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In the Buenos Aires town of Bahía Blanca (Argentina), a group of young people premiered their first self-directed play in 2010. A revival of The Passion of the Christ, conceived by teenagers, was performed in one of the largest theaters in the city of Bahía Blanca, the Don Bosco Theater, at the school of the same name, with approximately 1,300 seats. 

Among them was a 12-year-old boy. “It involved acting auditions and a very fledgling attempt at directing, without knowing what I was doing at the time. They were plays that we, a group of very self-taught kids, also wrote. It was quite groundbreaking.” The speaker, Juan Segundo “Juanse” Rausch, is now 27 years old and has four plays on the bill in Buenos Aires.

From a giant conch shell where a mermaid shines , to a queer washerwoman , a God who sings Whitney Houston songs , comedians who do justice to Argentine revue theater , to a performer who is a friend of Eva Perón . The sets of the plays in which Juanse participates, as director or screenwriter, are permeated by a language and an acting display that is celebrated with applause and by the people on foot when the performance ends. Also by the music: a cappella singing, piano and bands that in some of them are the basis of musicals. And, above all, by the archival work: in most of them, special attention is paid to history, to the recovery of documents, pieces, biographies, photographs, scores.

“Archives ignite something that later allows me to imagine. Finding stories and characters is incredible. I'm fascinated by anecdotes and gossip, but period gossip. I think archives have become, in some way, a fundamental input for creating works . I'm not so much interested in a work of fidelity to history, an attempt at historical reconstruction. Rather, it's a springboard to later imagine something else,” Rausch tells Presentes .

Juanse was born in Bahía Blanca, on the Buenos Aires coast, on March 12, 1998. His parents, both teachers, took him to see children's shows from a young age. When he traveled to Buenos Aires with his family, he took advantage and prepared to attend as many plays as possible. Most were commercial, a characteristic present in the staging of his works. He also included musicals. He watched them both in theaters and on YouTube, where he developed a self-taught career from a very young age. Cult and independent theater came much later.

Paquito as a beginning

At the end of 2015, he traveled to the nation's capital to study. He met the ORGÍE , which conducted stage research, and began participating as a performer. “That's when I became involved in the history of sexual dissidence in Argentina. There was something about that question of sexual dissidence in theater that always interested me. Every time I performed a play, I somehow entered into a process of stage research . For me, academic and stage research are intertwined. What I research academically is what later becomes part of the plays,” he says. Today, he holds a degree in Stage Direction from the National University of the Arts, is a PhD candidate in History and Theory of the Arts from the University of Buenos Aires, and is a researcher at Conicet (National Council of Experts in the Arts).

As part of his fascination with history, an acquaintance suggested he read a book: La cabeza contra el suelo (The Head Against the Ground , Ediciones de la Flor, 1975), the memoirs of Paco Jamandreu (1919–1995), fashion designer, artist, performer, and friend of Eva Duarte de Perón. “The book came to me from the protagonist of a play I was doing,” he says. “His mother was one of Paco's models. And then he tells me some anecdotes about how Paco had met him and so on, which I found mind-blowing. The memoir is incredible; it's a work in itself, beyond what we did with it. Paco, like so many other figures of sexual dissidence, had a life that wasn't covered by official history.”

In 2022, the big break came. He debuted as a director with Paquito (La Cabeza Contra El Piso) . “It was the first of my works that had the greatest impact, and the one on which I feel I was able to work with the greatest 'creative maturity.' It was a huge growth, and it helped me understand a lot of things that had been in the works for some time, and then they finally came together.”

Girls of Uranus

Some time later, another book sparked her curiosity. This time it was Doctors, Criminals and Faggots: Hygiene, Criminology and Homosexuality in the Construction of the Argentine Nation (1995), by Jorge Salessi, reissued in 2023 by Planeta. It is a fundamental input for thinking about the play - currently playing - Saraos Uranistas . In it, Maiamar Abrodos , Lucía Adúriz , Manuel DI Francesco , Emiliano Figueredo and Tomás Wicz embody the friends, deviants, talkative and delinquent who are the objects of study - and fascination - of a federal police doctor. Set in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century, the name of the play refers to the terminology used at that time by the hygienic medical and police system. "Sarao" is a relaxed nighttime gathering, with music and dancing; while “uranist” was the adjective used pejoratively to name homosexual men.

