Julio Manrique receives La Vanguardia in the office in the tower of the Teatre Lliure de Montjuïc building as the new director. In February he took office for the first time, taking over from Juan Carlos Martel and, although he is still landing, he has clear ideas. Today the proposal that he presented to the contest that chose him is made public, and he has already added modifications: “It's normal, we don't stop thinking about it.”
In his declaration of intent, he says this phrase: “A stone thrown at the moon.”
Sometimes you have to shoot hard, even though you know the shot won't go where you shoot. The stone will not reach the moon, but perhaps along the way it will touch a streetlight and that is no small thing. I think you have to be ambitious in a good way, or in what you think is a good way. And go for it, with enthusiasm, with passion and with courage.
The project he presents is a declaration of intentions.
It's like that. I try to project a look at my job, at the theater, and at what could be done at the Teatre Lliure. In our job, theory comes after practice, because it is a job, and I don't believe much in rigid programs. There are many ways to approach things. You have to start walking and then what happens is that life is stronger than the ideas that you had written down. That is to say, I was very aware that I had to enter this house, get to know it, see what was happening, to know where it was best to go.
The project points to the creation of a young company, but it has already been rectified.
The companies that existed in the Lliure, during the time of Àlex Rigola and Lluís Pasqual, bore very powerful results. In the case of Àlex, he allowed the Lliure to tour with his company around the world, as happens with other theaters in Europe and abroad, and in the case of Lluís' companies, because it has generated a pool of actors who have become a very notable place in the profession.
Why won't you create one?
The idea of the company generates a certain hives among the administrations. I already knew that, but once I landed here I saw it even more. I can understand the whys, because it has pros and cons, you always discriminate in favor of a few, with resources that belong to everyone.
He changes it for the Free Soul Project. What does it consist of?
The world of functional diversity matters to me on many levels, both as director of a theater with a vocation for public service, and on a personal level. Clàudia Cedó, who is linked to my project, interested me as a creator, director and author, and also because she founded the Escenaris Especials platform, with more than 15 years of experience. She has done super beautiful things, which have crystallized in shows like Mare de sucre. I wanted to do something around functional diversity and, talking to her, in the end the thing is to give the possibility for bodies, voices, people that we are not used to seeing on stage, that in some cases If they have talent, they can shine very much. In a way that makes me very happy and excited, many complicities are appearing with contributions and sponsorships. We want the project to revolve around working with functional diversity from an artistic point of view, and with the philosophy that there is no condescending view.
In the program he talks about putting art at the center.
Art is a territory of contradiction, of complexity, therefore, finally, of humanity. We will explain the programming in June. It will be the epicenter of everything and from here the rest will radiate. I think it will be stimulating and avowedly contemporary. I do not exclude the repertoire with views from our present, but not archeology. There will be multidisciplinary languages, hybrid territories; there will be creation, Catalan and international authorship; There will be links with interesting companies and theaters abroad, with whom I would also like to work in the future to establish complicities.
Will there be room for classical Catalan theater?
I have to confess that no. Obviously there is the possibility of a Guimerà being made here, but it is not one of my focuses of interest. I don't even see it from the Teatre Lliure, especially with the TNC existing. But I do feel the desire and a bit of the responsibility to take care of Catalan authorship, understood in the broadest possible way, which can sometimes be based on classic texts. Juan Mayorga told me that these great works are what have led us to do theater.
What were they in your case?
Some Chekhov, which must be very surprising, and also Shakespeare, Molière and Lorca.
With respect to the public, would it be the same to you, as someone has said, if the rooms were not full?
Absolutely. A public theater does not depend as much on the box office as a private theater, but public money has to be invested to give tools to artists, so that some grow, to generate a social impact, but you also have to do things that interest the public . It is a dialogue, not a monologue. This responsibility cannot be evaded, which is very dizzying because it may happen that what we propose is not of interest. If so, I will experience the pain of certain failure. It also happens to me as a stage director. I care that the public connects with what we do, but that doesn't mean you have to please them at any cost.
Will the residence policy remain the same?
Not quite. In addition to Projecte Ànima Lliure, we will support creation and artists, but in a broader way. We want to set up productions with more or less emerging artists or companies so that they can do their shows and exhibit them long enough, and then we will try to accompany them so that they go abroad.
In the program he announces that the Free Space will recover regular programming.
Some of my first directions were at the Espai Lliure, in the Rigola era, such as American buffalo and La forma de les coses. And also from people of my generation: Carol López, Jordi Oriol... Very nice things happened at the Espai Lliure, and since the city does not have too many venues, I want to recover it as a permanent exhibition space, which will serve for the shows have a reasonably long life. I think that theater is also about giving time to the public to come, so that the artists can repeat and the productions grow. It will also host the IT project of the Institut del Teatre. Collaboration between the residents of the square makes a lot of sense.
When he was named, he declared that he wanted to play.
Playing has to do with the joy of theater. I don't want to die buried under a mountain of reports. I want to continue being closely linked to the stage and to the people who work from the stage, with whom we share the game of believing in something, a game of serving something, of explaining a story to you. And that is the essence. If I notice that I am leaving too much of this essence, I will ask someone to hit me on the head with a frying pan to wake me up.
Will you continue directing?
Probably yes. At least initially, but I don't rule out doing everything.
How to act?
Yes. I don't rule out anything.
Catalan version, here
