Exactly on the day that the play Celebration was presented in Madrid, in which Luis Luque directs six actors over 70 years of age -from Guillermo Montesinos to María Luisa San José- at Naves del Español to exhibit on stage his living memory of the scene in this country, the National Theater Award has gone to two icons of independent Spanish theatre, the married couple formed by Petra Martínez -especially popular for her role as the perfidious Doña Fina in the series La que se avecina- and Juan Margallo, who succeed Juan Diego Botto in this award, awarded in 2021 with this distinction from the Ministry of Culture endowed with 30,000 euros.
Botto was part of a jury that also included the cultural journalists Rosana Torres, Machús Osinaga and Julio Bravo, the director of the Grec festival Francesc Casadesús and the deputy director of the National Drama Center, Fefa Noia, who have proposed awarding the two actors "for the coherence in the trajectory maintained on stage, and for their commitment to art and society through their creations".
The jury has highlighted that this award is also given to them “for their resistance and eagerness to incorporate new forms and scenic trends into their works, so that they have been able to do 20th-century theater, but also maintain the scenic excellence that has characterized them in the entire context of the 21st century, without forgetting his pedagogical work and theatrical transmission, always carried out with enormous professionalism, not exempt from the sense of humor that permeates his works”.
One of the most solid and fruitful artistic couples on the Spanish cultural scene, who began in independent theatre, Petra Martínez (Linares, 1944) -who with her humor and her unvarnished approach to masturbation made her acceptance speech go viral in January Feroz award for best actress for La vida era eso- and Juan Margallo (Cáceres, 1940) have made an essential contribution to the scene in the last half century.
Authors, performers and directors, they began in independent theater groups such as TEI, Tábano and Gayo Vallecano. In 1985 they founded the company Uroc Teatro, with which they have toured stages in Europe and Latin America and with which they have approached classical and contemporary dramaturgy with works such as El retablo de las Maravillas (1996), Clown Quijote de la Mancha (1998 ), Clásyclos (uncontrolled theater command) (1998), Open Couple and La mujer sola, by Darío Fo, or La rosa de papel, by Valle-Inclán. Among the latest works are Adosados (2007), Our own things of ourselves (2011), ¡Chimpón! (2015), Miss Doña Margarita (2021) and Until Alzheimer's devours me (2021).
But before that they had a solid theatrical career. Margallo, twice awarded the Max, began his stage career at the beginning of the sixties with works such as Sweet Bird of Youth and in historical companies such as the Teatro María Guerrero, the Lope de Vega and the Teatro Español. And Petra Martínez began in the theater at the end of that same decade linked to Teatro Estudio in Madrid with works such as Tale for bedtime and Twelfth Night, or whatever you want; where she met who would become her artistic and personal companion. Petra Martínez also has extensive experience in television and film, where she has been directed by José Luís García Sánchez, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Jaime Rosales and Pedro Almodóvar.
