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Notes
1. Anne Ubersfeld, Lire le Théâtre II. L'École du Spectateur (Paris: Belin, 1996), pp. 49, 53.
2. Since the early 1980s three venues have disappeared: the Teatre Malic, the Teatre Artenbrut and the Espai de Dansa i Música de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The Sant Andreu Teatre was closed from 1995 to 2003; and the Teatre Goya, closed from 2004, has reopened under the management of Focus and the artistic directorship of Josep Maria Pou. There are other theatre spaces within the city whose future is still unclear: the Teatre Arnau (1903–2000), the original Teatre Lliure in Gràcia (1976–2003), El Molino (1908–97), Teatre Novedades (1884–2006), Teatre Principal (1563–2006). However, new theatres are in the process of being opened. Amongst them: the Scénic (old Teatre Espanyol), recently acquired by the SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores i Editores (Association of Writers and Publishers)), and the Factoria Escènica Internacional (based at the Nau Ivanow) are two of the city's new cultural infrastructures.
3. For more information about provision of theatre spaces in Barcelona city go to w3.bcn.es/V01/Home/V01HomeLinkPl/0,2460,7610_52703_1,00.html
4. Catalonia's political structure is similar to that of Scotland or Wales in the UK. The Generalitat is a government body which retains control to legislate over the whole of the Catalan territory (including the Balearic Islands) on most aspects of Catalonia's political, social and financial structures. Some areas such as education, social security, transport, environment, employment, media and education are shared with the country's central government. Crucially, Catalonia has total control over the area of culture and language. The Diputació de Barcelona (County Council) is a body responsible for the coordination of the 311 municipalities that form the region of Barcelona. It is largely concerned with the provision of infrastructure and the coordination of activities in the region's cities, towns and villages. As opposed to the Generalitat, it does not hold legislative power and is not led by a specific political party but rather by a board made up of representatives from all the existing political parties that take part in Catalonia's political life. Finally, the Ajuntament is Barcelona's city council. This institution is concerned with the organisation of Barcelona's political, social and financial structures and, as with the Diputació, does not hold legislative power. Together, these three institutions constitute Barcelona's funding bodies.
5. According to Lluís Bonet, Barcelona's theatre system has been forged thanks to ‘the creation of theatre spaces or the recovery and rehabilitation of existing spaces on the part of public institutions in the eighties’. Bonet adds that ‘theatre spaces in Spain have gradually shifted to the hands of public institutions’. See Lluís Bonet, ‘The Theatre System of Spain’, in Hans Van Maanen and Steve E. Wilmer (eds), Theatre Worlds in Motion (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998), pp. 549–589 (pp. 573, 574).
6. Balañá, Barcelona's largest entertainment company, turned the Tívoli, Novedades and Borràs cinemas, and the two auditoriums of the Club Capitol and the Casino Principal into theatres. Similarly, the production company Focus took over the Teatre Romea, changed the purpose of the old Palau d'Esports into the Barcelona Teatre Musical, and was also involved in the refurbishment of the Teatre Goya.
7. This system closely follows the one that Marvin Carlson identified in Places of Performance: The Semiotics of Theatre Architecture (London and Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989). For an account of performance places in Barcelona, see Antoni Ramon Graells (ed.), El lloc del teatre. Ciutat, arquitectura i espai escènic (Barcelona: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 1997).
8. Santiago Fondevila states that ‘in 1998, almost two million people were spectators [in Barcelona] in a city of no more than two million inhabitants, while in London, with six million citizens, theatre spectators in 1998 numbered eleven million’. Santiago Fondevila, ‘Theatre in Catalonia’, Catalan Writing, 16 (Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya/Departament de Cultura, 1999), pp. 9–13 (p. 10). However, these figures should be analysed in more detail. Barcelona, which had just over 1.5 million inhabitants in January 2005, is surrounded by a metropolitan area of 4.5 million people. If we consider the fact that centralisation is a major issue within Catalonia's theatre system, which is only beginning to be addressed by the Generalitat, it could be argued that Barcelona's theatres cater for almost three times the population established by Fondevila. Furthermore, due also to this centralisation and the lack of a proper touring system, it could be further stated that Barcelona is actually catering for the whole of Catalonia's population which is close to 7 million. More information about the city's population and that of Catalonia can be found at www.bcn.es and www.gencat.net
9. See Maria M. Delgado, ‘Other’ Spanish Theatres: Erasure and Inscription on the Twentieth-Century Spanish Stage (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 17. Fondevila also makes reference to disagreements between the Ajuntament and the Generalitat due to political opposition, ‘this opposition having direct repercussions on the funding which the former [the Generalitat] has destined for the city infrastructure’. Fondevila, ‘Theatre in Catalonia’, p. 9. In fact, coordination seems to have been a problem even amongst theatres run by the same institution.
