Close the Jove Teatre Regina: "The building is sold, they are throwing us out"

BarcelonaThe Jove Teatre Regina is definitively lowering its curtain. The venue, dedicated to children's and youth theater for almost four decades, is forced to close due to the owner's decision to sell the building, located on Sèneca street, in Barcelona's Gràcia neighborhood. The company La Trepa, founder of the initiative and responsible for managing the theater since 1988, is left without a space to carry out its family theater project, which involved a continuous program, school performances, and theater workshops. "We are not closing due to financial failure or lack of audience. Things were going well for us, but the building is being sold and they are kicking us out," laments the theater's director, Mariona Campos.

La Trepa leaves the Regina against its will and without a new space to develop its activity, focused on guaranteeing access to theater for children and young people with the conviction that "they are the audience of the present and the future adult theatergoers," states Campos. The director expresses "pain, anger, and helplessness" in the face of a "sudden" situation that, for now, has not allowed them to build an alternative. "It is a reflection of what is happening in the city, little by little, but without stopping. The Regina was one of the last spaces dedicated to the local family audience, to the citizens of Barcelona, to culture made from home and open to the world," says the director.

Throughout its existence, La Trepa has used Regina through a rental contract that is now ending. The owner informed them in March that they would not renew the contract because they wanted to sell the building and gave them three weeks to leave. Finally, they have been able to extend their departure until July 15, when the theater will be empty and without tenants. The venue is not protected for cultural use, so it can be used for other purposes. "We have had conversations with the Generalitat and the City Council to prevent the closure, but it has not been possible because we have been pushed to leave very abruptly. There has been no room for maneuver to work with the institutions. We have tried to make the theater belong to society. In the end, capital has prevailed," explains Campos.

One of the possibilities on the table is that the theater will pass into the hands of Antonio Díaz, artistically known as El Mago Pop. Shortly after informing them that they would have to leave, the Regina team learned that Díaz had shown interest in the venue. "We had some conversations, but we saw that we could not both coexist in the same space. El Mago Pop's team was coming to buy the space to exploit it. Since then, there have been no further communications," says the director. At the end of April, Díaz issued a statement confirming his interest in the theater, but said that negotiations were in an early stage.

A building dedicated to culture

For almost three decades, the building at Sèneca street number 22 has been a cultural space for the city's children and young people. Besides the Jove Teatre Regina, since 1998 the building housed the Joan Llongueres music school on the upper floors. The ownership of the building, in fact, is part of the Llongueres family – although the rent was managed through one of their companies, Padobo S.L. — and over the years it has had the intention of dedicating it to culture. With the death of Núria Trias Llongueres in 2020, the building passed into the hands of her nephews, who have decided to sell it.

The school, which had 112 years of history, closed last year due to "lack of public funding, a drop in students, and an increase in public offerings," explained the center's director, Sara Codina, at the time. "When they liquidated the school, we spoke with the property owners and they told us we had nothing to worry about. Suddenly, an entire building designed for the cultural development of the city's children and young people has disappeared," points out Campos. The director claims the importance of the project, highlights that they have been "a bastion for the defense of Catalan" and emphasizes that they have always had a public service vocation, despite being a private business. "We haven't just wanted to entertain, but to form critical, sensitive, and committed audiences – claims Campos. We must dignify family theater, take it into account, and celebrate it. We don't only talk about it when it's already dead".