Isabel Vidal: “Barcelona can grow in number rooms because there is quality and variety and Catalonia has a theatrical audience”
Few people know that Isabel Vidal He collected the first payroll, selling tickets in the evenings to the television, while studying law at the university and made passantas in law firms. Also came tickets to the stall that Adetck He placed on the street for days like Sant Jordi and that, unexpectedly, took her thirty years ago to get into work as a theaters assistant Focuswhere she climbed to become the current CEO of the company and President of Adetca (l ‘Association of Theater Companies of Catalonia), of which it has been re -elected for four more years. In his office we are talking about the excellent moment of Catalan theater, only five years after the start of a pandemic that closed all the rooms.
Barcelona Theater: He says we are at the best time in the history of theater in Barcelona. What does it attribute to the threshold of 3 million viewers?
Isabel Vidal: In 2011 we were there, but the economic crisis first, the cultural VAT later and finally the pandemic prevented it. It means that it has been working very well in terms of contents for many years, there is quality and variety, and Catalonia has theatrical audience.
Many times we ask ourselves: is it more public or is it the same audience that goes the most?
A part is not quantified, and it is something that technology could help us to determine, how many repeaters, fans and faithful there are. But when viewers reach 3 million, it means that a significant part of spectators is incorporated, which depends that there is a good billboard and that everyone works well, with very popular tractors that become successful and generate hobby for theater. If we were growing in rooms, I think we would grow in public.
“We should aspire to open the theaters in August”
Do you think Barcelona is missing in Barcelona?
Focus will open one of 500 locations by 2027 [es dirà Genesis i serà a tocar de Glòries]. Good time causes rooms that could have closed, like the Mountthe Enjoymentthe Underpadthe Texas They have found interest and relief to take them. The molino has reopened and theArnau He will. I think, because I am seeing production, in local rooms we are very good. The need is that some of the shows in the small rooms go to the largest rooms, to make the first leap, because there are business projects that can grow. The audience is demonstrating that there could be more medium rooms, from 400 to 600 locations, and some other large theater. Because there is production capacity in Catalonia and because there are things from outside to choose. And we should aspire to open in August. I think it’s a good month and if the theaters were always open, better.
Last season, 92.7 million euros were raised. When we say these figures, there are often artists who remember that the bulk of professionals live in precariousness. It is difficult to make a living with this.
Yes, too much, because it is a difficult race and you compete with consolidated people, with new people, with opportunities, with luck, and the production is limited and the system cannot absorb the number of artists that are prepared, as in other fields. Living about this is very difficult, as in all the professions where the talent is needed. Artists are the most important thing we have. Now we no longer suffer for generational relief: there is a lot of talent, artists well prepared at all levels, from the stage to the direction, the authorship, I don’t tell you any technicians, everyone. The ADETCA companies complies with the agreement, which guarantees a minimum. However, there is not enough work for everyone. What is left out, what do you do? Have a bad time. We must continue to work to improve.
This year will be the second of the hollow armchair [el 22 de març]which aims to fill all rooms around World Theater Day [27 de març]. Has it consolidated?
We already got 92% of occupation, and now there are more theaters: 200 spaces and 80,000 armchairs. The idea is to make it grow and that is always on March 27 and not on Saturday, as we do now, to take advantage of the fact that there is programming everywhere. The intention is that there is incentive of public procurement and theater incentive. And we do not want to base it on a discount, we want to value that this happens a normal day, but this day we make it consciously.
There was a time when the discounts were suffered by the operation of the system?
Much, because the crisis causes you to despair because people do not come in, and then the first thing you think is to facilitate the entry with the price. And it is a mistake, because people do not come in for more reasons. An activity does not have to fight to be cheaper. We are struggling a lot to explain that an entry is not expensive: look on stage, look at what surrounds you, it is a live show! At that time of crisis, ticketing platforms appeared that captured content at a low price, and when the sale is down, there are those who act individually, it was the perfect storm to shoot us on foot. It paralyzed us the advance sale. It was horrifying and it was very difficult to recover it. Fortunately, the best antidote to this is that there is an advance sale and box office and an articulated sector that bases the success of quality not on the price.
“There is quality and variety, and Catalonia has the theater audience”
On language. This season we have Sea and sky And we do not have the Magician Pop, so the theater figures in Catalan will shoot. Last season, the public was balanced in Catalan and Spanish, but if we look at the historic of twenty years, Catalan has clearly lost its piston. The largest rooms mainly have works in Spanish. Is the language a handicap?
Catalan in theater does not lose a piston. It is a matter of whether producers can produce great shows. It’s not the language. Before, there were more producers who did great musical in Catalan and now there are less. Great theaters must be filled with contents and these contents are made throughout Spain and the world. These theaters are very difficult for them to fulfill a 50% program in Catalan, because there is no content to fill a theater of 1,000 armchairs or 1,500. A cultural policy (now being done) is to try to make these spaces more options and more density of content encouraging translation to the producers who need to show shows in Madrid and Barcelona to repay a very strong investment. What is needed is to encourage the production capacity, there are more public and there will be more,
After six years in office and as President of Adetca, what priorities are marked?
The first would be a turn plan, because contracts have not been recovered since the economic crisis, which affected us in the 2011-12 season. It is necessary to review the municipal stage and cultural map, the contents offered and the resources that the councils have to bring the culture where there is no density of the public. Money, policies and data is missing here. The second, you need to work on audiences. And third, family theater must be encouraged from schools. And many other things like bureaucracy, regulations, cultural exceptionality, 2% of the budget … Now that things are going well, we have to take advantage of them to improve them. My maxim is that everyone has the ability to grow and prosper.
