Noe Ibarrola, a Paraguayan actress and playwright, has built a unique artistic world spanning acting, production, and playwriting over the past 15 years. Her work has garnered significant attention for bringing subjects that touch upon social taboos—such as child abuse, sexual harassment, and mental health—onto the stage, combining them with personal experiences. From starting out as an accounting student urged to pursue a stable, professional career, to returning to the theater world and finding her own voice, Ibarrola demonstrates how to communicate with the world through art.

From Accounting Student to the Stage: A Grand Return After 15 Years

Ibarrola's artistic roots date back to her childhood. Influenced by her mother, who enjoyed singing and writing poetry, and her grandparents, who encouraged playing Paraguayan polka, she appeared on a children's program and recorded songs at the young age of eight. However, following her mother's advice seeking a stable life, she majored in accounting at the Catholic University, and later had to step away from the stage for a long period due to marriage and raising children.

Her passion for art did not easily fade. Reentering the theater world in 2010 through her son, who was studying theater, she resumed acting and hit a turning point in her life. As she says, "Art knows how to wait. If something is truly beating in your heart, it is bound to return someday," her hiatus instead served as a nourishing foundation to view life deeply. Through acting, she began a journey of challenging social expectations and rediscovering herself.

Breaking the Silence on Stage: The Play 'Tell Me How to Fall'

Ibarrola’s representative one-woman show, Tell Me How to Fall (Decime cómo hago para caerme), originated from an idea in 2015 and hit the stage in 2022. This piece addresses child abuse, bullying, and mental health issues, with resilience being its most emphasized theme. During the pandemic, she recorded her memories and experiences as voice messages using an abandoned rooftop terrace as a backdrop. Playwright Paola Irún completed the script, and Jorge Báez directed it.

She did not trap her story solely within the perspective of a victim; she wanted to show that one can move forward despite having suffered wounds. While this work served as an opportunity for deep internal reflection, she strictly distinguishes artistic expression from psychotherapy. Healing is merely a result, she explains, while the essence lay in having an important message to share with the world. For this production, she won the Best Social Play Award at the EDDA Awards, simultaneously gaining artistic achievement and social resonance.

Exposing Structural Violence: The Play 'Barrunto' and the Spirit of Solidarity

Barrunto, a theatrical adaptation of a work by Argentine playwright Mario Arietto, also delves deeply into the issues of abuse and sexual harassment. This play goes beyond individual deviations to sharply criticize power structures, the judicial system, the attitude of the media, and the reactions surrounding the whistleblowing of victims.

Confronting head-on the secondary victimization experienced by victims and the social gaze that asks, "Why were you there at that time?", Ibarrola also raises questions about the responsibility of bystanders. Moving beyond a focus solely on the individual pain of the victim, she encourages the audience to reflect on what attitude people around them should take when witnessing an unfair situation. Ibarrola and Natalia Nebbia elevated the production's quality by executing high-difficulty acting that seamlessly transitions between genders and roles without relying on stereotypes, winning yet another EDDA Award for this work.

Artistic Expansion and the Future of Paraguayan Theater

Going beyond being an actress on stage, Ibarrola has expanded her scope of activities into production and direction. Through her self-established production project "Noe Factoría," she supports various artistic contents, and hosts "Noe's Podcast" (El Podcast de Noe), bringing topics that are difficult to discuss openly in daily life—such as mental health, emotions, human relationships, and self-esteem—into the public sphere.

Currently, she points to the expansion of the audience base and the securing of self-sustainability as the biggest challenges facing the Paraguayan theater world. She notes that theater must establish itself as an everyday cultural life for citizens, and that various forms of theater should be accessible within school curricula. She also emphasizes the desperate need to discover local playwrights who capture Paraguay's unique identity. Preparing for the rerun of Barrunto scheduled for November 2026 while producing Argentine playwright Guillermo Hermida's new work Nobody Returns for No Reason (Nadie vuelve porque sí), Noe Ibarrola continues her vigorous strides today, embracing the world's wounds and driving change through the stage.

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