Leticia Martín: "I like that the percentage of tourists from Greece is low"

Leticia Martín (Granada, 1978) was appointed two years ago new director of the Grec, Barcelona's most important performing arts festival. This year's edition – the 50th – is the first that she has programmed from scratch and allows us to see the artistic line the festival will follow. Martín is working to expand the Grec and make it reach Barcelona residents who are still unaware of it, while also wanting the festival to be a window into the contemporary scene of the present and a support for local creation. Why did you run for director of the Grec?

— When I was doing my master's in cultural management, I remember attending a session where they told us that, in culture, having the enthusiasm and the ability to realize that you need to move is very important. After two five-year cycles at the Liceu, I felt it was time to change. The call for the Grec appeared, and I realized it was a place where I could bring together all the worlds that interested me: theater, music; it was an opportunity where I could do a bit of everything.

Two years have passed since you were appointed. What has changed in your view of the festival, now that you know it from the inside?

— I have become aware of the relationship with all levels of the city's performing arts, from the smallest venue or company to the largest private producer. The most difficult thing is to find a balance between all the forces, between being a mirror of international programming and also being an umbrella and a support for local production. This is impressive and quite a challenge. I feel that in this second year I have more responsibility. The first year went quite well and I want the next one to be better. Every year is a challenge, it's like being reborn each time; in a way it's beautiful.

What personal mark would you like to leave at the festival?

— The biggest challenge is to be navigating with our time, with other festivals, with the artists and the times that are running. Nowadays you blink and everything has changed. I want to keep the festival breathing with today, so that it is present in the real world and making it not only entertaining, but also useful for people. 

How can it be useful for people?

— Culture can never be just entertainment. It's great that it is, and I think we need it, but the responsibility when we work with public money is to reach all of society and create a place for reflection, a space to understand other ways of thinking and living. We cannot have art that is merely decorative. 

Unlike the previous direction, you decided not to center the programming around a single thread or a leitmotif. Why?

— From the outset because this way of doing things is identified with very specific times. Cesc [Casadesús, former director of the Grec] project went very well and gave a very complete vision of the world. But for me it was more important to be able to choose artists, themes and proposals without being forced to fit them into a theme.

What should the festival change no matter what?

— The whole issue of public procurement and administrative and bureaucratic management. It is really very complicated. I would also like to have a larger budget. As in much of the administration, budgets have been quite stagnant in recent years while the cost of living has risen a lot. El Grec should have a more active participation in co-productions, not so much to put on more shows as to have a better program.

The Grec has a budget of approximately four million euros from the City Council. Are the available funds an obstacle when hiring international shows?

— More than for a matter of fees, the problem is the companies' accommodations, especially because the festival takes place in the summer. In December we already have to make an imaginary reservation and, similarly, the budget increases a lot every year, especially if we want to bring large companies. Barcelona is a touristically oversized city and this makes it difficult.

What relationship should the festival have with tourists? Should it have an offering that attracts them?

— Barcelona has other tourist attractions: Gaudí and the sea. I don't think people organize their holidays thinking about coming to spend a weekend at Grec, as happens with other festivals in the State such as Mérida and Almagro. I like that Grec is for Barcelona and that the percentage of tourists is low. The festival has an almost personal relationship with the people of Barcelona, and that's why tickets sell out so quickly. More than actions for tourism, what we have to do is take care of the people we already have and try to give them quality shows that awaken their curiosity. 

Is the Grec a elitist festival?

— No, I don't think so. A priori, the average spectator is around 50 years old, has a university education and lives in Eixample, coinciding with the average culture consumer in Barcelona. But the programming is so diverse that everyone can find their own Grec. We are working hard to know and understand our audience, and to reach further.

Does the festival need more spectators?

