7 in One Blow! A choice by Simon Stephens

For the last thirteen years the Sala Beckett has organised, within the framework of its Obrador d’estiu, an international meeting-workshop of emerging playwrights from around the world. Recommended by theatres, centres for creation, institutes of culture and festivals in their respective countries of origin, they come to Barcelona to take a specialised course coordinated by a prestigious international playwright and to share, with each other and with other creators, their plays, projects and interests.

Since the first edition, in 2007, the Obrador d’estiu’s International Workshop has been visited by young playwrights from Argentina, Brazil, Cyprus, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Quebec, Romania, Turkey and Uruguay. In all cases these were authors who, despite still being at an incipient stage of their career, had already started to stand out due to certain premieres in their countries of origin and had merited the attention of festivals, theatres and centres for the promotion of contemporary authorship.

For 10 years, British playwright Simon Stephens was in charge of this workshop and in 2019, the first year after he decided to hand over, we have decided to invite some of those young playwrights who previously took part in one of the Obrador d’estius. Here are 7 playwrights selected by Stephens himself who, in their respective countries, have already started to leave behind the label of emerging or “promising young” talents and have become fully consolidated realities. They are Lucía Carballal (Spain), Clàudia Cedó (Catalonia), Ella Hickson (England), Wolfram Lotz (Germany), Anna Wakulik (Poland), Clemence Weill (France) and Jibbe Willems (Netherlands). Seven playwrights with diverse origins but who all have things to say and original ways of saying them. We will be talking to them and showing fragments of their works in order to become acquainted with their playwriting.

Please consider, therefore, this event as a letter of recommendation that the Sala Beckett is producing for all those of you who are interested in contemporary playwriting and are seeking new authors, new texts and new projects with a certain minimum guarantee of quality.