Martha Bolaños de Prado

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Bolaños and the second or maternal family name is Schaeffer.

Marta Bolaños de Prado
Born	María Marta Bolaños Schaeffer (1897-01-15)15 January 1897 Guatemala City, Guatemala
Died	4 June 1963(1963-06-04) (aged 66) Guatemala City, Guatemala
Occupation(s)	actor, musician, composer, educator
Years active	1918-1963
Known for	founding the National Children's Theater Company and Children's Radio Theater

Marta Bolaños de Prado (15 January 1897 – 4 June 1963) was a Guatemalan actress, musician, composer and educator. Initially appearing in musical comedies and as an accompanist to the Arruyo Chorus, she began teaching singing and founded the National Children's Theater Company in 1931. In 1946, she inaugurated her group of youth actors' appearance on radio and in 1958 took them to television. She received Guatemala's highest honor, the Order of the Quetzal in 1962 and in 1992 a presidential honor was named in her memory to recognize exceptional contributions to the arts.

Early life

María Marta Bolaños Schaeffer was born on 15 January 1897 in Guatemala City, Guatemala to Josefina Schaeffer and Salvador Bolaños. She studied acting with Adriana Saravia de Palarea and performed in Guatemala's vaudeville and zarzuela theaters. Her debut was in the theater operated by Jesús de Quiñónez and later, she performed at the Teatro Renacimiento. Her greatest success was during 1918 and 1919, when she performed in pieces like The Count of Luxembourg, The Duchess of Bal Tabarin and The Merry Widow, under the direction of Alberto de la Riva. She also studied piano under Felipe Tronchi and Enrique Tuit and served as the accompanist of the Arruyo Chorus for a decade.

Career

Bolaños began giving singing and theatrical classes, working with several different public schools. She also composed music, with lyrics written by Gustavo Schwartz. Some of her most noted pieces are Alma mixqueña, Chancaca, El zopilote, Negros frijolitos and Pepita. In 1931, she founded the National Children's Theater Company. The young actors performed morning shows for children in the Teatro Capital and Teatro Palace.

In 1946, José Castañeda Medinilla, who was the director of the National Radio TGW (es), proposed to Bolaños that her Children's Theater begin performing on the radio. Adapting their material of children's stories dramatized by students, the program, which featured a cast of youth between five and seventeen years old, first went on air 15 August 1946. In 1958, Radioteatro Infantil (Children's Radio Theater) was inaugurated on television, appearing on the country's first television station, Televisión Nacional Channel 8. In 1962, she received the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala's highest honor.

Death and legacy

Bolaños died on 4 June 1963 and in 1992 was posthumously recognized for her contributions to the arts when a presidential honor, the Order of Martha Bolaños de Prado, was created to be conferred on exceptional artists in the fields of dance, singing and theater. The first recipient of new order was her daughter, Marina Prado Bolaños, who had taken over the direction of the Radioteatro Infantil after her mother's death. The radio show she founded is still being produced and is now directed by her granddaughter, Anabella Palma Andrade. In 2016, the new director of Radio TGW decided that for the first time, Radioteatro Infantil would no longer be a live broadcast, but would become pre-recorded.

References

Bibliography

• Kaltschmitt, Alfred (11 August 2006). "Radioteatro Infantil "Marta Bolaños de Prado"" [The Martha Bolaños de Prado Children's Radio Theater]. Prensa Libre (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
• Prahl Redondo, Carlos E. (1994). Aproximación a la opera (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Editorial Paprex. OCLC 253765941.
• Rodriguez Zepeda, Ana Sofia (January 2016). La Evolución de la Radio y la Influencia de las Nuevas Tecnologías en la Comunicación Entre Locutor y Oyente [The Evolution of Radio and the Influence of New Technologies in Communications between Speaker and Listener] (PDF) (Licenciada) (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Faculty of Humanities of the Rafael Landívar University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2017.
• Torres Alvarado, Néstor Alejandro (February 2016). Diseño de material gráfico para el fortalecimiento de la identidad corporativa del Radioteatro Infantil Martha Bolaños de Prado [Design of graphic material for strengthening the identity of the Martha Bolaños de Prado Children's Radio Theater] (PDF) (Licenciado) (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Faculty of Architecture of the University of San Carlos.
• Virguez, María de los Angeles (28 July 2017). "Los 15 Compositores Guatemaltecos Más Destacados". Lifeder (in Spanish). Seville, Spain. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
• "Guatemala Registro Civil, Nacimientos 1896-1897: María Marta Bolaños Schaeffer". FamilySearch (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Archivo General de Centro America. 20 February 1897. p. 73. FHL digital folder #1281882, certificate #717. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
• "Locutores y actores enfrentados por Radio Teatro Infantil" [Broadcasters and actors confronted by Children's Radio Theatre] (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Publinews. 14 July 2016. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
• "Marta Bolaños de Prado: pasión por el arte y la cultura" [Marta Bolaños de Prado: passion for art and culture]. Prensa Libre (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala. n.d. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.