Total hours: 16h
Contact: obrador@salabeckett.cat
Cuban playwright González Melo, the winner of some of the most important awards on the Cuban and Spanish theatre scene, proposes an eminently practical course where he will consider how to construct what we cannot see in a play for theatre but that is indispensable for the plot.
If dramatic writing tends to outline the patent action of the play, how can we build what we don’t see and yet is essential to the plot? Delving into the “latent” degree of dramaturgy, as conceived by the theoretician J. L. García Barrientos, involves a delicious practical challenge posed by this course. In the first part, we will share examples of the pictorial and film tradition in which the latent takes on an unusual relevance, with an emphasis on how Western playwriting has gradually managed and developed such mainsprings. With respect to this imaginary and with specific guidelines and motivations, we will then work on the creation of situations and scenes based on the three axes of the latent field that more particularly concern dramatic writing: space, time and character. The successive exercises will gradually interconnect with order to act as base material for a future play.
Cuban-Spanish playwright and director. PhD in Literary Studies and with a Master’s Degree in Theatre from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatrology from the Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba. He took part in the International Residency for Emerging Playwrights of the Royal Court Theatre in London and studied at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and at Panorama Sur in Buenos Aires. His plays, extensively translated and published in several countries, have been premiered at Argos Teatro, Teatro Nacional de Cuba, Centro Dramático Nacional de España, Repertorio Español (New York), Aguijón Theater (Chicago), Miami Dade County Auditorium, HOME (Manchester), Teatro Circular (Montevideo), El Círculo Teatral (Mexico City) and Semaver Kumpanya (Istanbul). His awards include the Prize of the Spanish Embassy in Cuba 2005 (Chamaco), the Cuban-German Prize for Plays of the Goethe Institut 2009 (Talco), the Virgilio Piñera National Playwriting Prize 2014 (Epopeya), the Prize of the Union of Writers and Artists 2014 (Mecánica) and, on three occasions, the Literary Critics Prize, as well as the Cultura Viva Prize 2012 in Madrid for the whole of his work, which includes short stories, essays and poetry. In the current season he has premiered En ningún lugar del mundo (Teatro Avante, 23rd International Hispanic Theater Festival of Miami), Adentro (Cabotín Teatro & Los Impertinentes, Cuba) and Fuera del juego (in partnership with Dagoberto Rodríguez during ARCOmadrid). His most recent work as a film scriptwriter is La partida.
Admission to the course will be based on order of arrival and CV assessment, which should be sent (with photograph included), filling in the form on the right.
Places on courses are limited. Places will be reserved once the course amount has been paid. Payment must be made within one week of receiving the corresponding acceptance email.
The dates indicated for each course or seminar may be subject to variations in exceptional circumstances. These will be notified when applicable.
For the course to take place, a minimum number of students must be registered. If this number is not reached, the course will be cancelled and the student will have the option of registering for a different course (providing that there are places available) or alternatively will receive a refund of the amount paid (100%). If a student withdraws, a refund of 75% of the registration fee will be applicable, providing that written notice is given at least 10 days before the start of the course.