Challenge met. For the third year in a row, the performing arts sector in Catalonia has celebrated Theatre Day, which this Saturday managed to fill 81,513 seats out of the more than 92,000 available in the 261 theatres participating in the campaign. Empty Seat Capewhich offered 305 shows and 347 performances. The final audience figure, announced at nightfall at an event held at the Old Damm Factory, represents a 14.09% increase compared to the previous edition, which drew 71,441 spectators to 217 theaters across the country, and a 48.05% increase compared to the first edition, which featured 145 theaters. "It has been a wonderful day, unlike anything else in the world: an entire country dedicated to breaking a record by attending the theater," celebrated Isabel Vidal, president of the Association of Theater Companies of Catalonia (Adetca), which promotes the campaign.

Often, a vocational love for the theater awakens far from the trappings of grand premieres. Sometimes it springs from parents who are deeply involved in the arts. in amateur theatreOthers are found in school performances that leave even the most skeptical student speechless, or thanks to enthusiastic grandparents who, on Christmas afternoon, abandoned the dishes to wash and decided to take all their grandchildren to see the Pastorets (Christmas plays). These are small stories behind which lies a great Catalan playwright, director, or actor who saw the seed of theater sprout in the theater of their town or city. These spaces garner extraordinary public esteem, but paradoxically, they are the ones that receive the least investment, the least programming, and the least institutional support.