TEMPORADA ALTA, 25 YEARS OF THE PERFORMING ARTS

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "TEMPORADA ALTA, 25 YEARS OF THE PERFORMING ARTS"

Augustus Young
5 years ago
Views:

1 THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL OF CATALONIA. GIRONA / SALT From 30th September to 4th December, THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL OF CATALONIA PRESENTATION TEMPORADA ALTA, 25 YEARS OF THE PERFORMING ARTS 26 international shows, 29 own productions, 33 world premieres, with 100 events throughout the more than two months of programming, confirm the festival as one of the most outstanding cultural events in Spain. New talents, contemporary creation, a diversity of languages and productions and the leading lights of the theatre, both home-grown and international, come together and take turns to captivate a wide-ranging audience, the real stars of the Festival Krystian Lupa, Peter Brook, Milo Rau, Alain Platel, Thomas Ostermeier, Oskaras Korsunovas, Fabrice Murgia, Guy Cassiers, Mauricio Kartun and Lagartijas tiradas al sol are some of the big international names that can be seen at Temporada Alta this autumn The programme presents such home-grown stars as Lluís Pasqual, Àlex Rigola, Pau Miró, and Maria Pagés, together with young rising playwrights such as Clàudia Cedó and Josep Maria Miró, with contemporary creation from Israel Galván, Rocío Molina, Agrupación Señor Serrano, La Veronal and Loscorderos.sc For over 25 years, Temporada Alta has unquestionably occupied an exalted space within the sector, programming 1,302 shows of them international from 41 different countries productions - of which more than 50% have been world premieres with a total auditorium audience of 623,076 and a seat occupancy of over 90% in the most recent editions SEE THE WHOLE PROGRAMME HERE (Press Room) "We are celebrating 25 years of Temporada Alta, but we wanted to do so without fanfare, instead putting all our energy and resources into what has always been the essence of the Festival: the programming and productions" Salvador Sunyer, director of Temporada Alta Temporada Alta. Autumn Festival of Catalonia. Girona / Salt reaches its 25th birthday, having become a benchmark festival at a national and European level, and offering a multidisciplinary programme designed for all audiences. The Festival offers its audience premieres and both national and international productions, establishing itself as a driving force for theatrical creation, seeking an international presence and promoting the creativity of the young. Today in Catalonia, Temporada Alta forms the gateway to the theatrical season.

