Cecilio Madanes

Cecilio Madanes (Ukraine, 2 December 1921 - Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1 April 2000) was a Ukrainian theater director, set designer, and producer. He was one of the leading figures in Argentine theatre from 1950 through 1960. Madanes founded the Teatro Caminito.

Madanes studied Fine Arts at the Prilidiano Pueyrredón school. In 1947, he received a scholarship to France to continue his theater studies in Paris. When the scholarship ended eight months later, Madanes settled in France for eight years, where he met Jean Cocteau and Georges Braque, and studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris with Louis Jouvet.

In 1957, Madanes created "theater Caminito", a street theater experience in the neighborhood of La Boca, Buenos Aires, and it lasted until 1973. The theater featured the works of Shakespeare, Molière, and García Lorca, among others, with the participation of leading Argentine actors such as Aida Luz and Beatriz Bonnet. He also worked in television on Channel 7, where he became responsible for overall programming.

He directed several plays included Estrellas en el Avenida in 1961, starring Tita Merello, Tato Bores, Hugo del Carril, and María Antinea; Amadeus and Las relaciones peligrosas with Oscar Martinez and Cecilia Roth; and Equus, which launched the career of Miguel Angel Sola. In the period between 1983 and 1986, he was director of the Teatro Colón. In 1984, he starred in the film Camila, which was nominated for an Oscar).

Madanes died in 2000 of leukemia.