Ànima Lliure

Ànima Lliure

25—26 Season

We are once again focusing on diversity via Ànima Lliure, a project that aims to turn our theatre into an artistic space open to the perspectives, voices and bodies of people we seldom see at performances. After all, we believe that a theatre is a great place to make the invisible increasingly visible.

This year’s programming includes four Ànima Lliure shows, divided between the Gràcia and Espai Lliure venues the over the course of the season, accompanied by a specific programme of informative and/or training activities that complement the shows.

Three of them are international guest productions, three tiny gems from French-speaking territories which will most certainly be inspiring for our artists with or without diversity, and for our audiences. Treballs forçats [Forced Labours], created and directed by Nico Jongen and co-produced by the Lliure, is our focus on investigation and creation in the realm of functional diversity. Plus, we will be holding an artistic residency project for the elderly with the director Mohamed El Khatib.

In addition to the parallel activities that come with Ànima Lliure shows, which will include the participation of students from the Institut del Teatre’s social and community action classes, we will work with the Teatre Municipal de Girona and Escenaris Especials to organise a course on dramaturgy targeted at people with functional diversity. Coordinated by Clàudia Cedó, it will enlist the participation of renowned authors from Catalonia. In June, we will hold an open display of the texts that emerge from this writing workshop at the Gràcia venue.

A project in partnership with the Fundació Banc Sabadell.

  • Do you have a relevant story to tell? Would you like to create your own play?

    The course, aimed at people with functional diversity, will teach theatrical writing techniques and accompany students in creating a piece of their own.
    Sessions will be accessible and supported so that the talent, perspectives and non-normative voices of participating authors can reach the public.
    In the month of June, the Teatre Lliure and the Teatre Municipal de Girona will offer a dramatized reading of the resulting texts.

    WHERE?
    Girona (place TBC) and Teatre Lliure de Montjuïc (Barcelona)
    Transport between Barcelona and Girona will be made available to all participants.

    WHEN?
    • February, March and April 2026: training sessions every Tuesday from 10.00 a.m. to 13.00 p.m.
    • After the sessions we will offer an optional space of personalized accompaniment to writing (from 13.00 p.m. to 14.00 p.m.).
    • May: rehearsals of dramatized readings.
    • June: public presentation of the texts in dramatized reading format at the Teatre Lliure de Gràcia and the Teatre Municipal de Girona.

    WHO IS IT ADDRESSED TO?
    People with functional diversity from across the country interested in dramatic writing and who wish to develop theatrical writing tools.
    The course will provide specific supports for each participant and ensure that sessions are accessible.

    WHO WILL WE WORK WITH?
    With the author, director and founder of Escenaris Especials, Clàudia Cedó, who will guide the whole workshop, and with the renowned playwrights Joan Yago, Marta Buchaca, Victoria Szpunberg and Marc Artigau, who will guide the students along this creative journey by sharing resources, experience and personalised support.

    PLACES AND REGISTRATION
    Limited places: 10 participants.
    To participate, you must send an email to anima@teatrelliure.com before November 9, 2025, with:

    • Short curriculum (maximum one page).
    • A video explaining why you want to do the course (maximum 3 minutes).
    • A scene or fragment of the theatrical text itself, as a sample of writing.
    • A draft of the project you wish to write during the course (maximum one page).

    VALUATION CRITERIA
    The materials presented will be valued for their quality, originality, and creativity. We want to discover and accompany new talents in the field of dramatic writing and help their development and growth.
    Selected participants will be published on 1 December.

    Cours info dossier (in Catalan)

  • — 12 or 13/01 at 09.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. / 15/01 at 09.30 a.m. and 12.00
    Theatre, imagination and fiction workshop with Nico Jongen (Treballs forçats [Forced Labours])

    — 23/03 Shared practices with Clément Papachristou, Guillaume Papachristou and Bastien Montes (Une tentative presque comme une autre [An Attempt Much Like Any Other])
    — From February to April, Extra-ordinary theatre. Dramaturgy course for authors with functional diversity with Clàudia Cedó. Open reading of the texts in June at the Lliure in Gràcia.


    LAST WORKSHOPS
    — 27/09 - Lliure de Gràcia
    Art and Us, with Romain Cottard, Chloé Olivères and Lorraine de Sagazan (La Vie invisible [The Invisible Life])
    We invite the participants to share with us a work (literary, theatrical, cinematographic, etc.) that has deeply affected them. What does this reveal about our own history, about what moves us? We will explore these resonances together, we will build bridges between the works and ourselves and, from there, we will write, perform and sketch scenes. The workshop includes a part of playful warm-up to gain confidence making exercices and another writing on stage from the chosen stories and their echoes.
    TIMETABLE from 15.00 p.m. to 18.00 p.m. / PRICE Free with pre-booking.

  • — 10/06 Art centres in senior citizen residences with Mohamed El Khatib, inspired by his work at the Maison Gertrude in Brussels (La vie secrète des vieux [The Secret Life of Old People]).