"It is a scandal how the public theatre of our country has abandoned Catalan dramaturgy"

BarcelonaThe publication of the volume of short theatre collected in Intermission(s) (Comanegra) also gathered, this Monday night at the Ona bookstore, one dream team of contemporary Catalan dramaturgy. Perhaps because the space was relaxed, perhaps because the authors already have their bellies full, the meeting served to shoot with bullets against the main problems of a sector of artists that is not very visible but, on the other hand, very important culturally, and even economically.

The precarious situation was the spark that lit the fire, the fact that 80% of the members of the playwrights' guild do not have theatre as a source of income. "It is impossible to make a living from theatre, that is obvious. You have to talk a lot, you have to premiere in Madrid, there are perhaps four or five people in Spain who make a living from that," says Marta Buchaca. "It is hard to say that what you are offering me is very little, to ask for a contract, to ask for conditions," says Helena Tornero. "We must claim the professional nature of writing," confirms Josep Maria Miró. "You only recently get paid for a commission and it is very low if we count the hours we have dedicated to it." And that is despite the fact that the playwrights who shared the space on Monday are regular names on the Catalan billboard and usually fill theatres. The problem is that they do this at the expense of their shows being produced, not charging for writing periods, agreeing to make adaptations and not their own texts, conditioning the works to the possibilities of premieres (few characters, little scenery), etc. "If people who work for the love of art went on strike, theatre in Barcelona would stop," says Anna Maria Ricart.

"And where do people who are just starting out make their debuts?" asks Buchaca. When my father found out what I had earned for my first play, which was 900 euros, he said to me: «This is a hobby»". For her, Barcelona lacks medium-sized theatres and, above all, there is a lack of interest from the public theatre and the country's directors in authors who write in Catalan. On this point, there is unanimity, and the barbs begin. "If we are all here it is thanks to T6 [the Catalan textual authorship project that Sergi Belbel implemented for a decade in the Theatre. That was a strategy that should have lasted for decades," says Guillem Clua. For him, everything that has come after to public theatres, which are sporadic premieres of Catalan authors, "are crumbs and anecdotes that are not part of a global strategy for the country; The steps towards normalisation come from personal efforts." David Plana sees it the same way: "It is a scandal how the public theatre of our country has completely abandoned Catalan drama," he laments. "There is more concern about adapting novels to the theatre than about premiering our texts," Cristina Clemente says. to dispense with playwrights.

For Josep Maria Miró, the problem is that the country's directors and actors are not "concerned" about what Catalan authors are writing: "Discovering a text that has received six awards in China is not being very brilliant, it is not being a great discoverer of texts. On the other hand, there are texts from our house that spend four years in the drawer because nobody reads them. You send them and nobody answers you," he says. "They have even told me, about a public theatre: «I treat Catalan dramaturgy like English dramaturgy». "Wow, I hope the National does the same!" exclaims Buchaca. Lázaro García believes that there is "distrust towards our literature", not only contemporary and theatrical literature, but in general. For Queralt Riera, the problem is political and economic. "We are not aware of the importance and significance of literature. Culture is the mark we leave as a society of who we are," she says.

Most Catalan playwrights make a living by combining theatre with television, film and classes. And despite everything, they continue to write and export their interesting, attractive and diverse theatre to the world, as can be seen in theIntermission(s), an anthology of contemporary theatre that emerged from the magazine Intermission, published by the Association of Professional Actors and Directors of Catalonia and which features the Trial, the pandemic, education, migrants, couples and dystopias that seem so real that perhaps they are true.