Show business is booming

It is rather hard to appreciate theater without actually going to the theater. The real stage has not been replaced by a virtual online stage - at least not yet - and that may be one of the key reasons behind the sector's good performance despite the economic crisis, illustrated by the long lines seen at playhouse box offices across the capital.

"The movie industry is having trouble with its technological conversion. We are seeing a paradigm shift with regard to how movies are shown, but this is something that's not affecting theater," says José Luis Gómez, a theater actor and director who recently accepted an honorary doctorate from Complutense University in Madrid. Gómez, whose playhouse La Abadía enjoys 80 percent occupancy rates for most shows, adds that his sector has nevertheless undergone some momentous changes of late.

"There was the inauguration of major theaters like Teatros del Canal or the Naves del Español at Matadero [Madrid], which are doing very well. The quality and overall level of the performances have improved, even if we're not up to speed with Berlin, London or Paris, because Madrid lacks repertory theater, which is where the great actors and directors learn the ropes."

Javier Huerta, the promoter of the Madrid Theater Institute (ITEM), which opened in 2007, believes that there is still a lack of theater culture in the capital "despite the fact that we live in the city of Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina." Having said that, his newly created master's degree, which only accepts 60 students, had 250 applicants this year.

"The boom of theater is a relative thing. It really depends what you're comparing it with," says Huerta. "If you compare it with the situation in the 1930s, there is no such boom, but if you compare it with the 1980s or even the 1990s, then there definitely is. Theater is the only art form that has not succumbed to the internet (even books have!). It cannot be encapsulated, and besides, people get tired of screens. [...] The new generation is cutting its teeth on alternative playhouses that are mushrooming across the city and the region, and also attract young audiences because of the price. In that sense, you could say that there is indeed a theater boom, even if this is not London or Buenos Aires."

The veteran theater producer Juanjo Seoane agrees. "Unlike movies, you cannot see plays unless you go to the show in person. Audience figures have increased a lot, although people are also more selective, because the crisis forces them to make choices. The quality has improved, and you can see that across the board, at the midnight sessions of café-theaters and at the major productions of universally renowned plays. [...] Theater is more fashionable now than ever."

As a side note, Seoane adds that despite playing to full houses, the big problem for producers is that "when they perform outside Madrid, 95 percent of theaters are dependent on public agencies that take over a year to pay us, which means we are unable to tackle new projects and leaves us in the hands of the banks, now very reluctant to open credit lines."

As though to confirm theater's pull, Madrid celebrated World Theater Day last Saturday by bringing productions out of doors, where millions of people witnessed live music, dance and all forms of street theater. Events kicked off at the former home of Golden Age playwright Lope de Vega - now a museum located in the heart of the city, on Cervantes street. This neighborhood, known as the Barrio de las Letras because of all the famous men of letters who at one point lived here, is where some of the 176 activities took place. The springlike weather helped attract the crowds, which last year numbered 4.2 million according to organizers.

A parade on Fuencarral, featuring actors dressed up as horses, closed the daytime part of the program, with a whole other set of shows scheduled at night. Some people stood in line at 11pm to join a backstage tour of Les Misérables, the famous musical based on Victor Hugo's epic novel, a Spanish version of which is playing successfully at Teatro Lope de Vega on Gran Vía. Among the visitors to that event were Iria, Dani and Adrián, three young actors who said they were only familiar with the amateur theater scene and were anxious to see what a big production was like behind the scenes.