The Texas cinemas will reopen in autumn combining films with theater

A new cultural project wants to recover the Texas cinemas, with more than 100 years of history in which they have survived with different skins and now they will try another formula. After closing in 2020, due to economic problems but also due to the impact of the pandemic, the Gràcia cinemas will reopen this autumn, dedicating two of their screens to film screenings and converting two others into a theater. The commitment to titles and dubbing in Catalan will be maintained, as did its last promoter, filmmaker Ventura Pons.

Renamed Espai Texas, the new stage is led by producers Isona Passola and Anna Rosa Cisquella, the Flyhard theater, and the Barc cooperative. "The Texas will not be a cinema or a theater as usual, in the old way, it will be the theater and cinema of the future," say the promoters. They have been working on this project for more than a year, which had closed its doors three years ago, despite neighborhood requests to avoid it, and was about to become a storage room.

The two cinema screens will have four daily sessions and will show premiere and blockbuster films dubbed in Catalan, as well as re-releases in original version subtitled in Catalan. They also plan to screen series to connect with new audiences and children's morning sessions.

Likewise, the new theater will have 200 seats to watch plays mostly in Catalan. It will seek to give a new space to local creators, thinking of productions that have worked well in small venues and can try an intermediate space before facing larger venues. It is also planned to have a bar and open the space to other arts such as literature and music.

To make all this possible, the promoters of Espai Texas need to finish balancing the books. The cost of the works to adapt the space is about 451,000 euros, to which must be added 100,000 euros more in expenses related to the reactivation of the activity, such as staff hiring. So far, they have received public funding from the Ministry of Culture, the Generalitat, and the Barcelona City Council worth 269,000 euros, and private promoters have contributed 238,000 euros. They estimate that they need about 40,000 euros more to be able to finish covering the reopening, so they have launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Goteo platform.