2 This year, Lluís Pasqual has been given the responsibility for raising the curtain with In memoriam - La quinta del biberón -, co-produced by the Festival and the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona, a work that has grown out of the testament of witnesses to the Battle of the Ebro. It opens the Festival on Friday, 30th September, at the Teatro Municipal de Girona, and can be later seen at the Teatre Lliure, and in February at the CDN. This world premiere is the starting pistol for a programme containing a total of 100 events that can be seen up to 4th December. Having established itself as a model of success, Temporada Alta continues its commitment to seeking a balance between production and co-production of new shows - 29 in total - promoting Catalan authorship, putting emphasis on contemporary creation - 27 shows - and consolidating itself as a showcase for the best international productions in the country - 26 shows from 17 different countries. Although most of the programming is concentrated in Girona and Salt, the Festival is present in a total of 9 different towns and villages and at 28 venues or premises. THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME "Temporada Alta offers a unique opportunity in our country to enjoy the best international productions: up to 26 foreign shows and the Flanders Connection and Latin America Connection series make the Festival an unmissable event" Temporada Alta is noted for acting as the gateway to Spain, and often to Europe, for many international productions, both from established names on the stage and from the new, emerging voices from various countries. In this 25th edition, Temporada Alta has programmed 26 international shows, and continues with the two major theatrical areas of focus: the Latin America Connection series, established four years ago, which concentrates on productions from across the Atlantic, and the Flanders Connection series, which this year will celebrate its second edition and which brings the Flemish theatrical scene to the audience. Notable within the International programme - almost all of which are Spanish premieres - are productions from Milo Rau, who presents Mitleid, political theatre based on the drama of refugees and the forcibly displaced; Thomas Ostermeier who, after his triumph with The Marriage of Maria Braun in the previous edition, now presents La Mouette, a French version of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull; Peter Brook, with Marie-Hélène Estienne, gives the Catalan debut to Battlefield, his tenth visit to Temporada Alta and thus becomes the international director who has taken part in the Festival most often; Oskaras Korsunovas will present Cleansed, a text from the playwright Sarah Kane, the indisputable stand-out name in European and global contemporary theatre; and the young director Fabrice Murgia who, at 32 years old, has just been named the new director of the National Theatre in Brussels and will be in Temporada Alta with a Spanish premiere of Children of Nowhere. In addition, we also have, among others, productions from Tiago Rodrigues, director, author and actor who is at the forefront of Portuguese theatre and who will debut Antony and Cleopatra, a new creation based on the Shakespearean classic; also being given its Spanish premiere is, Werther! from German director Nicolas Stemann, which vindicates the romantic hero created by Goethe. Temporada Alta is involved with three international productions which will debut in Girona this year: Ante la jubilación, by Krystian Lupa, who returns to the Festival once again and who, for the first time, will work with Catalan actors; Primer Álbum with Xavier Bobés, Shaday Larios and Jomi Oligor; and De Welwillenden (Les benignes) from Guy Cassiers. The theatrical series: Latin-American Connection and Flanders Connection The Latin-American Connection series, which was first included in the programme four years ago and which has the support of Iberescena (Ministry of Culture), puts the spotlight on one of the most successful theatrical laboratories and one of the most interesting creative hubs on the planet. This fourth edition of the series, offers the Argentine Mauricio Kartun, who will present Terrenal, Uruguayan Sergio Blanco, who returns to the Festival this year with La ira de Narciso, the Chilean Pablo Larrain who moves from the cinema to the theatre with Acceso and the Mexican collective Lagartijas tiradas al sol, habitual visitors to Temporada Alta, who will present three documentary theatre productions: Santiago Amoukalli, Tijuana and Veracruz, nos estamos desforestando or Cómo extrañar Xalapa. This year, the series also includes an international co-production, the premiere of El Solar: Agencia de Detectives de Objetos, a group formed by the Spaniards Xavier Bobés and Jomi Oligor and Mexican Shaday Larios, three great talents of the theatre of objects who will present Primer Álbum.

3 Having being well-received at the last edition, the Flanders Connection series enters its second year, in which the Festival focuses its gaze on the Flemish theatre scene. This year, the guest-names are Alain Platel who visits the Festival for the third time and presents Nicht Schlafen; the d'irque & fíen Company with the show Carrousel des moutons, a recital of music, poetry and circus for the whole family; and Guy Cassiers with De Welwillenden (Les benignes) which is part of the "The Littell Project", a co-production of the Festival, funded by the European programme Creative Europe. TEMPORADA ALTA, DRIVING FORCE OF THEATRICAL CREATION "The Festival makes theatrical creation in the country a priority, increasing the number of productions and co-productions and supporting young playwrights" Since the creation of the Festival 25 years ago, Temporada Alta has been a driving force for the performing arts, investing in its own productions, being a springboard for companies to travel abroad, committing itself to young playwriting and acting as a meeting point for new contemporary creators. Productions and co-productions of the Festival This year the Festival presents 29 productions and co-productions, some of which are world premieres such as: Who is me. Pasolini, by Àlex Rigola which, later in 2017, will be seen at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid; In memoriam la quinta del biberón by Lluis Pasqual and in co-production with the Teatre Lliure and the CDN; Un obús al cor, from Wajdi Mouawad directed by Oriol Broggi in co-production with La Perla 29 and No em va fer Joan Brossa, a co-production with CaboSanRoque and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. Notable in this section are the aforementioned international co-productions which allow the Festival to create spaces for artistic encounters and the international exposure of home-grown talent: Krystian Lupa with Ante la jubilación;; Primer Álbum with Bobés, Larios and Oligor and, as part of the Latin-America Connection series, De Welwillenden with Guy Cassiers, co-produced with prestigious European festivals and theatres (Scenes Nationaux in Valenciennes and Amiens, the Italian festival RomaEuropa, the German Theaterformen and the Belgian Toonelhuis). The internationalisation of Temporada Alta For many years, Temporada Alta has worked towards the internationalisation of the artists it programmes, an added-value that is increasingly appreciated in overcoming the difficulties of financing the sector and in gaining international exposure. In addition to international programming and production, the Festival is committed to avenues of collaboration between national and foreign artists through funding, collaborative artistic work and the staging of shows outside Spain. The Temporada Alta in Latin America project is a good example of this: a smaller festival format held since 2013 in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and in recent years also in Lima (Peru) and Montevideo (Uruguay), with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull and Acción Cultural Española (ACE). Since 2011, Temporada Alta has organised the Programmers' Week, where the focus is on international and home-grown shows with the aim of bringing foreign programmers together around the programme and professional meetings. In the last three years, approximately 250 professionals have come through the Festival, including representatives of the Avignon Festival, the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, the Kunsten Festival des Arts in Brussels, the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna etc. THE BEST STAGE IN THE COUNTRY AND CONTEMPORARY CREATION In this edition, Temporada Alta is committed to both innovative and recognised artists and presents, among others, Rocío Molina, a stand-out star from the contemporary world of flamenco who came to the Festival last year and returns with a new production; María Pagés who in 2014 presented Óyeme con los ojos and this year returns with Yo, Carmen; Israel Galván, who is making his third visit to the Festival and this time brings the show Solo, for a limited number of spectators and in a unique space, the Church of Sant Pere Galligants; and in music, Izal from Madrid, undisputed leaders of Spanish indie music, and Rosario Flores who will look back on her career with a concert full of rumba, flamenco, pop, rock and soul.

