La Beckett is one of the most well-known theater venues in Barcelona. Its stage hosts some of the most renowned artists of today, offering us scenic journeys that move and provoke reflection. But La Beckett is, above all, the home of Catalan dramaturgy.
L'Obrador de la Beckett aims to "cook" good theater. "The word 'obrador' already indicates a bit what it is: an 'obrador' is the place where bread is made artisanally, and this idea was wanted to be transferred to theater," explains Víctor Muñoz, the head of courses and L'Obrador at Sala Beckett.
To better understand everything that is brewing in this workshop, Víctor welcomes us to the Authors' Club and shows us the place where dramaturgy is "cooked."
La Beckett's dramaturgy courses
One of the main activities of the workshop are the dramaturgy courses, a training that is renewed every quarter and is designed for all types of playwrights: both for people who want to start from scratch, and for professionals who want to retrain or learn new writing techniques.
L'Obrador offers different itineraries according to the student's needs. For example, the Beckett Itinerary is a three-year program in which the student takes eight workshops combining initiation, advanced level, and other disciplines such as directing or acting.
The added value of this program comes at the end: "Once these eight courses are completed, we believe that the person has a sufficient basis to embark on writing a long play. We commit to doing a dramatized reading of this play with a professional team," Muñoz emphasizes.
They also have the Annual Writing Course, a workshop that runs from the first week of October until mid-June. Once a week, for three hours, students develop a play from scratch, sharing the text with the teacher and classmates to receive feedback. The course concludes with a public showing of fragments.
This training yields real results. Texts born in these courses have ended up having seasons in city theaters, such as Polles, polles, polles by Ramon Catà Figuls which has been seen at Sala Fènix.
Laboratories, young people, and sector orientation
The activity of the Obrador does not end when classes finish. In fact, many students who meet in a course and get along well want to continue working together. And, to respond to this situation, Beckett provides them with the laboratories: spaces designed for work groups that meet weekly around a specific topic.
Among these laboratories, Primera Versió stands out, a fortnightly meeting where playwrights with works in progress read fragments aloud to receive feedback from their peers before continuing to write at home. On the other hand, the Obrador de Filosofia functions as a research space where participants take a more philosophical topic to jointly investigate different ways of bringing it to the stage.
In addition, Beckett works with secondary schools to introduce young people to dramaturgy: “Not so much for them to see shows, but for them to write the piece they would like to see on stage and that they generally don't find. This makes them identify very quickly with the characters,” Víctor explains to us.
And what happens when a student finishes their text and doesn't know how to move it? Beckett is also there to guide. Although each theater has its own dynamics, from the Obrador they guide new authors according to the profile of the work: “If it's an experimental piece, we tell them which doors to knock on or which reading mailboxes to consult, or we inform them about awards and calls through our monthly newsletter.”
The Authors' Club
Writing can be a very solitary process. Aware of this, when Beckett moved to Poblenou, it decided to create the Authors' Club, a space born from the demand of creators, who were tired of “spending all their money in cafes.”
This space, completely free and open access, functions as a flexible meeting and work point. Authors only need to contact the Obrador to reserve the space according to their needs: from going there every morning with their computer for a couple of months to using it occasionally.
Additionally, it is not intended only for individual work; it is an open space to meet with one's own company, hold meetings, or do loud readings of first versions with actor friends to test what works and what doesn't before finalizing a text. Its flexibility is such that it accommodates both local emerging authors and playwrights from other countries who spend a season in Barcelona and need a place to create.
Personalized tutorials with playwrights
Another key service of the Obrador is playwriting tutorials. This service was created to respond to a very specific need of authors: to have an external and professional perspective at crucial moments of creation.
And it is that in theatrical writing there are two critical points; when a first version is finalized and someone is needed to detect where it grates or what points need improvement, or when the author is blocked halfway and does not know how to continue.
Anyone can access it, and the author can propose the person with whom they would like to do the tutorial, whether it is a regular teacher of the house or any other professional in the sector. The Obrador team directly manages the contact and availability of the requested tutor (who can range from prominent figures such as Lluïsa Cunillé to international authors). In addition, as support for the student community, anyone who has taken a course at Sala Beckett is entitled to a completely free tutorial, while for external users it is a paid service.
Exporting Catalan talent
Another of Beckett's great pillars is to make Catalan dramaturgy visible abroad. For this, the Obrador has different types of residencies. One of them is the Resident Author, an annual playwright who is chosen directly by the artistic direction to work hand in hand with the theater. This past season it was Oriol Puig Grau and the next will be Núria Coromines.
Thanks to the support of the SGAE Foundation, every year a Catalan author spends two weeks at the National Dramatic Center (CDN) in Madrid and Beckett hosts two Spanish authors. Likewise, in collaboration with the Institut Ramon Llull, cross-residencies of three weeks in New York have been promoted.
But the Beckett's big international event is the Summer Workshop. During one week in July, intensive courses, talks, and a cycle of dramatized readings are concentrated. These readings include the International Workshop (short pieces by emerging authors from around the world), proposals from new dramaturgy, and texts born from the Benet i Jornet writing grants.
In addition, to prevent translations of Catalan works from being forgotten in a drawer, the Beckett created the Catalandrama portal. This website offers free access to translations of Catalan theater into other languages and receives between 700 and 1,000 requests per year from directors, universities, or students from around the world.
From laboratories to big stages: the case of Oriol Puig Grau
The work of the Beckett bears fruit. And one of the most outstanding cases is that of Oriol Puig Grau. The author began by participating in an international project funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Beckett together with theaters from England, Denmark, and Greece. From that process was born Karaoke Elusia, a text that premiered in the upper room of the Beckett with great success.
From that moment, the piece was translated into Spanish, traveled to the CDN in Madrid, and toured Catalonia. The impact was such that Puig Grau was named resident author of the Beckett, received a commission from the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC) and, today, has become one of the most recognized voices in new dramaturgy.
As Víctor Muñoz himself reflects, “it is very difficult to find a playwright in Catalonia who at one time or another has not passed through the Beckett Workshop. In the end, we are a space where things happen behind closed doors, where the theater of the future is kneaded without the pressure of the public or the spotlights.” A craft space that, after more than twenty years, continues to be the kitchen where the direction of the Catalan scene is decided.