In the theatre, there are those who write plays, those who direct them, those who perform them, those who control the light and sound, those who design the scenery, those who operate the machinery, those who design the costumes... Josep Montanyès, on the other hand, does not could be labeled with a single specialty, because he was a man of total theater.
To his artistic dimension, we must add the political dimension of a man of entrepreneurial culture. Among its merits and its legacy, the buildings that surround the Plaza Margarida Xirgu in Barcelona: the Institut del Teatre (IT) and the Teatre Lliure.
Josep Montanyès was a salesman, a salesman of electrical cables, those who knew him say and that last week they met in the IT auditorium to celebrate the publication of a book that wants to do justice to him: Josep Montanyès. Actor, director and home of total theater (Diputación de Barcelona and Institut del Teatre).
The playwright Guillem-Jordi Graells has been in charge of coordinating this volume, which brings together articles by some 25 authors, and has also filled in the gaps with his chapters: “I play the role of a palaganero, completing what has not been told, documenting myself or why I knew firsthand."
Among these authors, there are also deceased, people who wrote about the work and figure of Montanyès, such as Maria Aurèlia Capmany. Or others, like Lluís Pascual, who did not want to sign the article because what he says in it were things that Montanyès told him to write. “He had a warning because he said he didn't know how to write, but he pointed out to the authors what they had to write”, says Graells.
“He didn't like to write and the rest of us did it for him,” explains his widow, Maria Martínez. "On the other hand, he did know how to talk and, since he was a seducer, he managed to get them to say yes." In this way he launched the aforementioned projects. The book contains what the politician Antoni Dalmau explains about the entire process and negotiations to move the Teatre Lliure forward.
"Montanyès is behind all these efforts with modesty and discretion -recalls Graells-. He managed the necessary things, the creation of structures for theatrical and cultural recovery”. Carles Batlle, responsible for the publications of the Institut del Teatre, adds: "His figure serves to explain the Catalan theater of the second half of the 20th century and helps us understand this stage."
Indeed, Montanyès "made things possible", recalls the director of the Institut, Sílvia Ferrando, who highlights the importance of "hybrid and kaleidoscopic figures" like his. The family has given their personnel file to IT.
The act was closed by Martínez with a series of delicious personal anecdotes, especially from the time they lived in Navarra, which finished drawing the singularity of the character: "Wherever he was, he always did theater".
Catalan version, here
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