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.

"If the curtain that CUP has raised embraces on the stage of this volume the examination of the Hispanic dramatic tradition as much as the continuation of international hispanism, the project should be received with applause from those of us who become members of the audience as much as participants in the cast of characters." --Boletín de la Real Academia Española (trans. from the original Spanish by Maria Delgado), "Copious notes throughout and an excellent bibliography attest to the exemplary scholarship in this book." --Choice

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.