If theater is born from the ancient rituals with which humanity described the world,Theatre Institute Today, it is one of the places where this magic lives on. A unique center that combines tradition and contemporary approaches to train artists and foster new perspectives on the performing arts. Dramatic arts, dance, and performance techniques comprise its educational offerings.

On December 4, 2024, in New York City, Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old tech enthusiast, murdered Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare, the largest health insurance company in the United States. The bullets he used to commit the crime They had three words written on themTo deny, to defend, to depose. Exactly one year later, the Teatre Lliure hosts, starting this Wednesday Mangione ManifestoA performance by Carol López, featuring a company of postgraduate students from the Institut del Teatre, uses the murder of Thompson as a starting point to explore what it takes to ignite a revolution.

"We can finally sleep soundly!" exclaimed Jaume Bernadet, a member of Comediants, on Wednesday, after recounting the recent adventures of the company's archives. For the past ten years, Comediants had been searching for a home for more than 20,000 documents and materials from the over 250 shows they produced over five decades. Between 2021 and 2022, a significant portion of the archive was transferred to the Documentation Center of the Museum of Performing Arts (MAE) at the Institut del Teatre, which has since inventoried, cataloged, digitized, and published it. on the Escena Digital website to make it accessible to everyone. Now, with 80% of the work completed, the MAE has presented it to the public. "We haven't managed to create a house-museum or a foundation, but our holistic way of working can be seen here, through the collection," Bernadet emphasized. "It's a very special legacy because it has so many different types. This doesn't always happen when we receive collections from companies," explained the MAE's director, Anna Valls. Specifically, the museum has received giant papier-mâché figures, costumes, press clippings (more than 14,000 news items), figurines, masks, models, stickers, photographs, videos, awards, and programs. "We asked them to make a very large selection of the costumes and the tadpole figures. It was complicated because it involved the effort of choosing what is significant and what will still be significant in thirty years when we want to put on an exhibition," Valls pointed out.

The music industry is in turmoil. Dozens of students have taken to the streets to demand an end to impunity for the abuse of power exercised by some teachers. It was the turn of a guitar teacher who was removed from the Liceu Conservatory after being reported to have groped a student, a case that has progressed. The Newspaper.In recent years, the world of culture has experienced a change in the way it establishes relationships between students and teachers, especially after the Institut del Teatre case broke out. This is now the case of the Catalan School of Music (Esmuc). When the ARA newspaper published its report on the Institut del Teatre, the director, Núria Sempere, wrote to nearly 2,500 graduates of the school to find out if they had experienced similar situations. "At that time, 11 people wrote to us and told us what they had suffered. Situations of abuse of power and situations that could be classified as harassment. Whoever tells you there aren't cases is lying," explains Sempere from Paris.

Institut del Teatre will send the files opened against twelve former teachers Barcelona's Provincial Prosecutor's Office so that it may determine whether there was "sexual harassment, abusive behaviour or abuse of power" in their behaviour with students. Thus, one year after ARA uncovered the abuse of power and harassment denounced by a score of students, the school informed the authorities of the findings made by its own Commission for the Prevention and Investigation of Sexual Harassment. At this point the twelve teachers are retired and one of the names that appears is that of theatre director Joan Ollé

The Institut del Teatre has reported teacher Boris Dausà, who had been accused of sexual harassment by a student, to the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Barcelona. Seven months after ARA uncovered cases of sexual harassment and abuse of power by different teachers over the years, the Institut del Teatre has passed on the file opened against one of the thirteen staff that appeared before the prevention and investigation commission investigating the accusations. In May, this commission concluded that files would be opened on three teachers and one of them, Boris Dausà, would be reported to the Prosecutor's office due to evidence of sexual harassment. "Once the Diputació de Barcelona finished its investigation, and given that the indications of sexual harassment have been confirmed, we have informed the public prosecutor's office", the centre wrote in a statement.

Catalan ombudsman Rafael Ribó has been very forceful in his assessment of claims of sexual harassment and abuse of power at the Institut del Teatre uncovered by ARA in February: "It is clear that there have been situations of abuse of power, sexual harassment and even sexual abuse". In fact, Ribó explained that the Institut del Teatre has to "promote a thorough investigation" because the facts are "more extensive than what has been presented so far" and recommended that the Institut investigate the cases of former students who filed complaints and that the current protocol does not allow it to investigate. "It should be given a broader scope, include former students and responsibilities attributable to professionals," concluded Ribó, who believes that there has been "failures" by the center in its duty to "protect" students.

The prevention and investigation commission that the Institut del Teatre activated as a result of the cases of sexual harassment and abuse of power uncovered by the ARA resulted in 13 teachers being investigated, three of whom will be disciplined and one of may face charges of sexual harassment. The names have not been revealed.

