Rendering №7

The article “Spain's microtheatresprovide lifeline for actors as public subsidies dry up” was published on February 28, 2013 in “The Guardian”. The author, Giles Tremlett, discusses that Austerity has led to arts funding halving in three years, but a new can-do attitude has sprung up across the cultural scene. iT is an open secret that two dozen people lurk in the doorways of the Chinese rag trade wholesalers that line a narrow street in the centre of Madrid, awaiting the signal that will allow them into one of the Spanish capital's tiniest, and most successful, theatres. It is pointed out that housed in a ground-floor flat once occupied by the apartment block's doorwoman, the Casa de La Portera is part of a cultural revolution as Spanish theatre, like other arts, finds ways to survive a recession that has seen it sucked dry of what used to be its lifeblood – public subsidies. The correspondence stresses that the theatre was founded by the actor and director José Martret to produce a version of Anton Chekhov's Ivanov that more conservative theatres did not want. Across town, queues form for the €4-a-show tickets on sale at another miniature theatre, with a group of 21 actors and directors who banded together and set up on their own.

It is noted that complex laws governing the running of theatres are circumvented by calling the new spaces "cultural clubs" and selling theatregoers "temporary membership" rather than formal tickets. The microtheatre scene has already spawned one success that has moved up the theatre chain – a one-woman adaptation of American writer Toni Bentley's erotic memoir, The Surrender, has been taken up by the country's National Drama Centre. It is necessary to make clear that with Spain's budget deficit estimated at about 10% of GDP last year, austerity measures have chopped away much of the country's arts funding. Senior cultural administrators, both public and private, report that average budgets have been halved since Spain lurched into the first part of a double-dip recession three years ago, according to a report by Fundación Contemporánea. It is interesting to note that from theatre to film and documentary-making, Spanish creators are finding new ways to live without state funds – and discovering that it also gives them creative freedom.

It is pointed out that the new can-do attitude extends beyond microtheatre, to crowd-funded documentary films and music such as flamenco star Mayte Martín's latest collection of bolero songs, Cosas de Dos. The authors concludes the article by giving an opinion that nobody is getting rich from Madrid's new self-funding cultural scene, but at least actors and others are working. As for my opinion about this situation, I can say that money is very important aspect for every sphere of life and theatres are not exceptions. Economic crisis in Spain adds difficulties to not simple theatre life because to create beautiful decorations and costumes director should funds.