"I always worked out of necessity, out of a deep desire," says Mauricio Dayub , in a scheduled break to be able to talk to LA NACION, in the midst of an extremely tight schedule that finds him spread over several projects at the same time. In the hall of El Nacional, it premiered Immature" class="com-link" data-reactroot=""> immature , the piece starring Adrián Suar and Diego Peretti that counts him as director. At the return of the piece, which performed some functions last year, is added the revival of The tightrope walker" class="com-link" data-reactroot=""> the tightrope walker , whose new season began in the Maipo and finally, On January 25, he will perform the first preview performance of El amateur, second round at El Chacarerean , the charming room that he runs in Palermo.

Aristotle said that excellence was not an isolated act, but rather a practice that was exercised from habit. Something, quite a lot, of the maxim of the author of La poética puts Mauricio Dayub into play every time he faces a new artistic challenge.

In El equilibrista he stands alone on stage to retrace the amorous path of memories, traditions and family cries with an Italian tune. In El amateur, a piece in which he will share the scene with Gustavo Luppi, the value of friendship in its deepest state is at stake. Directed by the renowned César Brie and Luis Romero , respectively, both works are authored by Dayub, who dives into his deepest being to be able to channel ideas, ideologies and thoughts that are empathic with the public, perhaps because he says out loud what he does to the most silent and deepest being. . In the case of The tightrope walker, the scribe's feat was shared with Mariano Saba and Patricio Abadi.

“When I wrote The Amateur, it was a moment in my life where I made an effort similar to that of the protagonist of the work, since, when I arrived in Buenos Aires, I walked every morning in search of a place, of my north ”, recalls Dayub, to whom the current pandemic that humanity is going through awakened the need to re-say on stage those parliaments of the characters to whom the pedaling of the bicycle becomes a metaphor for deeper rowing efforts. “In the midst of a pandemic, I entered a shed and thought that this was the appropriate place to tell what El amateur tells and that this was a good time to do it. It is a good time to talk about someone who climbs on someone else's dream, at a time when society is very divided ”, says the actor born in the Entre Ríos city of Paraná 61 years ago.

–Both The Amateur and The Tightrope walker are dramaturgical jewels that will be performed beyond the time distance with the moment in which you wrote them. There will always be someone who wants to ride them.

–That is very complimentary and it excites me, but I must admit that the motivation was always very personal.

–You appeal to philosophically essential and profound questions and that makes them timeless.

-Mauricio Kartún wanted to define my style and he told me that what I wrote was popular metaphysics .

-Pompeyo Audivert thinks of theater from the metaphysical and, in your case, that is combined with the possibility of going to the deepest of the essence of the human soul in an inclusive process in which the spectator feels, not only challenged, but highly identified.

–That is something that has been appearing over the years. I remember that, in my beginnings, when I did theater in Paraná, my acquaintances came to see me and they were not satisfied with the type of pieces I did, there was something that distanced them. They were works by William Shakespeare and Moliere and, perhaps, the way of making them was more encapsulated.

–Perhaps you aimed more at the experience than at the viewer.

-These were works designed more to please theatergoers and, in this way, to be able to insert ourselves into the medium. Our north, at that time, was to be respected by colleagues, to be part of it. I think that, at the start of the profession, it is something that happens to all of us. Nevertheless, I wanted to be able to share what I was doing on stage with everyone and, in those days, I felt a little guilty when the performances ended because I didn't quite do what I wanted.

-Sometimes a misunderstood concept of the intelligentsia comes into play. The amateur and The tightrope walker are no less intellectual than the classics.

-In that sense, the musicians and the painters guided me a lot.

-Why?

-I always observed that plastic artists do not change their way of creating when their works are sold in New York for dollars. Something similar happens with musicians, when Luis Alberto Spinetta was made to play in a private meeting, he played in the same way as when he gave a concert at the Obras stadium. I looked for that, that's why I think my greatest achievement is having represented myself on stage and in life. That makes me very grateful.

From off to on

–Imatures has just been released, what balance do you make of the experience as a director?

-It has not been the artistic direction that I have experienced the most in the theater, perhaps the production direction of almost everything I did. However, It was a compliment that a production as big as Inmaduros trusted me to propose the artistic direction.

Did you accept right away?

-I asked for a couple of days to respond, it was a lot of responsibility, but I appreciate having decided to do so. It was a beautiful experience, very stimulating. It had to live up to the demands of producers of that level, sharing the quality of a great team, artistically, but also in all technical areas. The experience was so good that I would repeat it .

–Even in a pandemic, the piece is one of the productions that are committed to the reactivation of commercial theater.

-I think it will be one of the strong bets of Corrientes street. I laugh and really enjoy watching the show.

the amateur

Mauricio Dayub began to exercise his vocation for acting in Paraná, the city that merges into ravines over the river and from which he left when he was very young to find in the Capital those opportunities that the big town no longer gave him.

