01:31I mean, theater from Spain, from Argentina, even from Mexico,
01:35which are the main points, I would say, on the Hispanic work,
01:38can be expanded beyond their natural boundaries.
01:45I think our Latin community as a whole has started to get in depth
01:52and get some knowledge and recognition in the U.S.
01:56and other countries, but mainly the U.S.
02:01You know, Europe is more easy because Spain is there.
02:04So there's a closer tie between Spain, France, Italy, and Argentina.
02:09But the U.S. is kind of different or it's on the embrionary stages of it.
02:16So I think there's some artists coming from Spain, coming from Argentina,
02:20that are getting recognition.
02:22So I wouldn't say it's something that you can establish as a trend,
02:29but definitely it's a trend.
02:31We did a tour with one of our plays called Muarde in 2024.
02:36We went to L.A., to New York, and to Miami, and we have sold outs there, you know.
02:42So definitely I think there's something growing.
02:44I think it's very premature to say it's a trend,
02:49but definitely Hispanic culture is getting more and more attractive
02:52to other cultures or to the U.S. culture
02:56than it was a couple of years in the past.
02:59At the end, everything is entertainment.
03:01And at the end, everything is to produce something
03:06that is attractive to the audience.
03:09So the way you express it,
03:12it depends more on what the story you want to tell
03:16and which other characters and actors you're dealing with.
03:19Some people naturally do more with digital entertainment,
03:23some more do with movies, and some more with live theater.
03:25I think getting to live theater with that background
03:29gives us the possibility to have the flexibility
03:34to put on stage many different types of live theater.
03:38So we can do a musical like Hairspray or Spring Awakening,
03:42and we can do a drama like El Brote or Muarde or things like that,
03:47which are actually on the opposite,
03:50or things that are very small,
03:51like one actor in El Brote or 40 actors on stage like Hairspray,
03:57and give them the tools to maximize their talent on stage.
04:03I think it's giving the actors,
04:08which at the end are the ones on stage
04:10that deliver the final experience to the people,
04:14the tools and the flexibility to do
04:16whatever they feel more comfortable
04:18that they have more talent to.
04:19But I think that at the end, it's all the same.
04:24The platform is just a media to transmit something,
04:29and we are a vehicle to express that on a stage,
04:36on a movie, or on a digital platform.
04:40It's about time people start going more to live theater
04:44and less on the screen all the time.
04:47Absolutely, absolutely, and I think many times
04:50my friends tell me, why are you a producer?
04:53Because it's a difficult business.
04:57No success is guaranteed.
04:59Even if you have a complete success in one place,
05:02you can have a complete failure in the other one.
05:04No, nothing is guaranteed.
05:06And I say, I mean, the satisfaction of someone,
05:09seeing someone laughing or crying, it doesn't matter,
05:12but changing their life for 50 minutes or an hour
05:20or something like that is something that for me
05:24and my partner, Jose Luis, which we are friends for 20 years,
05:28is something that is not comparable to anything.
05:32That's the real life.
05:33It can make someone laugh or cry.
05:35Okay, your day is made, clearly.
05:37What was the first play you saw growing up?
05:40I remember, I remember.
05:42I remember I was around 13 or 14 and I saw Annie in New York.
05:47You know, it was my first time traveling to the US
05:52and my uncle who lived there took me to see Annie, you know,
05:58and it was a whole experience for me.
06:01Then I see a play at the Radio City Music Hall in New York as well,
06:06you know, you know, but I remember those days
06:08and Annie has now just, it's not our production,
06:13but it has just opened in Buenos Aires a couple of weeks ago.
06:16And I wanted to see it.
06:18I went there and see it, you know, just to remember, you know,
06:25my, you know, this was, wow, 45 years ago, you know.
06:30So, wow.
06:35So, that experience, because it opened a whole world to me,
06:39you know, okay, what is this, you know?
06:42So, I remember that iconic Annie in New York
06:47as probably the first one that discovered a whole world for me,
06:52you know, you know.
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