The recent rise of publishing houses has reshaped the editing of dramatic texts, and this conference will explore the role of the specialized press in making contemporary writing visible and the challenges that playwrights face as festivals and theater programmers. The event is part of the professional days organized by the XXXI Exhibition of the Guillermo Heras Theater of Spanish Contemporary Writers, held from November 3 to 11 across several city venues.
More than fifty writers, along with editors, programmers, translators, and experienced journalists, will participate. Theatre professionals from Spain and beyond—England, France, Poland, Italy, and Romania—have confirmed their presence. The days will run in parallel with performances, workshops, and reading circles.
The Las Cigarreras Cultural Center will host four professional round tables with free admission and pre-registration. The sessions draw inspiration from the works of the recently departed playwright, stage director, and cultural manager Guillermo Heras, aiming to illuminate Spanish dramaturgy in editing, translation, and management. The discussion tables will open with reflections from the person who has overseen the Writers’ Showcase for 29 years, accompanied by a dramatized reading titled I always wanted (confinement delirium) and a textual narrative about friendship. The events will take place on the first floor of Teatre Arniches. The exhibition is realized in collaboration with prominent Ibero-American theatre professionals such as Rafael Spregelburd, Gabriela Halac, Mauricio Kartun, and Carlos Pacheco, among others.
Discussion tables
Dramaturg Aina Tur will coordinate the theater writing and artistic direction table, which begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Participants include Silvia Albert (Cimarronas Circle of Barcelona), Alberto Conejero (Madrid Autumn Festival), Maria Goiricelaya (Navarra Olite Festival), and Alfredo Sanzol (National Dramatic Centre). They share the roles of artistic director and playwright, examining how contemporary theater writing is showcased in their programs and how the stories within them converse with the debates of modern society. Attention is given to the diversity of voices on stage and the challenges of accounting for gender, intellectual, functional, ethnic, and economic differences in programming and writing.
The second discussion table of the day will begin at 12:30. It will address the importance of dissemination and the role of the specialized press in today’s scene. Coordinated by journalist Daniel Galindo (Director of the La Salade on RNE), he will be joined by José Antonio Alba (Godot Magazine), Olga Baeza (editor of The Critical Eye and director of A Compás at RNE), Julio Bravo (playwright and ABC journalist), and Raul Losanez (critic and playwright at La Razón).
According to the RAE, dissemination means the publication, spread, or public availability of information. What is not shared remains confined. The meeting aims to explore how knowledge about performing arts is conveyed across public and private media, print, radio, television, and the internet; the relationship between authors, production companies, and programmers, and the journalists who curate content and distribute it; the role of criticism; and the rise of new dissemination channels, including social networks and professional press representation in cultural communication, among other topics.
A theater editing and writing discussion table will start at 16:00. The moderator will be Eduardo Pérez-Rasilla, a professor, researcher, and theatre critic at Carlos University. The panel will include Felipe Diez (Punto de Vista Editores, Madrid), Marina Laboreo (Editor Comanegra, Barcelona), Conchita Piña (Antígona Editions, Madrid), and Carlos Rod (La Uña Rota Ediciones, Segovia). The aim is to analyze how theater broadcasting has evolved over recent decades and to address the main industry challenges of the eighties and nineties—limited publication of contemporary drama, poor distribution, and dwindling interest in modern plays among theatre professionals. The discussion will also consider whether there has been a real demand, what caused past indifference from cultural media and bookstores, and how digital publishing is reshaping the scene. Four publishers will share their strategies for making contemporary dramatic literature more visible and reflect on their effectiveness from the 1990s to today, as well as future challenges for these smaller publishing houses.
The fourth and final discussion table of the XXXI edition will begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday, November 5, and address international translation and projection. Fernando Gomez-Grande will coordinate this session, with participants including Agnieszka Stachurska (Poland), Delicate Pine (Italy), Rachel Very Good (England), Christilla Vasserot (France), and Voina-Raut Luminite (Romania).
“Last year, on the thirtieth anniversary, Alicante was positioned as a focal point for discussion and analysis of the state of Spanish dramaturgy,” says artistic director Mónica Pérez Blanquer. The previous edition explored whether the contemporary playwright is primarily a writer who works off stage or if translation to the stage is essential to their work. This year’s discussions revisit the needs, challenges, and limitations in raising the visibility of Spanish live dramaturgy. “As artistic director, I aim to foster a pluralistic view of the sector,” she adds.
Letters to Guillermo Heras: About friendship
Alicante Teatre Arniches will host the Writers’ Exhibition, a tribute to Guillermo Heras titled About friendship, coordinated by playwright Xavier Puchades and researcher Eduardo Pérez-Rasilla. This selection features posters presenting letters to Heras from Latin American theatre professionals such as Raquel Araujo (Mexico), Octavio Arbeláez (Colombia), Marcelo Bones (Brazil), Cipriano Argüello Pitt (Argentina), Gabriel Halac (Argentina), Mauricio Kartun (Argentina), Carlos Pacheco (Argentina), Ana Lucía Ramírez G (Mexico), and Rafael Spregelburd (Argentina).
coordinators ask themselves how many speeches by Guillermo Heras have filled the walls of Teatre Arniches’ lobby before and after performances. The Contemporary Writers’ Spanish Theater Experience began in this theatre 31 years ago. Gabriela Halac writes to Guillermo, noting that many of them became friends through him because of his habit of naming people, recommending writers, and spreading news and books. As a result, strangers grew closer and the theatre world became friendlier and more welcoming.
According to those responsible for the display, the aim of this letters exhibit, a homage to Guillermo, is to show that theatrical interns who influence public opinion deserve a deeper understanding of the person who has steered this exhibition for 29 years. A dozen Latin American theatre professionals, who maintain many professional and friendly ties with Guillermo, contributed letters that will adorn the walls of Teatre Arniches from November 3 to 11. Viewers of the 31st edition will read these letters alongside Guillermo’s own reflections, inviting ongoing dialogue with Guillermo within the theatre lobby where the journey began. The invitation remains to keep talking with Guillermo and his friends, because that is what this words exhibition is about: friendship.