Write it down in your diary: Next March 16, which falls on a Saturday, all of Catalonia is invited to go to the theater. Cap butaca buida is an initiative that aims to make Catalonia the capital of the performing arts for one day, achieving the unprecedented challenge in the world of filling all the seats in the theaters.
The project was presented this morning at the Romea theater in Barcelona, with the interventions of Isabel Vidal, president of Adetca (Association of Theater Companies of Catalonia); Toni Albaladejo, manager in charge of the project; and Eduard Voltas, general director of strategy for Time Out magazine in Spain and France.
The objective is to fill all the seats in Catalonia and thus break the record for spectators on the same day. In addition, the proposal wants to plant the seed for the future National Theater Day. Vidal has detailed that at the moment "there are 25,456 seats available in all the spaces that have joined the project", a figure that has already increased to 30,000 with the accessions that occurred this morning.
But these seats are a small number of the almost 300,000 that there could be, as announced by Xavier Marcet, Councilor for Culture of the Barcelona City Council, if all the public and private rooms in Catalonia join.
Vidal has specified that there are 160,000 professional seats and the others are from rooms of all types. And he has also stressed the desire to turn March 16 into "the first Sant Jordi of the theater: a day in which everything will revolve around the performing arts." "People will buy theater and give theatre, experiences and emotions," he added.
Vidal explained that Voltas and his team from Time Out magazine have been the ideologues of this initiative. And Voltas, in turn, has asked "that theater be given as a symbol of relevance to a cute, supportive and open society." On February 1, all available seats will be marked and the countdown will begin until there are zero seats available on the Capbutacabuida.cat website.
Albaladejo explained that they have been working on Cap butaca buida for a year, inviting all the venues that want to join this campaign, to fill all the seats that Saturday. Now they are not all there yet, but Albaladejo predicts that within three or four years the seats throughout Catalonia will be filled. And Rosa Romà, president of the CCMA, has predicted that, when it is consolidated, this initiative will have international projection.
The presentation event was also attended by Aïda Llauradó, from the Barcelona Provincial Council, who has promised the necessary advice and help to town councils of all sizes to make this project a success.
For her part, the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, highlighted that "the initiative is an opportunity to promote theater, which will reflect all the talent that exists in our country." "Culture is not made alone, we make it together day after day," she concluded.
