Playwright and theatre director Francesc Nel·lo dies at 94

BarcelonaPlaywright and director Francesc Nel·lo (Barcelona, ​​1931) died this Tuesday at the age of 94. The son of set designer Francesc Nel·lo Ventosa, he studied at the Adrià Gual School of Dramatic Art, where he studied with Ricard Salvat and began his professional career in the performing arts. Nel·lo was one of the driving forces behind independent theater in Catalonia during the 1960s and 70s. In 1966 he founded the Grup de l'Òliba and the Grup de Teatre Independent, with whom he premiered The Crazy Day or The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais, which twenty years later was performed at the Teatre Lliure directed by himself under the title The Marriage of FigaroAlongside his stage career, Nel·lo taught at the Institut del Teatre from 1971 until his retirement. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Nel·lo directed shows such as The doctor by force by Molière (1967), The pot comedy by Plautus (1967), the anonymous Frenchman of the 15th century The farce of Miser Pere Pathélin (1969) and William Tell by Schiller (1971). In 1966 he led Tazarba by Enric Morera at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and in 1970 brought The staged fight by Giovanni Paisiello at the Palau de la Música. In the final years of his career, he worked with the actress Teresa Cunillé: directed it to Women like me. Heroines of Sagarra at the Teatre Lliure in 2002 and in The abandoned garden by Santiago Rusiñol in 2007 at Espai Brossa. Nel·lo's last show as director was Silence, violence is brewing!, a piece of poetry about gender violence that was performed at the Antic Teatre in 2016.

In parallel to his work as a director and playwright, Nel·lo worked in the art department of various Televisión Española programs, especially the series The Rivers Saga (1976-1977). On TV3 he carried out the Morning show on TV3, which broadcast the OBC concerts in 1989. Nel·lo also collaborated with entities such as the Dramatic Center of the Generalitat of Catalonia and published a book of short stories, The Pomegranate Skin and Seven More Stories (Simpar, 1958). Francesc Nel·lo was the father of the saxophonist and composer Dani Nel·lo, of the geographer and urban planner and deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia Oriol Nel·lo and of the writer and translator David Nel·lo.