Independent Theatre in Spain: 1962–1980

Despite the unstable and perilous road it travelled down, independent theatre transformed numerous aspects of the stage in Spain, and was preceded by the considerable impetus of university theatre in the late fifties and early sixties, coming into being when the latter started to see its possibilities cut short. From that time on, until halfway through the seventies, independent theatre would conceive aesthetically innovative and politically relevant performances to reach different audiences. Touring and exhibitions of work in non-theatre spaces, as well as explorations of the possibilities of collective creation and the exposure of ideas in other artistic languages and traditions, would become the distinguishing features of the formations that opposed the poetics and ideology of run-of-the-mill, anachronistic commercial theatre in a society that demanded sweeping changes to structures and relations.

Eduardo Pérez Rasilla. Head professor of Spanish Literature at the University Carlos III of Madrid. He previously lectured at the Royal School of Dramatic Arts (RESAD), in Madrid, and has been a member of editorial boards of magazines such as Estreno, Acotaciones, Don Galán, Revista Galega de Teatro and ADE-Teatro. He has written articles for Spanish and international magazines, and is the author of numerous chapters in books on collective works. He has also written El premio Lope de Vega. Historia y desarrollo (The Lope de Vega Award. History and Development, co-written with Julio Checa, 2006) and Antología del Teatro Breve Español (1898-1940) (An Anthology of Teatro Breve in Spain, [1898–1940]), in 1997.

César de Vicente Hernando, Enric Ciurans and Inmaculada López Silva.
Moderated by: Mercé Saumell

Diverse researchers specialised in the theatre staging from this period will discuss its context in history, the role of political militancy in its development, and its mythologies and legacy. What remains today from independent theatre?

César de Vicente Hernando. Professor of Theory and Practice in Political Theatre from the Department of Political Sciences and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He is author of La escena constituyente. Teoría y práctica del teatro político (The Constituent Stage. The Theory and Practice of Political Theatre, 2013) and La dramaturgia política (Political Dramaturgy, in print). Moreover, he has also worked on the following publications: Peter Weiss: una estética de la resistencia (Peter Weiss: The Aesthetics of Resistance, 1996), El teatro político de Erwin Piscator (Erwin Piscator’s Political Theatre, 2001), Teatro de Alfonso Sastre (Alfonso Sastre’s Theatre, 2010) and Teatro, Política, Sociedad (Theatre, Politics, Society) by Erwin Piscator (2013).

Enric Ciurans. Professor of Performing Arts History at the University of Barcelona and a member of the Research Project on Performing Arts in Catalonia, promoted by the Institut del Teatre. His noteworthy publications include his work on post-war theatre and independent theatre in Spain, for instance El teatre independent a Catalunya (2003) and articles on Ricard Salvat, Josep Palau i Fabre and the Escola Adrià Gual, published in magazines like Assaig de Teatre, Matèria, Siglo XXI and Serra d’Or.

Inmaculada López Silva.Theatre critic, writer and professor of Drama Theory at the Advanced School of Dramatic Art of Galicia, and professor of the M.A. in Performing Arts at the University of Vigo. She has also worked as a researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela and City University, New York. She is a founding member of the Association for Contemporary Theatre Research in 21st-Century Theatre, and is part of the editorial board of the publications ECO and Revista Galega de Teatro, as well as author of Un abrente teatral (Abrente Theatre, 2002) and Teatro e canonización (Theatre and Canonisation, 2004).

Salvador Távora, Lluís Pasqual, Guillermo Heras, Gloria Muñoz and Juan Ruesga.
Moderated by: Cristina Santolaria

Diverse researchers specialised in the theatre staging from this period will discuss its context in history, the role of political militancy in its development, and its mythologies and legacy. What remains today from independent theatre?

Salvador Távora. Actor, stage designer, and a leading figure in independent theatre in Spain. In 1971 he founded the theatre company La Cuadra, in which he composed over twenty works, including Quejío (1972-1975), Nanas de espinas (1982-1985), Piel de toro (1985-1987), Picasso andaluz o la muerte del minotauro (1992-1994), Carmen (1996) and Mayorales (2004), to name but a few. In 2007 La Cuadra opened its own permanent theatre, Teatro Salvador Távora, which has since been the venue for the theatre productions of the artist and his company.

Lluís Pasqual. Theatre director. Founder of Teatre Lliure, Barcelona, in 1976, where he directed Camí de nit, his first stage project. In 1983 he became director of the National Drama Centre - Teatro María Guerrero, in Madrid. From 1990 to 1996 he directed Odéon - Théâtre de l’Europe, Paris, and was head of stage design at the Venice Biennale between 1995 and 1996. From 1998 to 2000 he co-directed the Teatre Lliure and in 2004 he joined the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao as artistic advisor. Since 2011, and for the second time, he has been director of Teatre Lliure.

Guillermo Heras. Actor and theatre director. He has directed the Tábano Group (1974–1983) and the National Centre of New Theatre Trends (1983–1993), and is editor of the collections Nuevo Teatro Español (New Spanish Theatre), Nueva Escena (New Stage) and Teatro Español Contemporáneo (Contemporary Spanish Theatre). Moreover, he is the founder of the Teatro del Astillero theatre company, and is currently director of the Muestra de Teatro Español de Autores Contemporáneos (Festival of Contemporary Authors of Spanish Theatre). He was awarded the Premio Nacional de Teatro (National Theatre Award) in 1994, and the Premio Lorca de Teatro (Lorca Theatre Award) in 1997.