“What La Bella Otero does with the archives in the play is real. She wrote a kind of autobiography in the medical archives that the doctors read as a case of delirium, but in reality it's a kind of joke for the doctors. There's a kind of code, which at times operated as a secret code. And to this day we're laughing at the same things they laughed at,” Juanse says, fascinated.

Humor is another very present ingredient in his works, both from the point of view and, above all, from the physicality. “Crazy or gay humor is somewhat intangible. But, at the same time, when one talks about gay humor, there's a type of humor that resonates, one that has to do with parody, satire, with a certain mordacity in reference to certain icons. It has to do with putting oneself in the place of the humorous object. And like all humorous gestures, it forms a community, a kind of "us" from which we laugh,” he reflects.

Regarding the inclusion of sexual diversity in the theater world, she adds: “For me, dissidents have always been fundamental to the production of performing arts. There has always been a connection with the artistic world in general, from the training of actors, actresses, singers, and others, to the teams that work with them. It has always been there and will continue to be there.”

Four works

In a context of attacks on culture by Javier Milei's government, Rausch is grateful to the people who decide to go see his plays and to those who made it possible for four plays in which he participates to be on the bill. 

In addition to Saraos Uranistas , you can currently see Viento Blanco , in which Mariano Saborido plays the role of Mario, a gay man who runs a hostel with his mother in a remote southern town, and whose monotonous life is met with an unexpected reunion. Juanse directed the film with Valeria Lois.

Also, La Revista del Cervantes , which sells out at the Teatro Cervantes. There, comedians Tato Bores and Enrique Pinti find themselves in a kind of limbo, trying to convince an angel of the charms of revue theater with a tour of its heydays. Its curation required archival research and the rescue of original scores. Each musical number represents revues from the 1920s. In it, Rausch is co-writer, with general direction by Pablo Maritano. Meanwhile, in La Llamada , an original work by Los Javis (Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, Spanish creators of Paquita Salas, La Veneno , and La Mesías ), Rausch was called in as director. At a religious camp, two teenagers, María and Susana, cross paths with a peculiar interlocutor: God, who speaks to them through Whitney Houston songs.

Defense of the theater

Various artists have echoed in recent weeks the attempt to dismantle the National Theater Institute through Decree 345/2025. Regarding this and the cultural crisis Argentina is experiencing, Rausch warns: “There are certain sectors that currently hold a position of majority power, which means that discussions about theater revolve around its economic benefits. It's possible to discuss this, but it's not the only way to discuss the importance and impact of theater on culture. On the other hand, we see that the State wants to distance itself from its role in cultural promotion. That's where I think we need to be very vigilant, because the role of the State is fundamental to sustaining certain activities.”

In a context not only of cultural cuts, but also of attacks and dissemination of misinformation regarding sexual diversity, it's comforting that at least two of Rausch's widely successful works feature LGBTIQ+ people as protagonists. These aren't "pamphlets," but characters with stories and issues that affect everyone, not just the community. 

“Other ways of life are possible,” says Juanse. “They exist, they existed, and they will continue to exist, even if this or that person doesn't want them to. It's not a question of willpower. Plays are an invitation to imagine life differently. For me, that's the possibility that theater offers: to see bodies, stories, images that broaden our vision a little. And today there's an absolute need to broaden our view of the world.”

Saraos Uranistas can be seen at El Galpón de Guevara (Guevara 326) on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. and Fridays at 8 p.m. Tickets through Alternativa Teatral .

Viento Blanco plays Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 p.m. at Dumont 4040 (Santos Dumont 4040). Tickets are available through Alternativa Teatral .

The Call is on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at the Astros Theater (746 Corrientes Ave.). Tickets are available through the Astros Theater .

The Cervantes Review can be seen Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Teatro Nacional Cervantes (Libertad 815). Tickets are available through Alternativa Teatral .