Ferocious Animals

Isaac Chocrón Serfaty was born in Maracay, Venezuela, to Moroccan Sephardi parents. He received a Jewish and Catholic education in Venezuela before attending high school at Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey; he then studied at Syracuse, Columbia, and Manchester universities. Chocrón found that his true vocation was writing—primarily plays, but also novels and literary criticism. He referred to himself as a lefty Jewish homosexual writer. He founded the National Theater Company and served in numerous administrative and university faculty positions in Venezuela. In 1979, Chocrón received Venezuela’s National Theater Award. His plays are experimental, borrowing from surrealism and theater of the absurd.