At the beginning of the 40s of the last century, a few professional theaters managed to stay afloat through a very diligent regime of constant premieres. At the same time, several groups of young people, mostly university students, dreamed of a theater that would stage innovative dramaturgy, deep discussions and new aesthetic forms. One of those groups created the Catholic University Rehearsal Theater. The autosacramental El peregrino, by Josef de Valdivieso, directed by Pedro Mortheiru with scenery by Fernando Debesa, was the first premiere, on October 17, 1943. In 1945, the Teatro de Ensayo gave way to the creation of the School of Dramatic Art from the Catholic University to train and perfect the companys actors. It was not yet a university school itself, it was attached to the extension area. The trial bore fruit. Together with other university theaters, they began to change the way of understanding the function and spirit of theater in Chile. In 1954 Eugenio Dittborn took over the management of the Theater. Under his management, the Teatro de Ensayo gained its own venue the Camilo Henriquez, in Amunategui and Alameda, in 1956. Eugenio Dittborn was director of the Theater until his death at the end of the seventies. We owe him, in large part, the current location of the Theater in Plaza Ñuñoa, the promotion of Chilean dramaturgy together with the revitalization of the classics and the fact that the University kept the Theater open during the dictatorship. The history of any institution can be told as a leisurely walk along a straight path, but that version is rarely true. The Teatro de la Universidad Catolica, today Teatro UC, formerly Teatro de Ensayo, had breaks, frictions, name changes, schisms, refoundations and overturns. It became an experimental workshop, it merged with film and television at the EAC, it was opened to invited companies and much more. Rather than setbacks, the changes were ways to adapt to the country and the university that our theater must serve. Today, the UC Theater already has almost 80 years of history. Artists of the stature of Ana Gonzalez, Victor Jara, Ramon Nuñez, Silvia Piñeiro, Raul Osorio, Paulina Urrutia, Hector Noguera and a very long etcetera have passed through it. Its management depends on the Theater School, and, thanks to a team of more than 20 people, it receives more than 40,000 spectators a year in its two rooms at Jorge Washington 26.