–Do you remember the departure from Paraná and the moment you set foot in Buenos Aires?

-Absolutely, it was my mother's birthday. At eleven o'clock at night, I interrupted the celebration to ask my dad to take me to the station. I will never forget that my mom gave me a sad hug for not being able to accompany me. When I got on the bus, I saw through the window a group of wildly dressed men who went from window to window looking for someone. Nobody understood anything.

–Who were they?

-Nothing less than my classmates from the Faculty of Economic Sciences. I had no choice but to greet them, it was a terrible and beautiful piece of paper, inside the bus everyone was looking at me. I never understood why they had dressed up. I suppose it was a way of approaching my artistic activity.

–A few hours later, the arrival in Buenos Aires.

it seems my eye twitching is caused by stress & I don't know how to stop the stresses in order to stop the eye twitching.

— RA Fri Jul 09 15:03:08 +0000 2021

–I spent the whole night looking at the side of the road and, at six in the morning, I arrived at Eleven. From there I went to Libertad 94 mezzanine, where an ex-girlfriend was waiting for me, with whom I was going to share my first days. As I arrived by surprise, there was no one in the apartment, so I left the suitcase with the person in charge who was washing down the sidewalk and I went to walk around Buenos Aires.

–What were you looking for in Buenos Aires?

– In Santa Fe I had already done several plays, but I felt that my expressive possibilities had run out and I couldn't increase my theatrical knowledge, so I signed up for Carlos Gandolfo's workshops and asked for a scholarship at the National Fund for the Arts, which Luckily they delivered. At that time, the delegate in Santa Fe del Fondo was Jorge Reynoso, the critic of the newspaper El Litoral. A curious anecdote happened to me...

Dayub recounts those stories with evident nostalgia and great gratitude for those who crossed his path and allowed him to build the difficult profession that he exercises. As if everything had happened yesterday, the actor meticulously relives those times when everything was yet to be done.

–You mentioned an anecdote linked to the theater critic for the newspaper El Litoral.

-Before I came to Buenos Aires I asked for the certificates of my course in the Economics degree, but there was no way they would give them to me, so I asked to speak with the head of the area who had to issue the receipts. When I told this woman that I was going to try my luck in Buenos Aires, she asked me who she wanted to be like and if she knew how many actors from Santa Fe had gone to Buenos Aires and had been forgotten. Moreover, and this is the surprising thing, she questioned me, asking me if I knew the place I held in my theater group in Paraná. She clearly didn't want me to leave.

–Did he know you?

“I hadn't noticed her, but I was surprised that she knew about me. Finally, she told me that she was the wife of Jorge Reynoso, the theater critic, and that she had seen me in all the plays in which she had acted... At that time, I felt that someone was interested in the little theater we were doing.

Dayub cries shamelessly as he remembers that moment that marked him forever. Perhaps because it was the breaking point in which he, for the first time, understood the true dimension of everything done in his hometown.

the tightrope walker

–Although you are a popular actor, who has expressed himself in the various languages ​​of acting, you have preserved yourself a lot, even turning the Chacarerean, your own room, into a refuge. You did not take the easiest path, but I understand that you have not made too many concessions, even television has not been an irresistible medium for you.

– I did not manage myself looking for a certain profile, but by a need. Most of the times I've said no to television it was because I was writing a play and I knew I had two years of intense work ahead of me. Also I have said no to projects to which I felt I could not contribute anything. I always looked for that coherence of accepting to do something when I saw that it could generate a contribution. I know what is and what is not for me. It never hurt me, nor did I feel that I had lost something, when I rejected something that I considered was not for me, even though that project would later have become a success.

"In that case, doesn't repentance arise?"

-No, because it was a success that I was not looking for. Of course, otherwise it would have come to people's notice sooner.

The Russian critic and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin thought of the contemporary crisis as the crisis of the ethical act. Mauricio Dayub seems to have insisted on being consistent and faithful to his own ethics, upholding a way of being and doing that is not so common in a medium that prioritizes more immediate materialities.

–Thinking in more earthly terms, money was not and is not a priority for you or, at least, it is not at any price.

-I always looked for money to perfect my theatrical projects. The money I earned on TV was almost always reinvested in my theater. Of course, I have also used the money to improve my life: every ten years I have to paint the house, I have to buy clothes, change a household item, go to the dentist and various expenses that come from the money that one saved because it is not enough with what you earn month to month.

-Supporting a room is not an easy task.

–Someone told me about the courage I have to risk my own money in my projects. There was a time when he worked nonstop on Channel 13, doing one strip after another. I got up every day at the same time, I made the same route with the car and at traffic lights I studied the letter. I did it because it allowed me to save to be able to buy a property to live in, because until then I rented. Until El Amateur appeared and I didn't hesitate to call Jaime Ross to do the music and Graciela Galán to take care of the scenery. We gave ourselves all the tastes, but we had to pay for them. So that money to buy the house went to the construction site.

-And you kept renting...