— The first responsibility when you work with public money is to try to reach as many people as possible, because the Grec is being paid for by people who come and people who don't. It's a festival with quite accessible prices, and with many discounts. In reality, people who don't go aren't doing it for economic reasons, but because perhaps they don't know about it or because they aren't interested. It still surprises me that there are many people, from all social strata of the city, who don't know that there is a Greek theatre in Montjuïc and that a festival is held there. Our responsibility is to reach as many people as possible and make what we do more interesting.

And how is this done?

— We have some activities for young people that take place during the last month of classes: visits, rehearsals, and meetings with companies. We also try to reach more people through social networks and the media. Now, theoretically, it's easier than before, but at the same time, it's very difficult to break the algorithm. We probably already reach people who go to the Grec through social networks, and we surely appear to them 30 times. We are working hard to see how to reach those who don't come.

What role should the Greek have in relation to major international festivals?

— There is no need to compete, there is a need to coexist. Both for international and national artists, the Grec gives them visibility and the prestige of having premiered at the biggest festival in Barcelona. Over these 50 years, the Grec has achieved its own personality and is very established within European culture.

Is programming the Grec, in part, a political act?

— Programming is already a political act in itself. When you decide to go in one direction or another, to give a loudspeaker to some voices or others, you are already positioning yourself in front of the world. El Grec gives me the possibility to show my discourse. From the City Council, there have never been comments regarding the programming. The lines, the risks, and the concessions of the festival are decided by me. 

The opening show is always the main focus of the festival. Have you received pressure in this regard?

— The opening act represents the inauguration of summer, and that makes it the focus. But it remains a place with a large part of the audience that comes as guests, who are only looking for the event. I don't want to condition the show to try to please people who may not come back to the festival. The programming must make sense as a whole, and we must think about the audience that comes on the other two days the show will take place. It is important not to be kamikaze but also not to give in. In culture, I am concerned that in many European cities we are jumping from big event to big event. It is neither healthy nor realistic. We must lower the sensation of the here and now, the fact that something goes on sale and tickets sell out in minutes.

Why did you decide to open with The Threepenny Opera?

— I have always been clear that the 50th edition had to start with a co-production. I wanted to join forces with El Lliure to be able to make a more complex proposal, which would be more expensive or more difficult to carry out on our own. We arrived at The Threepenny Opera in a very natural way. Marta [Pazos, director of the show] had proposed it to El Lliure and had spoken to me about it. Brecht, El Grec and El Lliure: it made sense. 

You have decided to move the start of the show forward by an hour, which will begin at nine in the evening. It is an unusual option at the Greek Theatre, because the sun often needs to set in order to properly illuminate the stage.

— We will take advantage of the change of light and incorporate it into the show. The play lasts three hours, starting an hour earlier was important, because the performances are held on weekdays. And you can equally enjoy the experience: arrive a little earlier, have a drink, stroll through the gardens and hear the toads. I highly recommend the experience of living the Grec like this, also with the other shows we have programmed on this stage. There is music of all kinds of styles, so that everyone can find their night. It should be mandatory to live the Grec experience, because it is magical. 

What radiography do you make of the current state of the Catalan theater world?

— I lived 18 years in Madrid and now I've been here 11 in Barcelona. It's quite surprising because they are two worlds that have nothing to do with each other. In Barcelona, the separation between the public and private sector is not absolutely clear. There are plays that premiere in public theaters and then can have a life in a private venue. Directors, actors, and playwrights move in both worlds. I feel that there is little room for riskier proposals, for new perspectives. In the Barcelona scene, the most difficult thing is to leave very small spaces without adopting a more conventional profile. It's not pleasant to talk about how others do their work, but I think it would be good if there was more risk with public money. 

Is it easier to find space for risk in Madrid?

— No, on the contrary. But Barcelona is not Brussels either, a city that is theatrically very enviable. It has a lot of public support, both from the Walloon and Flemish parts. There are public theaters that take risks and also significant private positioning. Here the resources are so meager that the margin for failure is enormous, because if you fail you don't pick your head up. There is no room to create for the sake of creating. It is a very precarious sector and this is detrimental to freedom.