Two days after ARA uncovered the cases of harassment and abuse at the Institut del Teatre (IT), a teacher explained to the assembly of students gathered in the atrium of the building that, apart from Joan Ollé, the name of another teacher was on the table. It is Boris Dausà, who has been suspended from classes as a precautionary measure at the request of the commission in charge of investigating the matter.

This Friday morning Magda Puyo has resigned as general director of the Institut del Teatre (IT) following cases of sexual harassment and abuse of power uncovered on Sunday by the ARA. "I fully assume my responsibility for not having been able to find, despite having tried, effective tools to free the Institute from abusive and authoritarian behaviour. I strongly condemn these behaviors, I sympathize with the victims and I apologize to all those students who have felt forgotten by us", she said in a statement. Her resignation has already been accepted by the Provincial Council, the Diputació de Barcelona, the body which the Institut del Teatre depends on.

The Catalan Ombudsman will investigate the cases of sexual harassment, abuse of power and psychological mistreatment uncovered by ARA at the Institut del Teatre (IT). In light of the students' complaints on the actions of some teachers, including theatre director Joan Ollé, the Catalan Ombudsman has decided to open an ex-officio action and has requested information from the Barcelona Provincial Council, as owner of the centre, and the Barcelona Education Consortium. "The Catalan Ombudsman also wants to know if any formal complaints have been received, and if any actions have been taken to respond to them and their outcome," the Catalan Ombudsman said in a press release. ARA explained on Sunday that a student filed a complaint with the Catalan Ombudsman two weeks ago to report what she had suffered at the Institut del Teatre, but it did not go forward because complaints by and against individuals are not admitted.

Last Saturday in Barcelona the police kettled a group of demonstrators in Gràcia neighbourhood and then charged at them. Subsequently the police considered this action a "tactical mistake". The fear that the people who were there in the middle were not so strategic. Shouldn't to have left the house. The . The fear the people in the middle felt was not so strategic. Shouldn't have left the house. Catalan minister of Home Affairs maintained that "there was a minimal use of force". In the videos that circulated online force seemed remarkable, but don't mind me, I'm weak. A girl has had her eye gouged out. It is collateral damage although in reality it is frontal and avoidable. It is container that suffer and are quantified and magnified, fully aware that most protesters never burn anything. Not for lack of motives. Out of strategic fear. And out of astounding ignorance, some shopkeepers speak of "the Night of Broken Glass", when in reality the only thing that happened was that a few people broke windows at night. You might despair at the first paragraph. But you hang in there. As you always do. As we are doing. Even if resilience is admirable on some days and a little scary on others

The director of the Institut del Teatre, Magda Puyo, has admitted "mistakes" in the management of cases of abuse of power and sexual harassment and has once again "shown solidarity" with the victims. Moreover, in an interview with Els matins de TV3, she has alleged the lack of tools to avoid these situations, which exist "not in the Institut but in society", and wondered why the protocol has not worked to bring the cases to light. She attributed it to a "communication" error. "Students were not very well informed of the protocol. Fear makes them not dare to report, and we have to deal with it," she said. Puyo has defended her mandate and has assured that only one case is current and that the others are prior to her directorship, which is due for renewal next month.

For the second day in a row, the students of the Institut del Teatre (IT) have demonstrated again in the atrium of the building. This time, after reading again the manifesto to show their indignation for the cases of harassment and abuses of power uncovered by the ARA and reiterating the request for the resignation of the management, the students held an assembly to decide the next steps. While the students were considering the possibility of calling a strike - at the moment it is not confirmed - one of the teachers of the IT has joined to ask that both the faculty and the students row in the same direction. And he has announced that there are two names of teachers on the table. Therefore, beyond Joan Ollé, who yesterday Monday was removed from the faculty, there is a second case of a teacher who will be investigated. A fact that, for the moment, the direction of the center denies.

The publication by ARA of an exhaustive investigation into sexual harassment and abuse of power at the Institut del Teatre has had its first consequence on Monday: one of the professors singled out, Joan Ollé, has been removed from teaching for the duration of the internal investigation announced by the Institut. This was also the demand of the hundred students who yesterday demonstrated in the school's atrium to denounce the situations experienced by students and also demand accountability from the management team.

"At the Institut del Teatre we called them "los niñas" (the girls) because they went after girls". It is a phrase from a Catalan actress that defines what has been going on for decades in a public institution, dependant on the Diputació de Barcelona, such as the Institut del Teatre. Over the last 30 years there have been a number of teachers who have abused their power over students with humiliating and sexual comments, even harassing them and in some cases sexually abusing them by touching them. In one case, such behaviour caused a student to drop out of school and move away. There has also been repeated and structural psychological abuse. These are not isolated incidents. ARA has spoken to hundreds of students who have put the spotlight on a dozen teachers and ex-teachers. Three are repeated: Joan Ollé and, to varying degrees, Jorge Vera and Berty Tovías.