What are the real rules? (From the dramatic form to the open form) with Victoria Szpunberg
Total hours: 24h
Contact: obrador@salabeckett.cat
This workshop will take place at Sala Beckett. In the event that it is not possible to do it at the theatre, it will be done online.
The author of Amor mundi or The Speaking Machine proposes a playwriting workshop for beginners in which theory and practice will combine to question rules and conventions.
A tour through the basic concepts of dramatic writing accompanied by practical writing exercises, with special emphasis on the dialogue between the rules proposed by dramatic convention and the personal perspective of each participant.
Theatre as a space for developing the imagination and the limits of language and of performance.
Within the GREC 2021 Festival of Barcelona.
Victoria Szpunberg participates in the project Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe
Holding a degree in Dramaturgy and Direction from the Institut del Teatre and a Master’s Degree in Theatre Studies at the UAB, Victoria Szpunberg is a playwright with a solid record of premieres, publications and artistic works of different types, as well as being a teacher and pedagogue at the Institut del Teatre, the Obrador de la Sala Beckett and other spaces for research and artistic training.
She became known in 1998 for her play Entre aquí y allá (Lo que dura un paseo) which was awarded the Maria Teresa León Prize, selected by the Royal Court of London (International Residency 2000) and premiered at the RESAD in Madrid in 2000 and at the Here Festival in New York in 2002. She has worked and premiered her own plays at theatres such as the TNC, the Teatre Lliure, the Tantarantana or the Sala Beckett itself in Catalonia, and also in theatres in Madrid and the rest of Spain. His texts have also been translated into several languages and have been seen in countries such as the United States, Colombia, Italy, Prague and France, among others.
Szpunberg is an author concerned with making theatre connected to the political and social issues of the contemporary world, with an open and transdisciplinary look (she has often worked as a playwright on dance projects) and without closing herself off in any single genre or register. With an original way of living and thinking about uprooting (cultural, geographical, etc.), her characters and the situations in which they find themselves often have to do with a kind of existential or ideological bewilderment, with a deep sense of displacement and with the undoing of stereotypes and clichés. This leads her to use genre strategies with finesse (unusual dystopias, pseudo-science fiction, absurd realism…) with a sense of humour and with an undeniable desire to relate to reality from a critical and poetic attitude at the same time.
In the wide range of her proposals that have been seen in Barcelona in recent years, we can remember works such as L’Aparador (2003), within the context of the TNC T-6 Programme, Esthetic Paradise (Sala Beckett/Festival Grec, 2004), La màquina de parlar (Sala Beckett, 2007 and 2022 and Teatre Maldà, 2017), El meu avi no va anar a Cuba (Festival Grec, 2008), La marca preferida de les germanes Clausman (Tantarantana, 2010 and Sala Beckett, 2019), Boys don’t cry (Teatre Lliure/Festival Grec, 2012), L’onzena plaga (as part of the ‘Tot pels diners’ cycle at the Teatre Lliure, 2015; nominated for the Butaca Awards of the same year) and Balena blava, monodrama for actress and orchestra (TNC, 2018). She has also participated in the VII SGAE Laboratory with the work Tu hija.
Szpunberg was an author in residence at the Sala Beckett during the 2018-19 season. Amor mundi is the resulting text and it was premiered in June 2019 as part of the Grec Festival.
She has premiered Mal de coraçon (TNC, 2023), El pes d’un cos (TNC/Centro Dramático Nacional, 2022), L’imperatiu categòric (Teatre Lliure de Gràcia, 2024, National Prize for Dramatic Literature 2025), La Tercera Fuga (Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, 2025; Max Award for Best Playwriting 2026) and has written the libretto for the opera La gata perduda (Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2022).
Admission to the course will be based on order of arrival and CV assessment, which should be sent (with photograph included), filling in the form on the right.
Places on courses are limited. Places will be reserved once the course amount has been paid. Payment must be made within one week of receiving the corresponding acceptance email.
The dates indicated for each course or seminar may be subject to variations in exceptional circumstances. These will be notified when applicable.
For the course to take place, a minimum number of students must be registered. If this number is not reached, the course will be cancelled and the student will have the option of registering for a different course (providing that there are places available) or alternatively will receive a refund of the amount paid (100%). If a student withdraws, a refund of 75% of the registration fee will be applicable, providing that written notice is given at least 10 days before the start of the course.
