Contemporary Theatre in Barcelona

2009
411 pages
$82.50
ISBN 1611483178

Barcelona, the cultural epicenter of Catalunya, is presently experiencing the most dynamic and polemical period in its modern theater history. It is the commanding hub of an energetic theater scene that in recent years has witnessed an exuberant outpouring of new dramatists, a steady crescendo in theater attendance, and a continual increase in the international presence of Catalan directors, playwrights, and companies. The path along which the contemporary Catalan stage has struggled to recover and reconstitute the professional legitimacy and visibility that it lost during the Franco dictatorship has been a complex process. In the Eye of the Storm: Contemporary Theater in Barcelona describes the public and private dramas, crucial moments, and even some of the back stories that have shaped the theatrical life of the city of Barcelona in the aftermath of the dictatorship. It also considers at length several key companies, playwrights, theatrical works, and performances that have contributed in significant ways to the recuperation of the Catalan stage during the democratic period.

Reviews
"Feldman's literary and historical analysis is fresh, provocative and absolutely gripping. For all interested in both the cultures of Contemporary Spain, performance and cultural studies, she has written an essential text."
--Jennifer Duprey (Iberoamericana, 10.38)

"In the Eye of the Storm is the culmination of Sharon Feldman's long-term research into contemporary Catalan theatre, and a welcomed study on the theatre of this nation...While the practitioners under scrutiny are not all from the city, the focus of the book is on the theatre produced in Barcelona since the late 1960s until today, looking at work in the context of a rapidly changing and often controversial cultural and political landscape."

--Orozco, Lourdes. Contemporary Theatre Review 2010.

"Here Sharon Feldman builds on her earlier articles on dramatists, new writing and performance in companies in Catalonia, structuring a thoughtful, impeccably researched contemplation of the role of Barcelona as a hub and nucleus for Catalan theatre...Indeed, for anyone interested in Barcelona's theatrical identities and their intersections with the wider geography of the nation (both real and imagined), In the Eye of the Storm offers an indispensible treatment of the subject."

--María M. Delgado, BSS (88)

Press:
Article from the Catalan newspaper El Punt about the 2010 Serra d'Or Prize
University of Richmond press release announcing Feldman's receipt of Serra d'Or Prize