Carpa

In Mexico and the Southwestern United States, the carpa (Spanish: "tent", from the Quechua karpa) theater flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. Like its American counterpart vaudeville, performance materials were varied, including comedic sketches, puppet shows, political satire, acrobatics, and dance.

Its name comes from the removable canvas-roofed structure, like that of circuses, used for the theaters' traveling tours through towns and cities. Unlike classic circuses, they offered very simple theater performances without elaborate scenery that were humorous or satirical, often musical, and close to the genre of popular magazines. They emerged in the Mexican capital and then in other cities of the country, replacing the "theater of the rich," whose functions had little or nothing to do with the plain people and whose prices were out of reach of their money.^[1]

Some well-known carpas include Carpa Valentina and Carpa Azcapotzalco. In the United States, Carpa Cubana, Carpa Monsavias, and La Carpa García were the best-known.

In order to be successful on the carpa stage, an actor had to establish an immediate rapport with the audience and get laughs quickly or risk being booed off stage. This limited the portrayals to stock characters. However, many who allowed their personalities to shine through the characters and who developed a knack for improvisation later found success in the cinema of Mexico, helping to create its Golden Age.