10. See Ajuntament de Barcelona, Gràcies i desgràcies culturals a Barcelona. Novembre 1992–Gener 1993 (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona/[Agrave]rea de Cultura, 1993), pp. 5–10.
11. See Ajuntament de Barceona, Gràcies i desgràcies culturals a Barcelona, p. 85. Interestingly, the first published report on the Mercat's activities between 1995 and 2002 also opens with the words of the British director. See Mercat de les Flors (Barcelona: Institut de Cultura/Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2003), p. 6. Brook's Carmen was performed amongst the ruins of the old Flower Market in 1983.
12. Delgado, ‘Other’ Spanish Theatres, p. 21.
13. Pere Puértolas, ‘Els escenaris de l'avantguarda’, El teatre a la ciutat de Barcelona, avui (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1998), 88–90 (p. 88).
14. See Albert de la Torre, ‘La participació pública als espais escènics barcelonins’, in El teatre a la ciutat de Barcelona, avui (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1998), pp. 107–110 (p. 109).
15. For instance, in her article published in this issue of ‘The “Placing of Memory” in Contemporary Catalan Theatre’, 385–397, Helena Buffery highlights the influence that Complicite's Mnemonic, performed in the Mercat in 2001, might have had on director Carme Portaceli. See p. 388.
16. The Mercat's programming from 1985 to 1996 was published in María José Ragué-Arias, El teatro de fin de milenio en España (de 1975 hasta hoy) (Barcelona: Ariel, 1996), pp. 139–141. The 1996 to 2002 programming can be found in Ajuntament de Barcelona, Mercat de les Flors (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona/Institut de Cultura, 2002). For more recent programming go to www.mercatflors.com
17. Ferran Mascarell, who was responsible for culture in the Ajuntament from the early 1980s, perceived the shortage of international theatre in the city as problematic, stating that Barcelona's stagings of international companies had been deficient since 1992. See Jordi Busquets, ‘Ferran Mascarell. Director Gerente del ICUB: “El Macba debe buscar la complicidad del público’’’, El País[Cataluña section] (4 July 1997), p. 11.
18. For the views of Albert Boadella, the director of the acclaimed performance group Els Joglars, on Brook, see the interview published in this issue of CTR, ‘Theatre as Alchemy: On Politics, Culture and Running a Theatre Company for Over 40 Years’, 301–310 (pp. 306, 310).
19. ‘On Writing, Directing and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, pp. 411–415 (p. 412).
20. In Albert Miret, ‘El retorn d'un revolucionari. Entrevista a Andreu Morte’, Teatral.net, available online at www.teatral.net/asp/entrevistes/index.asp [accessed 23 September 2003].
21. Some of these companies are well established today and tour nationally and internationally: Mal Pelo, Lanònima Imperial, Mudances, Color, Iliacan, Búbulus and Senza Tempo. This is further reinforced by Pere Puértolas, who sees the Sala B in the Mercat as the city's ‘palau de la dansa contemporànea’ (the city's palace of contemporary dance). See Pere Puértolas, ‘Els escenaris de l'avantguarda’, in Ajuntament de Barcelona, El teatre a la ciutat de Barcelona, avui, p. 89.
22. The three spaces pay homage to Catalan personalities in the area of the performing arts. Maria Aurèlia Capmany (1918–91) was a writer – who occasionally wrote for the theatre – and politician in charge of culture in the Ajuntament under the Catalan Socialist Party in the 1980s; Sebastià Gasch (1897–1980) was a prominent theatre and visual arts critic in the early twentieth century; and Ovidi Montllor (1942–95) was an emblematic actor and musician.
