A History of Theatre in Spain

Leading theatre historians and practitioners map a theatrical history that moves from the religious tropes of medieval Iberia to the postmodern practices of twenty-first-century Spain. Considering work across the different languages of Spain, from vernacular Latin to Catalan, Galician and Basque, this history engages with the work of actors and directors, designers and publishers, agents and impresarios, and architects and ensembles, in indicating the ways in which theatre has both commented on and intervened in the major debates and issues of the day. Chapters consider paratheatrical activities and popular performance, such as the comedia de magia and flamenco, alongside the works of Spain's major dramatists, from Lope de Vega to Federico García Lorca. Featuring revealing interviews with actress Nuria Espert, director Lluís Pasqual and playwright Juan Mayorga, it positions Spanish theatre within a paradigm that recognizes its links and intersections with wider European and Latin American practices.

Introduction Maria M. Delgado and David T. Gies; 1. The theatre in medieval Spain: the challenges of historiography Ángel Gómez Moreno; 2. Playing the palace: space, place and performance in early modern Spain Margaret R. Greer; 3. The world as a stage: politics, imperialism and Spain's seventeenth-century theatre José María Ruano de la Haza; 4. Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina: Spain's Golden Age drama and its legacy Jonathan Thacker; 5. The art of the actor, 1565–1833: from moral suspicion to social institution Evangelina Rodríguez Cuadros; 6. Theatrical infrastructures, dramatic production and performance, 1700–59 Fernando Doménech Rico; 7. Popular theatre and the Spanish stage, 1737–98 Josep Maria Sala Valldaura; 8. Theatre of the elites, Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment, 1750–1808 René Andioc; 9. Zarzuela: prejudice and mass culture in Spain Rafael Lamas; 10. Nineteenth-century Spanish theatre: the birth of an industry José Luis González Subías; 11. Copyright, buildings, spaces and the nineteenth-century stage Lisa Surwillo; 12. Modernism and the avant-garde in fin-de-siècle Barcelona and Madrid David George and Jesús Rubio Jiménez; 13. Continuity and innovation in Spanish theatre, 1900–36 Dru Dougherty and Andrew Anderson; 14. Theatrical activities during the Spanish Civil War, 1936–9 Jim McCarthy; 15. Theatre, colonialism, exile and the Americas Helena Buffery; 16. Theatre under Franco, 1939–75: censorship, playwriting and performance John London; 17. Flamenco: performing the local/performing the state Lourdes Orozco; 18. Actors and agency in the modern era, 1801–2010 Josep Lluís Sirera; 19. Nationalism, identity and theatre: theatre across the Spanish state in the democratic era, 1975–2010 Sharon Feldman and Anxo Abuín González; 20. Directors and the Spanish stage, 1823–2010 Maria M. Delgado; 21. This evolution is still ongoing Nuria Espert; 22. Theatre as a process of discovery Lluís Pasqual; 23. Theatre is the art of the future Juan Mayorga; Select bibliography.

Maria M. Delgado is Professor of Theatre and Screen Arts at Queen Mary, University of London and co-editor of the journal Contemporary Theatre Review. She has published widely in the areas of modern Catalan and Spanish theatre and film, with a particular interest in the work of performers and directors and the intersections between stage and screen cultures. Her publications include Federico García Lorca (2008), 'Other' Spanish Theatres (2003) and nine further co-edited volumes including Contemporary European Theatre Directors (2010).
David T. Gies is Commonwealth Professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia. He has published Agustín Durán (1975), Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (1979), Theatre and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Spain (1988), The Cambridge Companion to Modern Spanish Culture (1999), The Theatre in Nineteenth-Century Spain (1994) and The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature (2004). He is the editor of the journal DIECIOCHO.