VALENCIA. It is the year 1993 and the Teatro Círculo opens its doors. She does it hand in hand Paul Corral first. A year later he joined Miguel Angel Cantero. For 30 years the theater has managed to remain faithful to its principles and grow strongly within the Valencian scene. The room was one of those in charge of laying the first stone of the independent theater of Valencia, a trajectory that has seen sister rooms grow in these years, although maintaining the spirit: “When we opened Teatro Círculo it was in response to a need in the city , Valencia lacked both acting training schools and independent spaces”, explains the current director of the room, Miguel Ángel Cantero, behind the scenes. “What keeps us faithful to this response is to mutate within the needs of the city, creating a space of utility and public service that allows the cultural agenda of the city to swell”.
Cantero says that every year more than 35 works are premiered and up to 80 shows of all kinds are programmed, from physical and avant-garde theater to classic Italian or family theater. In addition, this program grows with the proposals for collaborative and participatory activities that allow the theater to be more of a home: “From the small rooms we have to improve the Valencian fabric, we must be aware that there are many types of theater and they all have a place. We have to focus on all kinds of issues, there is not only one type of culture and we must not limit ourselves”, comments the director.
The celebration is also a moment that invites us to reflect on the room and the passage of time. The theater began in a space of 136 square meters in Maldonado, then it moved to the Velluters neighborhood, where it was located for seventeen years, and from 2009 it moved to the d’Aiora neighborhood. It is currently located in Benimaclet, where it has a space of 250 meters, 50 less than the previous room in which they were located, but “it serves them perfectly”: “It meets the needs we are looking for, and somehow we have been able to adapt to this space. We have not necessarily always been looking for spatial growth over the years, it was not our main objective, but rather to program and become an independent theater”.
The space speaks, yes, but its programming also speaks of Teatro Círculo, a project with ambition and which tells how its evolution has been. “There has been a qualitative as well as a quantitative leap from the room at all levels. At the beginning many works are programmed with a more psychological line of theater”; Cantero account. “We had a very psychological line, but now we have opened up to new stories to tell. In principle, the basis of the programming was our own projections and they were names of great masters that everyone knows”. And what did they do to change?: “Ultimately, what we did to improve was to try to cover a more heterogeneous and open spectrum that leads us to where we are now”.
On the one hand what the viewer is looking for is “to rack their brains”. For this reason, they program works that could perhaps be difficult to understand. “Nothing is left to chance” in a program that always seeks to stimulate the viewer. This is due to the fact that the same year the space was founded, the Círculo del Arte en la Escena company also did so, which during the first years showed author texts such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Antón Chéjov, Harold Pinter, Fernando Pessoa and Passolini among others, with the creation of new languages and new dramaturgies.
Over time the programming becomes “eclectic” although it continues, as its director explains, seeking to respond more to the needs of the theater rather than to the audience. In fact, he jokes that in their beginnings there were works that had only one or two spectators, but that this has allowed them to be where they are: “As long as there was at least one person watching it, it was already fine for us, it is about this person who goes to the theater”, and in this case they shelter her without any problem.
The loyalty of audiences is key to continue growing, they are the ones who in turn manage to maintain the theater: “The project is maintained in part from the contributions of the partners. There is a fixed group of people who come to the theater more or less punctually and also contribute because they want to,” says Cantero about the faithful, “they are people who have been with us for 30 years paying religiously and who may only come once to see a work, but they continue to contribute”, he comments in a cheerful tone, and reflects: “Now thanks to them we can partly program what we want and give back to the neighborhood what it gives us”.
Part of this growth is also motivated by the collaborations that are made with schools and with associations in the area, and with those theater groups that join a more popular program. At the same time, it adds to the fabric of the neighborhood with the idea of being able to become a meeting point for all of Valencia, through activities with the students of the Theater Classroom of the Polytechnic University or the Writing Classroom: “We seek to generate dialogue with artists and society of the moment. We create a community with students, collectives and other groups with the intention of creating a plural theater. For this reason, the most performative and creative actions are prepared within the theater, allowing another way of life of contemporary living arts and understanding the space as a laboratory and training workshop”. In this way, independence is celebrated, and the way to grow mentally and remain humble, come the public that comes.
But what will the anniversary party be like? To celebrate 30 years, the theater reprograms the historical memory show Gaskin, an own production released in 2019 that narrates the real experience of a survivor of the North African concentration camps and that can be seen from March 23 to 26. It is written and directed by the member Beatriz Fariza, who is also on stage along with the other members Ana Campos de Alcazar and Miguel Ángel Cantero.
The next two months will also feature shows related to the theater itself. During the month of April you can enjoy betrayal 3.60, a version of the only preserved work by the author María de Zayas. The show was created in her own residence and is directed by one of the members, Cruz Hernández, with her company Una Tarde Teatro. On stage, eleven young performers who are the future and the present of the Valencian theater. Throughout May of this year the show will also be rescheduled the panties, of Senda Escénica, starring member Mª Cruz Rodríguez together with Domingo Chinchilla and under the direction of fellow member Ana Campos de Alcazar. It is a comedy written by Alfonso Zurro that also had its premiere in 2019.
