Josep Maria Mestres will promote the new National Theatre Company

BarcelonaThe creation of the National Theatre of Catalonia Company is one of the projects that will be promoted by the new artistic director of the TNC, Josep Maria Mestres. "It is a project that I am particularly excited about," said Mestres during the presentation of the main lines he wants to implement at the facility starting from the 2027-2028 season, which will be the first he will direct completely after taking over from Carme Portaceli. The company will consist of twelve professional performers under 35 years of age: six actresses and six actors, selected in an open audition process. Only in shows that require it will there also be external collaborators of various ages. Each cohort will last for two seasons and, during this time, the performers will be hired on a stable basis.

During the first season, the TNC Company will work on and premiere the first show based on a text from the theatrical heritage and preferably in Catalan. Mestres' second season will combine the tour of this first production with the preparation of a second show, initially planned as a commission of new dramaturgy, written specifically for the Company. After these two seasons, and before starting the next one, the TNC will carry out a review of the first experience with the aim of introducing the necessary improvements.

The accent in the Catalan language and culture

Regarding the programmatic axes, Mestres highlights the commitment to move forward with a TNC connected to the public and that emphasizes the Catalan language and culture. “Leadership implies responsibility, rigorous management, and a forward-looking perspective, also as a citizen of my country, as a Catalan, aware that our language and culture have been marginalized and it is time to reverse this view,” he assured. Likewise, he defends "understanding heritage not as a museum piece but as living material." In this sense, he says he will foster contemporary Catalan authorship, with the desire to enhance its presence both at the TNC and outside the country and contribute to its projection, and will encourage "the authors, the directors of the country to rediscover, rewrite, and rework the texts of the Catalan and universal repertoire with respect for heritage but also with creative freedom".

“The TNC is familiar to me, I know how the house works, I personally know many of the people who work there, and for many more reasons I feel at home there,” states Mestres, who wants to strengthen the role of the TNC as a reference cultural institution. He also considers it necessary to continue expanding relationships with public theaters in the rest of the State and with European and international theatrical institutions, but from a relationship of reciprocity, “taking as an example the care and protection they provide to their languages and cultures.” And he proposes "a permanent dialogue between heritage and contemporaneity, with classic texts that can be understood as living material, susceptible to being revisited from the questions and the gaze of the present".