– For several more years. Luckily, I was able to point to the same house that I had seen years before while I was saving to buy it.

-I was waiting for you.

I think so, it had to be my place.

–Your way of planting yourself also speaks of a very strong conviction and self-confidence. Someone insecure does not take risks that way.

-I think that the clear desire I had as a boy helped me a lot.

And if the project developed independently gave him joy and recognition, it was not an easy road. There were also stones in the path that could have twisted their course. It didn't happen. In an almost general rehearsal of The Amateur, everything went very wrong. To make matters worse, the distinguished Mauricio Kartun was leaning on his elbows in the audience. “When I got home, I had realized that I had taken on a greater responsibility than I could bear and, to top it off, I had invested all my money there” Dayub recalls.

“I was wondering what I was going to do with that sheet metal shed that we had built as a set. It was a piece of paper, it had been done by Graciela Galán who had come from Paris to work with Jorge Lavelli. On the other hand, I had to pay Jaime Ross and the musicians for their recording hours. It was tremendous to think that he was not going to be able to do it all ”, recalls the actor, almost with the same hint of anguish experienced at that time. It was a friend, who she got into almost prepo to console him, who came with the key advice that would separate Dayub from the discomfort: “he told me: 'So, you did what you wanted'. And that set me free. That's when I understood that I wasn't that important."

–Finally, the material was exquisite and even had its film version.

-It was a great lesson, there was no need to worry so much, after that rehearsal there were twenty more days to reinforce what had to be reinforced.

Was the success immediate?

-During the first year and a half I lost money, since I had to pay the debts contracted with the production of the show.

-Was the money generated only with the bordereaux?

-Do not, the work was not going well and the debts contracted were settled with what he earned on television. Everything changed when we were called to inaugurate the La Subasta room in Mar del Plata. In that season we won all the awards and Channel 13 took over the production of the show. This is how we went from Payró to Regina in Buenos Aires and it changed our lives. We won many awards, we toured festivals, the film was made and now we re-release it. But there was a first year and a half where it didn't work.

-I go back to what I said before, the ideological conviction about the project itself was fundamental.

-It helped me a lot to be my own producer.

-Why?

–In each function, I listened to the applause. Instead, the producers at that time are doing the bordereaux at the box office and they can't enjoy that prize as I enjoyed. That's why it went on and on. Many people, seeing that I was losing money, asked me how long I was going to continue. And I continued, despite everything that had to be paid.

-Based on the way you behave, Buenos Aires and the environment did not steal the essence of a man from Entre Ríos from Paraná.

– I never left Paraná because I have not been able to leave. I wouldn't know how to do it, it would be more difficult to try to be someone else. How do I build another character every time? On the other hand, I never had that need.

-Very little is known about your private life, beyond the family you formed with Paula Siero and the arrival of a son Rafael.

–I have a profile that we share with my wife and that seems very natural to us. What's more, when we met, we almost didn't look alike at all, but there was something we had a lot of agreement on, which was our low profile.

-The middle, never wanted to take you down another path?

-It has happened to me, but once a photographer told me: "I never had to chase someone who didn't want to take a picture."

- All said.

In my case, I preferred to take another path. Sometimes, to show some of my intimacy, they offered to take pictures of me in front of the signs of my works, by way of publicity, but I never accepted.

The future

–When will we see the film version of The tightrope walker?

-Uh, what a nice question... Many people told me that the play will go to the cinema but, now, it is the stage of learning it in Italian.

-Why?

– There is a planned tour that will start in Manfredonia, my mother's town, in February 2023. It will include several cities and, since people are not in the habit of subtitling in the theater, I am learning it in another language. It will be a great challenge, since it is not just acting in another language.

–The character must think in Italian.

-That's right, I realize that it's not just phonetics, but that I'm rehearsing from scratch, all over again. But I have time, besides, before, In May of this year, we are going to Spain.

–Both The tightrope walker and The amateur imply a great physical effort, do you train to be able to sustain that demand?

–I work like an athlete, with massages, elongation and good nutrition. I do osteopathy and exercises so that the physique responds to demands such as getting up to balance on stage. At my age, it's not that easy, but I know my body.

-Theatrical activity was one of the most affected by the pandemic, with a paralysis that lasted several months. At that time, did you go to your living room or did you prefer not to run into the empty space?

–Since I live a few blocks away, I would grab my bicycle or skateboard and go over to do some minor maintenance work. It was a very hard time, we have fixed costs that we had to pay every month, but we are grateful for the help of the State to pay our salaries and Néstor Marroni, the owner of the building, who lowered our rent when we couldn't work. A closed theater is very sad.

-In all this journey, what was the greatest lesson?

-I think it is beneficial not to have everything served, since the need enhances the desire , wakes you up to search, keeps you awake and keeps you active. That's how, following that need, I went from actor to author, and from director to theater owner. If I had won the Prode at a very young age, I don't know if I would have done everything I did.