Directors of the Twentieth Century Spanish Stage

This article examines the role of the director in the modern Spanish theatre. Beginning with the influence of foreign practitioners on the earliest generation of directors (Valle-Inclán, Adriá Gual, and Rivas Cherif), it moves on to look at the establishment of a National Theatre in the aftermath of the Civil War and the independent groups which sprung up across the country during the latter years of the Franco dictatorship. The final section discusses the directors who emerged from the independent theatre movement to become managers/artistic directors of the public theatres developed after the Socialist Party's arrival to power.