Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
María Julia Casanova Papers
Date(s)
- 1943-2003 (Creation)
Extent
10 Boxes
Name of creator
Biographical history
María Julia Casanova was born in Havana, Cuba in 1916 and is recognized for her long career as a script writer for radio and television and as a theater designer and director. She worked for children’s theater in Mexico and wrote for the radio serial “La Impostora” broadcast on Cuba’s CMQ station. With Margot de Blanck she founded the Sala Teatro Hubert de Blanck in Havana, in which she occasionally presented her own plays such as Hechizadas and Mujeres.
Exiled in Miami, Florida in 1960, Casanova worked in radio and later with Sociedad Pro-Arte Grateli. With Armando Navarro and Roberto Miñagorri, she founded the Sala Teatro La Danza, which debuted with the play Corona de Amor by Alejandro Casona and adapted by Casanova. Casanova also worked for the magazine publisher Editorial de Armas.
In the 1980s, she served as artistic director for the Teatro Bellas Artes in Miami, where she presented original works such as Lucy and La Reina Enamorada, and designed theater sets for Teatro Avante. In the 1990s, she realized her dream of owning a theater and opened the Teatro Casanova on Miami’s Calle Ocho. Ediciones Universal published her autobiography, Mi vida en el teatro, in 2000. Four years later, María Julia Casanova died in Miami.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The María Julia Casanova Papers primarily document the work of radio and television writer and theater designer and director María Julia Casanova (1916-2004) in Cuba and Miami. The Papers include her scripts, photographs, clippings, theater programs, set and costume designs, posters, audiovisual materials, memorabilia, and honors and awards.
System of arrangement
The María Julia Casanova Papers are organized into two series.
Please see the Finding Aid/Inventory section of this guide for more detailed information.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This collection is open for research.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
María Julia Casanova Papers Finding Aid
Requests to publish or display materials from this collection require written permission from the rights owner. Please, contact chc@miami.edu for more information.
Preferred citation: María Julia Casanova Papers, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Languages of the material
- Spanish
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Gift of Diana Martínez de Castro, 2004.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Selected materials from this collection have been digitized.
https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/theater
Related archival materials
Religious cards. (Cuba Vertical Files, Cuban Heritage Collection)
Luisa María Güell. Poster, 1998 (Cuban Poster Collection, Cuban Heritage Collection)
Cuban Flag (1x 0.5) (Cuba Vertical Files: Memorabilia, Cuban Heritage Collection)
Cuban/Latino Theater Digital Archive, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Cuban and Cuban-American Theater Collection (CHC5169), Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Teatro Avante Collection (CHC0465), Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
Other Information:
Rights Statement:
The text of this webpage is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Processed by Marta Martínez, January 2008. Edited by María R. Estorino, 2008. Updated by Rebeca Gonzalez, May 2021.
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Casanova, María Julia, 1916-2004 (Subject)