The Barcelona City Council will formalize in the coming days the purchase of the premises in Raval from Taller de Músics, the music school located in various spaces on Cendra, Requesens, and Príncep de Viana streets. The acquisition, for a price of 1.8 million euros, "aims to guarantee the continuity of the project," says the council in a statement. In these premises, Taller de Músics develops its music school and offers training in jazz, new technologies, and flamenco, among others. They also house the management and artist representation offices and the Taller's record label, La Col·lecció. One of the spaces in Raval was already owned by the Taller de Músics Private Foundation, while the others—those that the City Council will purchase—belong to the company Locals Musicals S.L., which is owned by the founder of Taller de Músics, Lluís Cabrera.

Josep Maria Mestres (Calaf, 1959) will be the new artistic director of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC). He 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. He will assume leadership starting September 1, 2026, and during the 2026-2027 season, he will work on defining and planning the 2027-2028 season while Portaceli concludes her term.

The booksellers of Catalonia have decided. For the guild, Sau (Males Herbes), by Ferran Garcia, is the best work of Catalan literature of 2025, and Cop de llum (La Segona Perifèria / Sexto Piso), by Rita Bullwinkel, is the best title in the category of other literatures. The booksellers have also chosen Cartes imprevistes (Animallibres), by Tina Vallès and Mercè Galí, as the best book of children's and young adult literature in Catalan and El gegant de ferro (Blackie Books), by Ted Hughes, as the best work of children's and young adult literature from other literatures. The award for illustrated album has been for El racó de pensar (Litera), by Pieter van den Heuvel, and for essay, thought and other narratives, La passió dels estranys (Galaxia Gutenberg), by Marina Garcés.

Ten years ago, a jolt impacted the family of playwright, director, and actor Jaume Viñas (Barcelona, 1987). Following that shake-up, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins began to hold a series of family lunches and dinners where, all of a sudden, everyone opened up about things that had previously been kept in the shadows. "My sister and I realized that our two grandmothers had suffered a lot," explains Viñas. That experience sowed the seed for L'albada, the playwright's most ambitious production, which will be performed from June 25 to July 30 at the Biblioteca de Catalunya under the direction of Oriol Broggi and as part of the Grec festival. With around forty characters, the production spans three generations and is a grand family story that delves into the silences, memory, and legacy derived from the Civil War. Viñas prefers not to explain the nature of the family jolt so as not to reveal the play's ending.

"Do you see this yellow and red flag with a blue box? —says director Joan Lluís Bozzo, pointing to a Catalan flag in the promotional image of Cop de rock—. Don't tell Cardinal Omella, because they'll remove these kids from the stage." The joke, referring to the still recent expulsion of 600 singers from the Sagrada Família for wearing Catalan flags printed on their sheet music, serves the co-founder of Dagoll Dagom to present the revival of one of the company's repertoire shows, Cop de rock. Before completely disappearing, Dagoll Dagom has handed over the reins of this production to a young company led by Jofre Bardolet and Júlia Cervera Marsó under the umbrella of the producer La Barca. Together they have revived the production, which premiered on September 11, 2011, and will be performed at the Teatre Coliseum in Barcelona from September 3 to 6.

The year she got pregnant, María Oruña (Vigo, 1976) planned everything. She left her job at an international law firm because she worked too many hours and couldn't balance her personal and professional life, opened her own office, created a website, and wrote an essay on labor law with advice and guidance for people who might need it. She had planned to take a year to write that first book, but in the end, she only spent four months on it. And with the time she had left, she started writing something to entertain herself. That draft eventually became Puerto escondido (2015; Port Amagat, in the Catalan edition by Columna), the novel that catapulted her to become one of the best-selling authors in Spain. But the beginnings of a literary phenomenon are rarely easy or quick.

Next December will mark 50 years since a group of artists first raised the curtain of the Teatre Lliure, in a brave adventure that is still alive today. To celebrate the anniversary, the programming for the theatre's next season will be guided by the idea of transmission and will be full of memories of the institution's history. "We have stitched together a small narrative that celebrates and recognizes the legacy of those who have come before us, and that looks to the future. We will talk about connections, heritage, community, families, and hope," says the director of the Lliure, Julio Manrique.

The Jove Teatre Regina is definitively lowering its curtain. The venue, dedicated to children's and youth theater for almost four decades, is forced to close due to the owner's decision to sell the building, located on Sèneca street, in Barcelona's Gràcia neighborhood. The company La Trepa, founder of the initiative and responsible for managing the theater since 1988, is left without a space to carry out its family theater project, which involved a continuous program, school performances, and theater workshops. "We are not closing due to financial failure or lack of audience. Things were going well for us, but the building is being sold and they are kicking us out," laments the theater's director, Mariona Campos.

3Cat's broadcast of the consecration of the Jesus tower of the Sagrada Família this Wednesday left many viewers stunned. Who is behind this television spectacle more akin to cinema? The realization of the event was handled by Paulí Subirà, who has a very long professional career in this field. Subirà already directed the television coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Sagrada Família in 2010 and has also been in charge of programs such as La nit al dia, FAQS and the electoral specials, among many other productions.

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?

Since his debut in 2021 at the Grec Festival with Finir en beauté, French creator Mohamed El Khatib has shown his sensitivity for bringing to the stage stories that remain in the shadows of society. The artist now returns to Barcelona with La vie secrète des vieux, a show about desire and love in old age that has been performed at the Avignon Festival and will now be at the Teatre Lliure from this Wednesday to Saturday.