23. See, for example, Sergi Belbel, ‘On Writing, Directing and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya’, published in this issue CTR, 411–415 (p. 412).
24. For more information about the Marató see www.marato.com
25. See Ragué-Arias, El teatro de fin de milenio en España (de 1975 hasta hoy), pp. 139–141, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Mercat de les Flors (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona/Institut de Cultura, 2002), and www.mercatflors.com. Data on the occupation of Barcelona's theatres is also provided by ADETCA (Associació d'Empreses Teatrals de Catalunya (Catalan Association of Theatre Industries)).
26. Santiago Fondevila, ‘Seis actores para un drama’, La Vanguardia (5 May 2001), p. 44. In this article, a Generalitat spokesman made clear the government's suspicion that the Ciutat del Teatre is a socialist project designed to compete with the Generalitat's TNC (it should be remembered that until 2004 the Generalitat was led by the conservative party Convergència i Unió). Furthermore, the spokesman also underlined the Generalitat's decision not to support the project financially due to their financial commitment to the TNC.
27. In Albert Miret, ‘El retorn d'un revolucionari. Entrevista a Andreu Morte’, Teatral.net, available online at www.teatral.net/asp/entrevistes/index.asp [accessed 23 September 2003].
28. Elizabeth Strom, ‘Cultural Policy as Development Policy: Evidence from the United States’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 9:3 (2003), 247–263 (p. 247).
29. Ibid.
30. Carlson, Places of Performance, p. 97.
31. It should be added that, since the opening of the Ciutat del Teatre, the private sector has also invested in the area's cultural infrastructure, with Focus having established its Barcelona Teatre Musical (Barcelona's Music Theatre) in the old Palau d'Esports only metres away from the new Lliure and the Mercat.
32. See Delgado, ‘Other’ Spanish Theatres, p. 166, and Terenci Moix ‘La costosa dictablanda de Pujol’, El País (12 October 1999), available at www.forumbabel.net/babelt027.htm [accessed 23 December 2004].
33. Marta Monedero, ‘Ferran Mascarell: “No té sentit ara fer un debat obert sobre la Ciutat del Teatre”’, Avui (28 October 1998), p. 47.
34. Peter Brook, The Empty Space (London: Penguin, 1990), p. 73.
35. Ibid., p. 74.
36. See Ajuntament de Barcelona, Gràcies i desgràcies culturals a Barcelona, p. 85.
37. The Teatre Lliure was one of the founding members of the Union of European Theatres in 1989 and its activities have been closely related to those of two of Catalonia's most internationally acclaimed theatre practitioners, Lluís Pasqual and Fabià Puigserver, who were part of the Lliure's original ensemble. For more information about the Lliure, see Teatre Lliure 1976–1987 (Barcelona: Institut del Teatre/Diputació de Barcelona, 1987), El Teatre Lliure, obert (Barcelona: Teatre Lliure, 2002), and www.teatrelliure.com
38. See Ajuntament de Barcelona, Gràcies i desgràcies culturals a Barcelona, p. 88, and www.teatrelliure.com
39. Morte stated that his budgets for 1988 and 2004 were identical. See Editorial, ‘Morte dice que las instituciones que rodean al Mercat están muertas’, El País (25 January 2006). In www.e-barcelona.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7264 [accessed 21 March 2006].
40. During the 2005–06 season the new Lliure sold an average of 62.7% of its full capacity with an final number of 124,656 spectators. See Editorial, ‘Boadella no llegó a llenar la mitad del aforo del Lliure’, El País (28 July 2006) in www.e-barcelona.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7829 [accessed 5 August 2006].
41. The Consell de Coordinació del Teatre Públic was established in July 2006. It is formed by twelve members which include three representatives from the Generalitat's cultural department and three from each of the theatres involved – the TNC, the Lliure and the Mercat de les Flors – amongst whom we find Sergi Belbel, [Agrave]lex Rigola and Francesc Casadesús. The commission intends to set a framework to encourage collaboration at all levels amongst these centres and is especially concerned with the coordination of their programmes. See socialistes.org/ambit/cultura/Noticies/Noticies_Internes/view.asp?id=153488&apt=