Rendering on Theatre №3

The article published on the website http://www.guardian.co.uk on February 28, 2013 is headlined “Spain's microtheatres provide lifeline for actors as public subsidies dry up”. The article reports at length that Austerity has led to arts funding halving in three years, but a new can-do attitude has sprung up across the cultural scene. 

There is a lot of comment on how people were waiting for the signal that allow them into one of the Spanish capital's tiniest, and most successful, theatres. Housed in a ground-floor flat once occupied by the apartment block's doorwoman, the Casa de La Portera is a part of a cultural revolution as Spanish theatre finds ways to survive a recession. Moreover, those lucky enough to get one of the 25 tickets on sale are ushered into the front parlour, lined with uncomfortable high-backed dining room chairs that occupy much of the tiny space. 

It’s an open secret that the two actors including Barbara Lennie, recently in Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In –performing an adaptation of Tennessee Williams were within arm's reach. There is every reason to believe that across the town, queues formed for the €4-a-show tickets on sale at another miniature theatre, housed in a former butcher's shop, the so-called Microtheatre for Money.

Analyzing the situation, it is necessary to emphasize that complex laws governing the running of theatres are circumvented by calling the new spaces "cultural clubs" and selling theatregoers "temporary membership" rather than formal tickets. However, the microtheatre scene has already spawned one success that has moved up the theatre chain – several plays have been taken up by the country's National Drama Centre.

In resolute terms, the author of the article gives details that average budgets have been halved since Spain lurched into the first part of a double-dip recession three years ago. But, from theatre to film and documentary-making, Spanish creators are finding new ways to live without state funds. In this connection it is worth while mentioning the fact that it is one thing to complain about the lack of funding and quite another to sit back with your arms crossed doing nothing as poet Violeta Medina considers. 

The article draws a conclusion that nobody is getting rich from Madrid's new self-funding cultural scene, but at least actors and others are working. As for me, I can say that nowadays money means a lot, especially money of the state for art. So I think that actors shouldn’t find money and different ways in order to be independent from the state because the government is responsible for the development of art, especially of the theatre.