Soledad Silveyra remembers anecdotes from Mar del Plata, her summer loves and the crazy things she did for them

She is the youngest living actress who came to work in Mar del Plata, 56 years ago. Today, about to turn 70, Soledad Silveyra is in her 14th season and, she assures, many more await her. In La Feliz she did everything: she debuted with Darío Víttori, joined various casts with leading men, was head of the company and even directed children's theater. Now, together with Verónica Llinás, she takes on the challenge of repeating the capital's success of the comedy Dos locas de remate on Mondays and Tuesdays at the Mar del Plata theater (at the same time that they continue with performances at the Astral theater in Buenos Aires, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays).

After the summer season, she will take the work to Montevideo and tour Uruguay. There is also the possibility of traveling around the country in a bus, the old-fashioned way, "to work in those wonderful theaters that exist in all the provinces and that we owe to the promotion societies of the different communities, a true national heritage I want to write a book about”. Only later will there be two new theatrical projects that excite her a lot: the solo Emily (The Beauty of Amherst), about the life of the American poet Emily Dickinson, who was a workhorse for China Zorrilla in the '80s. “For me it would be like paying homage to her, I am waiting for her favorable signs from heaven,” she will say about it. And the stage version of La malvada (the historic film Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, about a Broadway diva and a young upstart, who ends up replacing her), starring Ana Belén in Spain. "As a co-star I would love Juana Viale, she would be perfect and we would do a good job," she slides.

She owns an enviable appearance and inexhaustible energy, she is difficult to understand -in principle- Her objective on a closer and more imperative personal level: “Now I want to work so that euthanasia exists in Argentina, whatever it may be, and thus have the right to leave whenever I want or feel that I am unable to stand on my own. . Today, because of my lower back, I can't climb trees with my youngest grandchildren. I don't know how I'll get to 80 or 90, hopefully like La Legrand, but Mirtha Legrand there is only one... What I've already asked my grandchildren is that when I die they don't give me a sad burial: I want them to accommodate me in a bed and do a little make-up if my face impresses them, then put on music and dance and talk about me with great joy. In short, that my death be a celebration of life, ”says Solita as an advance testament, in dialogue with LA NACION.

–Although with a lot of humor, Dos locas de remate focuses on the conflictive relationship between two sisters, would you have liked to have had one?

–I would have loved to have had a sister as a girl, a couple in the house. Although... on second thought: a little yes and a little no because I had a very painful childhood, I had to go out to work at the age of 12 and take care of my brother, that he was 10 years younger than me, and then he died on me. That's why Ana María Picchio always tells me: “Your brother didn't die, your son died, that's why you're the way you are”. I took care of my brother, in fact I raised him practically alone because my grandmother had to take care of my mother, who, poor thing, was not right in the head. If she had had a sister, perhaps her pain would have been more distributed but, of course, it would have been bad for her because she would also have suffered as I did.

–From the audience, a deep bond between you and Verónica Llinás is perceived, which goes beyond the work and the characters. Is it really like that? How much brotherhood is there between you?

-Our process that went through different stages was very nice. I still remember the day we bitched and almost killed each other. It's that Vero has a lot of knocks, and I can become difficult, but today we are truly twinned. Look what happened yesterday, at a function in Mar del Plata, where everything from the technique failed. On stage, she and I were lionesses defending the cub. Everything went wrong and yet the people did not realize it and applauded us like never before. At first there could have been some mistrust, but today we trust each other much more; we were weaving a relationship that is practically one of sisters. This show is a great learning, in terms of the relationship with a co-worker. In a previous season in Mar del Plata (at the Lido theater, with the play Humores que matan), we got along very badly with my partner (Betiana Blum) and we were a very bad example for the theater, we were everything they shouldn't do never two actresses. With Vero, although he was difficult for us, we made a pact to always tell each other everything, absolutely everything, as soon as each performance ends. The idea is not to accumulate anything because the one who accumulates loses and one day it explodes. This exercise helped us a lot.

–What memories do you have of your seasons in Mar del Plata?

-I came to Mar del Plata for the first time when I was 14 years old, to do Los Chicos Also Creen, by Nino Fortuna Olazabal, with the help of Darío Víttori, to whom I owe a lot. In the cast was Amelia Bence, who didn't like her very much... so one day she said: “The girl or me”. And Darío for whom did he decide? For the girl Later it turned out that I had no way of coming here, it was another time, we actors had to pay for lodging and I didn't have a mango. And what did Darius do? He took me to live in his house, he made me share a room with his three daughters and treated me like one of the family. How can I forget about him and his wife. It was a wonderful season. The following year I returned to Mar del Plata, where I turned 15, but to film a movie with Palito Ortega, A Boy Like Me, in which we played a couple who came to spend their honeymoon in La Feliz. I still remember the huge bouquet of roses he sent me the day of the premiere. My next theater season was with Guillermo Bredeston, at 20, when my son Baltazar had one. Imagine, 50 years ago!