4 Over the 25 years, Temporada Alta has made a clear commitment to the field of contemporary creation, and this year s programme has a number of shows based on new theatrical languages: La Veronal, Agrupación Señor Serrano (Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale 2016), Pere Faura, Xavier Bobés, Loscorderos.sc... TEMPORADA ALTA, 25 YEARS OF CULTURE "Since its inception, the Festival has had a clear international projection but also an unquestionable vocation to be a festival deeply connected with its immediate surroundings and public and to be accessible. In 25 years it has programmed a total of 1,302 shows and, in the past eight years, has surpassed 90% seat occupancy." Temporada Alta reaches 25 years after a long career promoting culture and the performing arts at a national level. Since its creation in 1992 by the producer, Bitò, the Festival has established itself as a model of success and has positioned itself as a benchmark festival in Spain and Europe. Over the quarter of a century that the Temporada Alta Festival has been held, it has hosted a total of 1,302 shows, has produced or co-produced 291 events, programmed 446 international shows from 41 different countries and has had a total audience of 623,076 in the auditoria for shows of which more than 50% have been world premieres, and has had a total of 110,844 spectators of complementary activities and street performances. Thus, what is undisputed is that Temporada Alta is not only a fully established project but is also a festival of all and for all. One of the elements that is given greatest importance is the audience, and from day one, it has aimed to make the audience a major player in the programming. Since 2009, the Festival has exceeded a 90% seat occupancy rate and has deliberately sought to make the cultural events reach the greatest possible number of people. In essence, the Festival s ambition is that anyone, whether from Spain or abroad, can find at least 3 or 4 shows to interest them. Temporada Alta is above all a festival of performing arts but, in recent years, music and cinema have been gaining importance, offering a varied and multidisciplinary programme. In addition, over the years shows aimed at family audiences have also been incorporated, increasingly opening up Temporada Alta to new audiences. Temporada Alta is among the 10 best cultural events in Spain, according to the annual report of the "Observatorio de la Cultura (Contemporary Foundation), being considered the best festival for the performing arts. A Bitò festival, in collaboration with: With the support of: PRESS SERVICE I TEMPORADA ALTA 2016 Barcelona: Mariona Gómez Marc Gall COMEDIA. Comunicació & mèdia

5 Tel / Mob (Mariona Gómez) Mob (Marc Gall)

Temporada Alta breaks attendance record with 94.12%

23rd TEMPORADA ALTA CATALONIA AUTUMN FESTIVAL, GIRONA / SALT From 3 October to 8 December 2014 :: www.temporada-alta.net PRESS RELEASE 23rd TEMPORADA ALTA RATING Temporada Alta breaks attendance record