Josep Maria Mestres will be the new director of the National Theatre of Catalonia

BarcelonaJosep Maria Mestres (Calaf, 1959) will be the new artistic director of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC), as the institution reported this Thursday through a statement. Mestres will take over from Carme Portaceli, who has held the position since 2020. Chosen through a public competition that received 40 candidacies, Mestres will lead the TNC for four seasons, until 2030-2031, with an option to extend for three more seasons if both parties agree. He will assume the direction starting September 1, 2026, and during the 2026-2027 season, he will work on the definition and planning of the 2027-2028 season.

A graduate in educational sciences and a diploma in acting from the Institut del Teatre, Josep Maria Mestres has a long career as a stage director. He was a member of the company Zitzània – created in 1981 by Pere Planella and Guillem-Jordi Graells – and one of the founders of Kràmpack, which was born in 1994 and would later become the production company for the TV3 series Plats bruts. He was also the founding director of the Aula de Teatre at Pompeu Fabra University (1995-99). Mestres has directed dozens of shows, including Dakota (1996), by Jordi Galceran, for which he received a Butaca award; Salvats (1998); and Un matrimoni de Boston, starring Anna Lizaran and Emma Vilarasau, in 2005. That show about a lesbian couple in the 19th century attracted nearly 16,000 spectators and left such an impression that the director decided to revive it in 2024 in a new version. An award-winning construction manager

Mestres has worked with the main Catalan performers in a good part of the country's theaters and also in others outside Catalonia, such as the Teatro Español, the CNTC, and the Teatro de la Zarzuela. The director has focused a large part of his career on promoting theater works of a realistic nature with a strong political, social, and human component, which have received awards such as the Adrià Gual prize, the Critics' Awards, and the Butaca Awards. Among his most recent productions are Justícia (2020), L'oreneta (2022) and the award-winning L’herència (2025), which will return next season to the Teatre Lliure. Precisely, the director's next theatrical project will be in the Sala Gran of the TNC: at the end of April, he will premiere Mother Courage and Her Children, by Bertolt Brecht, starring Emma Vilarasau. The gross annual remuneration for Teachers will be 105,049.04 euros, for all seasons and with 100% dedication. Likewise, the new director may be awarded some professional task on stage (direction, performance, scenography, dramaturgy, etc.) for one show per year. At most, the remuneration for this work can be 25,000 euros, so the director's total annual salary can reach, at most, up to 130,049.04 euros.Carme Portaceli will close her tenure at the TNC with a final season that has achieved an average occupancy of 77% —pending the closing of the programming— and has incorporated shows by artists such as Victoria Szpunberg, Angélica Liddell and La Veronal. Her time at the theater has been linked to the arrival of Terra baixa in Brussels and to successes such as the musical Ànima and Sagarra's classic turned into a small phenomenon La corona d'espines. Portaceli will leave her position in July 2027. In total, the director so far has been at the head of the TNC for six years. Previously, the artistic direction of the public theater has been held by Xavier Albertí, Sergi Belbel, Domènec Reixach and Josep Maria Flotats.