-That's where your seasons with the leading men began, right?

-Exact. Those were the great seasons and what I remember most about that time was not the artistic experience but something of a personal nature. My old man was a great horse player and my husband's family (José Jaramillo) had owned the casino in Mar del Plata until Perón expropriated it; Until then, it was like his house for him, he played with the little cars under the tables. So, I decided to go play at the casino, like that, all of a sudden. That summer I gambled away everything I had earned that season, to the point that one day I didn't have enough money to buy Baltazar a sachet of milk. Obviously I needed to have something of my old man, get closer to him in some way, even if it was through his passion for the game. Afterwards, I swear to you, I never set foot in a casino again.

-In addition to Guillermo Bredeston, with what other leading men did you work in Mar del Plata?

–I think with everyone: for example, with Claudio García Satur and Rodolfo Bebán; but the one with the most images recorded in my head is of Bebán, who was so, so beautiful that it was unbelievable. Many years later, my son Baltazar was the executive producer of Cartas de amor, the play starring Rodolfo and Graciela Borges on tour. One day La Borges got sick and my son called me to suddenly replace her. As it was read theater it was not a complicated bull. There I met a different Rodolfo. I remember that he would take out of a combi six bins of lights and he himself was in charge of assembling the lighting. Rodolfo was a true man of the theater. Today I don't really know what his life is, I don't get much information. Some tell me that he is hospitalized and I would like to go visit him, as I did with Pinky, when I found out that he was in a geriatric clinic. It's just that I loved Pinky, when she was little the only thing she did locked in the bathroom was imitate her. And also, without realizing it, I was doing Antigone, I was fighting with my brother and saying that I wanted to bury him. That is to say that I always had these two tendencies or objectives in me: the popular and wanting to be a good actress, the good text and lead Big Brother or be a judge of “Dancing for a Dream”.

–When did you take off from the seasons with the leading men to become head of the company?

-My first unforgettable season, as a protagonist, was Taste of Honey, in the mid-'70s. Then there were others, like Lost in Yonkers, directed by China Zorrilla. That was an extraordinary season: at night we filled the Auditorium theater every day with the work of Neil Simon and in the afternoon we did it with The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (adapted by Marisé Monteiro), which I directed and which finally won the Star de Mar for the best children's show. For my part, I won the best actress for the leading role in Lost in Yonkers. Another glorious season was that of Made In Lanús: we premiered on December 19, 2001 when the country was exploding, and the streets were full of marches, and yet we filled the whole summer, night after night. That saved us -both me and Ana María Picchio, Víctor Laplace and Hugo Arana, with whom I shared the cast-, because, as you will remember, through corralito they kept all the savings... That character that touched me, that Yoli who defended the national, who defended the homeland, was unforgettable. I also remember that work and that time because of the generosity of Ana María. Because when they called me, the project was already set up: and they offered me Mabel (the other female character) because Yoli was already Ana María's. So I tell the producer that thank you very much, but that Mabel did not interest me and there she calls me Ana María and she tells me: “I'll give you Yoli, friend”. And you have to deliver the Yoli, eh? Only the Picchio can do it. Later we did it in Madrid and Barcelona and there something very exciting happened to us: the Argentines who had emigrated to Spain fleeing the Argentine disaster, as soon as the performance was over they approached the proscenium and shouted: “We're coming back, we're coming back”. We all hugged each other and cried profusely.

–What difference do you find between those seasons and the current one?

-The collections are not the same. Some say that the tickets are expensive, but it is proportional to what you get to eat today. Another difference is that now everything is lighter, the works and staging are simple. Today making a Taste of Honey or a Lost in Yonkers would be very complicated, if not impossible.

–Now that you are doing a season both in Buenos Aires and in Mar del Plata, do you find any difference between the different audiences? Is the one in Mar del Plata more popular?

-Yes, the one from Mar del Plata is more popular and laughs a lot more. What happened to us here with the work these weeks is crazy, people don't stop laughing. Maybe it helps that the theater is smaller and so people are closer. In Mar del Plata people come yes or yes to have fun, it's like we don't have to convince them, we already have it in our favor. Be careful, what has been happening to us in Buenos Aires since day one, back in May 2020, was and is unique. Both there and here, more than applause, we received ovations and a lot of shouting. I sometimes ask myself: But what's wrong with them, are we doing Chekhov or Shakespeare and I didn't realize it?

@wjz Didn't they learn how to use Jack stands in auto shop?

— JDO Fri Mar 19 12:32:16 +0000 2021

-Before you had to be successful in Mar del Plata and then continue in Buenos Aires, now it's the other way around?

