A school with history

In the foothills of Montjuïc near the emblematic Teatre Grec there stands the Ciutat del Teatre, the city of theatre, where the Institut del Teatre has been located since the beginning of the 21st century.

This institute is the oldest dance and theatre training centre in Barcelona. It was set up in 1913 by Adrià Gual under the name Escola Catalana d’Art Dramàtic (Catalan School of Dramatic Arts), to make culture an institution and to modernise the Catalan theatre scene. In 1939 it adopted the name by which it is still known, the Institut del Teatre, and in 1952 it became the Escola Superior d’Art Dramàtic i Dansa. At the beginning of the 1980s it set up shop in Carrer de Sant Pere Més Baix in Ciutat Vella, in the building which is now the Espai Bonnemaison, where it trained the generations of actors that today tread the boards in the city’s theatres, and this is where it remained until it moved to its new home in 2000.

Reflecting creativity

With this move, the Institut del Teatre also gained a new status, that of a centre involved in teaching, culture, research and promotion.

It includes the Escola Superior d’Art Dramàtic, the Conservatori Superior de Dansa, the Escola d’Ensenyament Secundari i Artístic (a theatre school at secondary level) and the Escola Superior de Tècniques de les Arts de l’Espectacle (a college for performing arts technicians). In addition it houses the performing arts archives and museum, the Centre de Documentació i el Museu de les Arts Escèniques, which is home to one of the most important collections of documents in Europe, specialising in Catalan theatre and the Spanish Golden Age.

To further its founding aim, the Institut del Teatre acts as one of the most important focal points of Barcelona’s cultural scene, offering continual samples of the work being developed by the next generation in the world of performing arts. For this reason, in 1996 the dance company IT Dansa was set up, which helps young dancers bring their projects to the public, as well as Festival NEO (Noves Escenes Obertes), which is a platform raising the profile of new artists in the world of theatre today.