Gloria Muñoz. Actress. In 1970 she joined the Tábano Group with Castañuela 70, directed by  Juan Margallo. With Tábano she has worked on a number of staging projects, which include La soledad de Robinsón Crusoe, La ópera del bandido and Cambio de tercio. With Los Goliardos she performed in La boda de los pequeños burgueses, directed by Ángel Facio. In 1978 she moved to Barcelona, to the La Villaroel theatre, to join the company La Favorita, performing Sopa de mijo para cenar and Tenía dos pistolas con los ojos blancos y negros, directed by José A. Ortega.

Juan Ruesga. Stage designer. He has developed an important body of work in theory and analysis through his publications and lectures at numerous universities and institutions. At present, he is director of the research centre Ruesga Theater Lab, vice-president of the Academy of Theatre Arts of Spain, and vice-president of the OISTAT Association Spain (Organisation Internationale des Scénografes, Techniciens et Architectes de Théatre). Moreover, he is a guest lecturer in the M.A. in Live Performing Arts at the University of Seville, and professor of the M.A. in Advanced Theatre Studies at the International University of La Rioja.

Screening of a series of interviews, conducted by the INAEM Theatre Documentation Centre as part of Independent Theatre in Spain: 1962–1980, with some of the leading figures from this time period: Antonio Malonda, José Luis Alonso de Santos, Gloria Muñoz, Juan Antonio Quintana, Juan Margallo, Paco Vidal, Fermín Cabal and Guillermo Heras.

Screening of the documentary Independent Theatre in Andalusia. The Origin of the Present, produced by the Andalusian Documentation Centre of Performing Arts, which compiles fragments from statements by leading figures from independent theatre in Andalusia, such as Alfonso Zurro, Pedro Álvarez- Ossorio, Amparo Rubiales and Ricardo Luna, among others.

Cracks in the System

Censorship and independent theatre are two closely linked phenomena. The pressing desire for independence that drove these playwrights and stage designers cannot be understood without the cultural and political climate they felt suffocated by in a dictatorship that stretched out its tentacles to reach the furthest corners of public and private space. The propaganda system drawn up during the Spanish Civil War would be kept alive, with changes that were more superficial than real, until 1978. Theatre, socially engaged art par excellence, would address this lack of freedom by developing allegories, and by means of different expressive mechanisms enabling it to seep through the cracks of a highly rigid system lacking its own cultural project, prevailing more through the new audiences that surfaced than through traditional ones.

Berta Muñoz.Theatre historian. She is author of El teatro crítico español durante el franquismo, visto por sus censores (Spanish Critical Theatre During the Franco Regime, Seen through its Censors, 2005), Expedientes de la censura teatral franquista (Records from Francoist Theatre Censorship, 2006, 2 vols.) and Censura y teatro del exilio (Censorship and Theatre in Exile, 2010). She is currently a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and works in the Documentation Centre of the Ministry of Culture, publishing to date two volumes from the series Fuentes y recursos para el estudio del teatro español: mapa de la documentación teatral en España (Sources and Resources for the Study of Spanish Theatre: A Map of Theatre Documentation in Spain, 2011) and Guía de obras de referencia y consulta (A Guide to Reference Works, 2012).

Get Me Out of the Theatre… The Outbreak of Theatre without Theatre

The instability of the “independent theatre” classification is key to understanding the relationship between visual art and theatre from the sixties onwards. The so-called “theatrical shift”, the ferocious outcome of Michael Fried’s critique and his vilification of theatricality, grants privilege to the event, the performance and the situation. Modes of forming collective, militant audiences and even a new political status of merchandise prove that we are some way from the scenographic role official theatres allocate to fine arts. Installations, happenings and guerrilla theatre are tools shared by artists from different spheres, and, to some degree, it is on the fringes of the history of independent theatre where the project was realised. Ocaña, Darcy Lange’s operas and flamenco theatre would take this theatrical machine to extremes, whereby theatre without theatre would appear in unison.

Pedro G. Romero. Artist and theorist. A contributor to UNIA arteypensamiento (artandthought) and the Platform of Reflection on Cultural Politics (PRPC) in Seville and curator of the project Tratado de Paz (Peace Treaty) for San Sebastian 2016, European Capital of Culture. He also promotes the Independent Platform of Modern and contemporary Flamenco Studies. Furthermore, he is artistic director of the flamenco dancer and choreographer Israel Galván, and has worked with an array of artists, including Rocío Márquez and Tomás de Perrate. He curated the exhibition Ocaña. Actions, Acts, Activism 1973–1983 (Virreina de Barcelona, 2010, and Centro de Arte Montehermoso, Vitoria, 2011) and in 2009 his work was exhibited in the Museo Reina Sofía in the monographic exhibition Silo. Archivo F.X.

An Approach to Independent Theatre

By virtue of different graphic and audiovisual materials from 1968–1979, loaned by documentation centres, the artistic conditions developed by independent theatre, the production and distribution of mediums used in its performances, forms of interpretation and representation, and the different aspects contributing to its specific nature in the theatrical landscape of the time, as well as how it would be reflected in future groups, are all analysed.

César de Vicente. Professor of Theory and Practice in Political Theatre from the Department of Political Sciences and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He is author of La escena constituyente. Teoría y práctica del teatro político (The Constituent Stage. The Theory and Practice of Political Theatre, 2013) and La dramaturgia política (Political Dramaturgy, in print). Moreover, he has also worked on the following publications: Peter Weiss: una estética de la resistencia (Peter Weiss: The Aesthetics of Resistance, 1996), El teatro político de Erwin Piscator (Erwin Piscator’s Political Theatre, 2001), Teatro de Alfonso Sastre (Alfonso Sastre’s Theatre, 2010) and Teatro, Política, Sociedad (Theatre, Politics, Society) by Erwin Piscator (2013).