With twenty years of history, the Mercat de les Flors will begin the most different season in September. The building in Plaça Margarida Xirgu is undergoing renovation. From next June and for the next two years, the exhibition spaces will be closed. Until then, however, the four halls of the building will be operational and will be able to host performances. Faced with this situation, the Mercat has decided to maintain its programming and, at the same time, to present performances in different spaces in Barcelona, with the intention of them being future venues when the works force the closure of the Montjuïc building. Thus, next season will have one foot in the Mercat de les Flors and another in venues such as the Teatre Lliure, the Sant Andreu Teatre, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Throughout her life, writer Laila Karrouch (Nador, Morocco, 1977) has had to unlearn and relearn a series of things that were instilled in her from childhood. "I come from a culture where we have learned things that don't fit with the life I have here. Over time, I have sought forgiveness from the people I have constantly judged. I've spent many years shedding labels, and it's unfair for me to put them on others," reflects Karrouch. Around this intimate exercise, the writer has built the novel Swear You'll Return (Univers), a love story between two women in the Rif in the 80s and 90s. "Homosexuality between women in the Muslim world is taboo, it's not talked about. But different love has always existed and will always exist. Denying it is absurd," argues the author.

There is a teenage memory in the life of Irene Rubio (Sallent, 1991) that remained etched in her mind. When she was 16 years old, one day her mother decided to teach her how to make macaroni. "She put me there, with the boiling pot in front of me, and told me: 'Now you have to put salt in the water.' When I asked her why, she replied: 'Because that's how it's been done all my life,'" explains the writer. Over time, she realized that this answer was repeated on other occasions, and this made her uneasy. From that strangeness, Rubio has made a novel: Seràs la vall (L'Altra Editorial), with which she has won the Documenta 2025 prize, it is a dystopia about a female community that has always lived constrained by ancestral customs.

Until she turned thirty, Mar Márquez (Barcelona, 1981) only spoke Spanish. Despite being born and living in Catalonia, her entire environment communicated in that language, so for her Catalan was a foreign and distant language. But Márquez started working in a place where the working language was Catalan, and she began a relationship with a partner who also spoke it, so she made a decision: "I chose Catalan, I made it my chosen and beloved language. It was hard for me, but I stand by it. Since then, I write and think in Catalan," she states. The choice is even more significant because it was linked to her first steps as a future writer. Starting from classes at the Ateneu Barcelonès, Márquez began to craft the seed of her first novel, Amat Amat, which she has just published with Males Herbes. "I am a great defender of the language. Let's create culture in Catalan, please," Márquez demands.

What do science and language have in common today? Playwright and director Jordi Oriol has no doubt: the uncertainty principle. "Scientists have reached a point where they need to know more, but they can't. Science has begun to speak in metaphors, mathematics is about statistics and probabilities. We have gone from Shakespearean to be or not to be to to be and not to be at the same time," says Oriol. Faced with this reality, the creator has built a show that unites the two worlds to make their connections evident. Titled The Last Atom (which can also be read as "L'ultimàtum", in one of the creator's fun linguistic winks), the production stars Joan Carreras and Mia Esteve and will be performed from May 29 to June 21 at the Teatre Goya.

When Toni Acosta's (La Laguna, 1972) children started spending nights away from home, the actress felt a deep sense of emptiness she didn't know where it came from. "I have a very social job, I'm surrounded by people, I have many friends, and I spend my days attending many events. If my life is full of things, why do I feel this emptiness?" the performer often asked herself. Convinced that it was a shared feeling with other women, Acosta proposed to playwright and director Juan Carlos Rubio that he write a monologue for her. A Movie-Like Mother arrives this Thursday at the Teatre Romea, where it will be performed until June 14. The show has previously been in Madrid and toured the country with a good reception. "Many mothers identify with it and feel that we share an experience as a community," notes the actress.

Two years ago, playwright and director Judith Pujol summoned creators Amaya Galeote, Shadai Larios, and María Velasco to the Convent de les Arts in Alcover. In terms of disciplines, they have little in common: Galeote is a choreographer, Larios specializes in object theatre, and Velasco has worked essentially in text-based theatre. Pujol presented them with the challenge of jointly creating a performance based on the idea of fugues in the present. The result, titled Inventari de fugues, will be performed from May 28 to June 21 in the Sala Tallers of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC) with Laia Marull in the leading role.

Sixto Paz gathered, in 2025, more than 50,000 spectators with the play La presència, a thriller with supernatural touches that filled the Teatre Borràs for two seasons. Now the company led by Pau Roca returns to the same venue with La promesa, a production of radically different tone and genre, although it shares part of the authorship of that success. Yago Alonso wrote La presència with Carmen Marfà (with whom he had also created the hilarious Ovelles), and on this occasion the playwright has teamed up with Sílvia Navarro to create La promesa, a delirious comedy about a group of friends who reunite at a party. The show will be performed in Barcelona from May 23 to July 12, and from January it will tour Catalonia.

Júlia Truyol (Palma, 1987) is one of the driving forces behind La Calòrica, but over the years she has forged a career that goes beyond the company and demonstrates the actress's voracity for taking on different challenges. She now faces her first dramatic leading role with Contra Antígona, directed by Andrea Jiménez and performed from May 21 to June 21 at the Sala Fabià Puigserver of the Teatre Lliure. The show brings Sophocles' myth to contemporaneity with a peculiarity: at each performance, 14 volunteer spectators will go on stage with headphones to become part of the play.