Juan Mayorga, new director of the theater of the Abbey

New movements at the Abbey Theater. The Board of the Foundation of the Madrid Theater, of which the Community of Madrid, the City of Madrid and the Ministry of

Juan Mayorga, new director of the theater of the Abbey

New movements at the Abbey Theater. The Board of the Foundation of the Madrid Theater, of which the Community of Madrid, the City of Madrid and the Ministry of Culture and Sports, have dismissed this afternoon, after only three years in office, Carlos Aladro. As it has been able to know the world, the departure of it is driven by the Community of Madrid, the administration that suffers in greater amount of the institution with 1.7 million euros. In this way, the dramatist and academic Juan Mayorga will occupy the position of the new director of both the abbey and the comedy corral of Alcalá de Henares. The name of him was the one that copied all the yarks and the favorite of the community. National Theater Award in 2007 and Dramatic Literature Award in 2013, Mayorga is one of the heavyweights of the Spanish Theater. His relationship with the abbey dates back to more than two decades, where he has represented works as intensely blue, Hamelin, Darwin's turtle, sonmbols or perpetual peace.

Considered the natural heir of José Luis Gómez, founder of the project in 1995 and director for 24 years uninterrupted, the appointment of Carlos Aladro was not a surprise. He was a man from the house who, in addition, for many years had been at the forefront of the comedy corral of Alcalá de Henares, dependent on the Abbey. He arrived in charge on February 19, 2019 with the support of Gómez himself and the then Director of Regional Culture, Jaime de los Santos, with whom he maintained very good tune. He was the one who put him in front of the autumn festival of the Community of Madrid to relieve Ariel Godman and at the Alcalá classics festival. The appointment of him at the head of the Abbey had a clear continuist intention, but the decline that has been living in the theater from Madrid in recent years has precipitated the dismissal of him. The appointment of him was valid for five years, plus another three extendable.

However, in these three years the abbey has not managed to re-sit up among the most poving theaters in the capital, as was once. The reasons, in addition to the effects of the pandemic that have suffered all the theaters of the world, are in a considerable fall of ticket revenue, a very discrete program that, for many, has abandoned the essence of the "theater of the word" With which the institution was founded and the scarce presence of great figures of the European scenic panorama, which have always been another of their identity hallmarks. So much so, as this newspaper has been known, José Luis Gómez has expressed him discontent with him with the management of his successor.

To this we must add, as the Confidential came forward, the sentence last October to the Foundation of the Abbey Theater for salarily discriminating six of its employees because of sex during the 2016/2017 season. The judgment of the Social Court Number 3 of Madrid, which theater has resorted before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, condemns the institution to pay a penalty of 6,251 euros and compensation for moral and material damage to these workers for an amount for an amount of 100,800 euros.

The departure of Carlos Aladro adds to that of Barbara Santana, until a manager of the theater Madrid, and that of Gregorio Marañón, who left his position as president of the Board last November after 29 years. In addition, all these movements arrive at a decisive moment for the theater of the Abbey. On February 28 of this year, the assignment ended by 20 years of the land in which it is located, the old church of the Sagrada Familia de Madrid and the Annex Hall of Actuals, of Municipal Registration. According to Sources of the City Council consulted by this newspaper, a new cession agreement is already being drafted for a time of four years, extendable by other four, which will be signed "soon".

The new director of the Abbey, which should not be forgotten that it is an institution funded by the three public administrations but of private management, will be ahead of the challenge of converting to the theater in a reference of the national and international scene. Names have passed as Krystian Magnifier, Dan Jemmet, Thomas Ostermeier, Oskaras Korunovas or Fabrice Murgia and has been a determining in the career of Spanish directors and actors as consecrated as Àlex Rigola, Andrés Lima, Israel Elejalde, Ernesto Arias or Carmen Machi .

Date Of Update: 04 February 2022, 15:46