“Santa Bárbara”: the theater has tables for a while in Llaranes

“We have a talent pool, the youngest ones are going to continue for twenty more years, for sure,” Campo promises confidently. And she is the soul of a group that in all these years has only missed once – in the pandemic – its appointment with the Asturian “amateur” stages (once, they arrived on the banks of the Pisuerga, in Valladolid: “What a heat they went through,” says Cristina Busto, another member of the group).

The setting that “Santa Bárbara” feels like “playing at home” – these words are from Susana Blanco, one of the youngest additions to the veteran group – is the assembly hall of the Llaranes school. “We fill it every year,” says Nieves Álvarez, with Campo, the other founder of the company. The two were at the birth of a comedy group that has commitment to solidarity in its DNA. And they were born under the protection of the parish priest José María Murias. “He has been our landlord, our manager,” summarizes the company director with a big smile. “Thanks to his contacts we started to leave Llaranes,” says Campo. They passed through Soto del Barco, through Pravia, to Corvera.

It is not clear, say those who know about these things, where Barbara, who is the saint and patron saint of Llaranes, was born. It is more important, however, where and when “Santa Bárbara Teatro” was born. That happened on December 4, 2001 on the stage of the Llaranes school, the old Salesian school. Carmen Conde and Nieves Álvarez and the other founders performed their first show. It was “El Filandón”, by Pachín de Melás. It was his first “classic.” The other classics were Eloy Fernández Caravera, the Quintero Brothers and also Arsenio González, who although he died not long ago always worked as a classic.

“A group of catechists from the church came up with the idea of ​​setting up a work and raising money for an international cooperation project in Guatemala,” says Campo. “It was even before the Llaranes Cooperation Conference,” adds Álvarez. “We had our first full house. 180 people fit there. We brought fifty more chairs. From there, we repeated successes and repeated chairs,” continues the director and playwright of the Aviles company.

And here comes the second important name in the history of the group: David Gutiérrez, who was the director of the school for years. The third name is that of Adolfo Camilo Díaz, the current cultural programmer of de Corvera. “He discovered us when he worked as an advisor to the Avilés City Council. With him we began to leave Llaranes,” he emphasizes. The last thing they have on their hands is “I want to be an artist.” “Susi is going to do it.”