Cunill Cabanellas was born in
Barcelona,
Spain, in 1894. His father, Juan Cunill, had been a well-known actor on the
Catalan stage. He emigrated to
Buenos Aires in 1915 and quickly gained prominence in the vibrant
local theatre scene, and became an early
cinematographer and actor in the
Argentine cinema, appearing in a 1917 comedy,
Carlitos en Mar del Plata. He worked afterwards as an
assistant director, mostly on
zarzuelas and
sainetes - comedy genres popular at the time in much of the Spanish-speaking world. He began writing, as well, and produced numerous of his own plays, notably
Chaco, for which he won a
Florencio Sánchez Prize in 1933. The establishment that year of the National Comedy at the newly nationalized
Cervantes Theatre led to Cunill's appointment as its director, and he inaugurated the new institution in 1935. His first production was of local playwright
Gregorio de Laferrère's
Locos de verano (
Summer Madness), which debuted to acclaim on April 24, 1936; he later adapted the play for the local cinema in 1942. Cunill helped remedy the local shortage of skilled technicians in
scenography and
stagecraft by founding the National Institute for Theatrical Studies and authoring a number of technical texts and treatises. He also became Argentina's first vigorous promoter of local playwrights during his tenure at the National Comedy, and of 27 plays in its repertoire over five years, 26 were Argentine. Becoming assistant director of the
National Music Conservatory, Cunill was named director of the largest popular stage theatre in Argentina, the public
Teatro General San Martín, in 1953, and managed the institution during a difficult interim marked by a scarcity of venues (its new, modernist
Corrientes Avenue building was under construction) and the instability leading to President
Juan Perón's 1955 overthrow. Cunill resigned on the eve of these events, and he returned at the helm of his National Institute for Theatrical Studies, teaching at its facilities adjoining the Cervantes Theatre until his death in 1969 at age 74. ==References==