Alicante Head Theater unveiled a full program spanning February through June, building on an advance released in November that highlighted a line-up rich in quality and variety. The Kids and Stories program features five dance pieces, eight music performances, six humor acts, two musicals, two operas, three magic shows, and two family productions, along with eight traditional theater tales in English.
The assistant director, Mª Dolores Padilla, noted that 2022 closed with 85,488 total attendees, marking a substantial 62% rise over the year prior to the pandemic, 2019, which had recorded 52,929 visitors. The theatre is now closing in on the figures from 2015 and aims to hit the 100,000 spectator mark achieved in 2014 as soon as possible. She added that ticket prices have not increased since 2013, maintaining a decade-long stability.
In April, the Director of the Teatro announced 22 innovations, including two co-productions with the National Drama Center under an easy-reading framework, adapted from the book by Cristina García Morales. The dramaturgy and direction are led by Albert San John. A stage adaptation of Kafka’s novel, directed by Ernest Knight and featuring Carlos Hypolito among others, was presented on May 6. A life is a dream, produced in collaboration with the National Classical Theater Company and Lazona, appeared on May 5. The musical Singing in the Rain, directed by Angel Llacer, will present seven performances from May 25 to 28.
More programs
The season opens with a new production, Ron Lala, on April 14, in which Villa and Marsa present a light-hearted farce paying homage to the lighter side of theatre, followed by two performances on April 15 and 16, including Innocent Saints, a stage version of the deceased Fernando Marias and Javier Hernandez’s work. The piece about star Miguel Delibes, Javier Gutierrez with eight other actors, follows. On April 19, as part of the Dance Festival, CreAction makes its stage debut, a project from the 2020 National Dance Award winner Iratxe Ansa and recipient of two Max awards in 2022; Terrat presents Teacher, with Isabel Ordaz and Marcial Alvarez (April 22). A Valencia-born production company, Olympia Metropolitana, brings Black Comedy PLAgoverning Ignasi Vidal to the stage on the 23, and on the 26, Spanish dance returns with Carlos Rodríguez’s flamenco ballet honoring Picasso in Eternal Picasso, featuring the National Dance Company’s Joaquín de Luz among the performers.
In May, family-friendly music features Mulan on May 7, and the Moon World production and Queen’s Symphonic Rhapsody return, following a prior milestone audience of one million viewers on May 11 and 12. A light-hearted comedy, a French adaptation by Josema Yuste, offers two performances on May 13 and 14. Dance returns on May 17 with four programs from the touring company Jivoy Island, regarded for its fresh approach to choreography. The Mariinsky Theater from St. Petersburg appears with a troupe of 16 dancers, while a lively musical replaces Focus with an entertaining comedy, Bananas, Peanuts and Gone with the Wind, starring Gonzalo de Castro as the narrator of one of cinema history’s most famous misadventures. The Alicante company participates in the Teatral season with John Sanderson’s production and dramaturgy by John Louis Back. The season closes on May 21 with In an Hour, a piece about the moments before death, and the bombing of Alicante Central Market in 1938 on May 25, marking a poignant historical anchor for the program.
Humor
In the humor section, Michael Lake presents his show on April 21, while Valencia-based Eugeni Germany shares the stage with Zuleyma Gonzales on April 27. Yolanda Martinez offers a lighter touch on May 19, followed by Ignasi Taltavull and Tomas Fuentes sharing amusing anecdotes with the audience on May 19. Ignatius and lead actor Luis Zahera appear as outrageous monsters in Alicante, with a comedy that stages life’s absurdities on June 2 and 9 respectively.
Ratings
The program was introduced by representatives from the Colosseum owners community, including the Alicante City Council, the Generalitat Valenciana and Banco Sabadell. Antonio Manresa emphasized that the program blends quality with broad audience appeal and helped set a target of 100,000 spectators. The cultural institutions reaffirmed their commitment to theatre, and the regional representative of IVC praised the programming as excellent.
Another perspective from Garijo highlighted the new quarter as a credible example of IVC’s aim to improve programming in terms of quantity, quality, and variety, with the public clearly noticing the difference. The Theatre Director and the Teatre Arniches remain benchmarks for performance arts in the city. The program also showcased works by choreographers Sol Picó and Iratxe Ansa, with Valencia proposals like Eugeni Alemany and El Pla from Olympia Metropolitana featured prominently. A fresh proposal full of theatre, dance, and music is warmly anticipated.
Garijo added that the town hall meeting with the Colosseum owners was postponed after tensions in October, and no new appointment was set due to concerns over program decisions and pending debts. The sentiment from Manresa suggested that choreographic programming may require adjustments this summer to facilitate a seat transition.
Protest
Regarding a protest organized by the Independent Association outside the theater, municipal authorities clarified that the action targeted a separate labor dispute with two service providers, Go Group and Roi Plus, and not the theatre’s operations. The union condemned recent layoffs within those companies and described working conditions as precarious. Officials noted that the Head Theater does not employ those workers directly and that any disputes should be addressed through the relevant business channels. The deputy director stated the Colosseum works under service contracts with third-party firms and reaffirmed that the theater itself does not maintain direct employment ties with the workers involved, nor are there any pending lawsuits.
In the same briefing, it was explained that the Colosseum plans to expedite a seat-transition project this summer, pending resolution of the existing contract issues.