The head of production at the Liceu and assistant to the theater’s artistic direction, Leticia Martín, has been appointed as the new head of the Grec festival, replacing Francesc Casadesús. Eight years have passed since the then director of the Mercat de les Flors was elected to run the Barcelona contest, the evaluation commission for the director competition of the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (Icub) has opted for him to be replaced by the production company from Granada, who has been living in the Catalan capital for a decade.
Leticia Martín (Granada, 1978) was hired in 2014 by the then general director of the Barcelona lyrical coliseum, Roger Guasch, as assistant to Christina Scheppelmann. At that time, Martín held the position of production director at Teatros del Canal in Madrid, under the mandate of Albert Boadella. Since 2019 she is also the production director of the Gran Teatre.
With a degree in Art History and Music Sciences from Complutense, and a master’s degree in cultural management, Martín will take up the position from 1 September. It will be after Casadesús completes the longest mandate (with that of Elena Posa, from 1988 to 1995) of those who have been registered at the Grec since it was founded, in the years of the democratic transition.
The evaluation commission of the Icub, with a committee of experts made up of the president of the Association of Actors and Directors of Catalonia, Àlex Casanovas; that of the Association of Professional Dance Companies of Catalonia, Roberto G. Alonso, and that of the Association of Theater Companies of Catalonia, Isabel Vidal, have considered Martín’s project as the most suitable of those presented . “It contains a comprehensive view of the festival, in addition to being solid, viable and with specific knowledge, both of the local, national and international sector”, indicates the Icub in a statement. Only nine of the 20 initial candidates came to present a project. And Icub has managed to interview three of them.
Martín’s professional career includes public and private institutions such as the SGAE Foundation, the San Lorenzo de El Escorial festival and the Tritó publishing house. According to her curriculum vitae, she has taught and criticized music and art, and has written texts related to music and art for different publishing houses and record labels.
Casadesús leaves a coherent Greek in his hands, just as he himself had dreamed of leaving. Among his priorities was, from the beginning, giving it its own speech and getting it to stop being an umbrella for the many things that were scheduled in the city in July.
Casadesús did not aspire to compete with Avinyó or to play in the league of the great international festivals of the performing arts, but to program the most appropriate festival for the city: “A festival for the people here, not for those of out”, he said. He had acquired the ability to make bread from stones at the Market, when the budget was severely impoverished due to the effects of the economic crisis. Casadesús wanted a Greek who explained things that concern people, with shows that had an impact and helped to reflect. In his attempt to create a discourse, the idea of ??going around the world dedicating each edition to a continent, from Latin America to Asia via Africa, has been very useful. “Their creators have things to tell us firsthand”, he assured.
“This served me to get out of the obvious, to focus on issues and go to the bottom, not to resemble any other festival, to launch an image… in the end we offered a look at the theater of the world seen from from Barcelona”, commented Casadesús to this newspaper yesterday. “The more local, the more global: if you pay attention to local creation, the world looks at you”.
The Grec’s relationship with the local fabric has strengthened in recent years and is well established. What remains to be explored is the relationship between the world of classical and lyrical music and the performing arts, currently booming. An area that is no stranger to the incoming director.