-Yes, there are few shows that now premiere in Mar del Plata. Like everything has to be approved by the public in the Capital. Before, Carlos Rottemberg (the president of the Argentine Association of Theatrical and Musical Entrepreneurs) told me the other day, shows were put on only for Mar del Plata. An example: the works with the leading men. They were a success and there they stayed, they did not continue in Buenos Aires. Now they don't give the costs for that. Or there were those who premiered here and then, perhaps, continued on Corrientes Avenue or on tour.

–Are you satisfied with the future of the season?

No, we did not expect this. I was sure that the Omicron was going to affect us, but not in this way. They told me: “Shut up, Solita, shut up, if it comes it will do it in April”. You saw that we Argentines are very deniers... I came prepared, in some way, so that the season would not be a success, but Vero and the producers not so much. We are doing well, but it is costing us... This is not a wonderful season. It is a very difficult season, you have to row it in pastry dulce de leche.

–Is the effort to unfold the weekly performances between Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata justified?

-Yes, it is justified, because first we do not subtract functions from Buenos Aires. Those of Mar del Plata are an aggregate. And since we are only two we have good percentages and then with what we earn between one city and the other we can pay all the bills at the end of the month. I'm not telling you that we can also save, but...

-The theater seasons in Mar del Plata also predisposed to love, how many romances did you live here, between the public and the secrets?

–When I separated from José, to whom I was married between 18 and 28, I had several romances in Mar del Plata, yes, also some reunions and I did incredible things... always with actors. One day I remember that one of my loves, who doesn't want me to name him...

–Miguel Angel Solá?

-Yes. He doesn't want me to name him and I don't know why. In any case, when he came to Argentina with his second wife, with whom he was doing Double or Nothing, I went to see him at the theater and went to greet him in the dressing room. At least he didn't kick me out. Anyway, we don't talk about it. He is like that. Once, I was walking through the corridors of Channel 13 with Antonio Gasalla and suddenly he passed by and took me with him. He busted me! I remember that Antonio told me: "But what's wrong with this one with you?" We had already left... Then we had a meeting in Buenos Aires and finally, a reunion in Mar del Plata. We had met in Villa Carlos Paz, during a theater season. He was rowing a kayak and La China told me: "How does this kid row for you." Then he started sending me poems through him. Ours was a great passion, because of him I separated from Jaramillo. It did not last long, only two years, but it was undoubtedly a great passion. Our reunion in Mar del Plata was brief; What's more, everything ended here, with a hilarious situation that I can't tell you about.

- Count it, count it!

-Well, let's see... One day he went to a party at Carlín Calvo's in Constitución and I thought: "This guy is being unfaithful to me." Because those parties were filled with divine mines. So what did I do? I went there without warning and, stealthily, I crossed body to ground the entire perimeter of the fifth house. Yes, crawling across the grass. For this, obviously, I first had to cross the fence, where I hurt my back. Until, all muddy, I appeared to him between the plants and yelled at him: "Son of p...!" Today I remember that situation and I can't stop laughing.

–Would you like to live a love story again this summer in Mar del Plata?

-I had very intelligent men by my side, in general always older, and today... With all due respect to older men, what should I have now? An 80-year-old? The 70-year-olds are with the 50-year-olds, the 50-year-olds are with the 20-year-olds... so I don't have much to choose from, I don't have a market. A little more and they are not alive (laughs). That's why I stopped looking.

-And yes or yes it would have to be a man older than you? Couldn't it be a younger one?

"No, I wouldn't dare right now. Maybe my grandchildren would accept it, but I have two granddaughters who are the same as my oldest son, conservative, and I don't want to upset them. He could perhaps be a man of 50 and seem a little older, so as not to horrify the family, but he could not now have a Mariano Franco (the partner he had at 50, 21 years younger than her).

-Really? How much do you care or care about the opinion of your granddaughters?

-Very much. They go to a very traditional school. One day, three years ago, Picchio came to see me so that we could publicly tell about something we had spent together when we were little, and I told her no. At that time my oldest granddaughter was 10 and I did not want to expose her to any comments, to any bullying. Ana María got angry with me, I participated from the soul, but not with my presence. When my granddaughters are older, like 15 years old, I promise to talk to them differently. Maybe then I can tell you everything I think freely, but in the meantime... I will never forget when Baltazar was 12 years old and, crying, he told me: “Old woman, please, at school they tease me, don't undress anymore." At that time I was topless in the play The Elephant Man. I never did anything like that again. Those teary eyes stayed etched in my heart forever. I don't want my granddaughters to go through something like that. They are not to blame for having such a progressive grandmother, that's why today I decide to be more conservative for love of them.

Thanks: Sheraton Mar del Plata Hotel.