Award Winning Basque Theater Company

This is excellent news, Basque cultural expressions being recognized in the international arena.

EITb provides more details:

Basque theatre company awarded in Texas International Theaterfest

Maskarada, from Bilbao

07/20/2006

The theatre company from Bilbao Maskarada is back from its American tour around the United States and Canada with four awards for the 'mise en scène' on the painting Guernica by Picasso.

The company won four awards at the AACT International Theaterfest of Midland, Texas: Best Show, Best Performance for actor Iñaki Urrutia playing Picasso, Best Set Design by Gorka Mínguez and Best Direction by Carlos Panera.

Likewise, the music of the play has been highly appreciated: the live songs, especially guitarist Juan Pérez Mena's performance.

Picasso 1937, History of the Guernica stood out not only from an artistic point of view, but also for its universal and cultural aspects. The success in this festival is very relevant since Maskarada shared the stage with companies coming from such countries as Germany, Singapore, the United States, Monaco, Syria, Tunisia, Ireland, Romania and India.

The premiere of Picasso 1937, History of the Guernica has been within the frame of their American tour across Los Angeles, Florida and Vancouver (Canada), and the end of the tour was marked by a great success in Texas.

Story line

Picasso 1937 relives the days when Picasso was assigned the task to paint Guernica and how it became one of the most important artistic icons of the 20th century. While the Civil War is striking Spain, in Paris, some intellectuals, who are also representatives of the Spanish Republican Government, are trying to denounce the passivity of the world towards this genocide. At the same time, preparations are being made for a Universal Exhibition that will be held in Paris in July 1937. The representatives of the Spanish legal Government assign Picasso the task to make a painting that will be exhibited on a large and privileged place of the Spanish pavilion.

At this moment, the artist is looking for inspiring motives somewhere else, more precisely in Balzac's "The Unknown Masterpiece", a story from which Picasso has already drawn many references.

Terrible news from Spain is coming in continuously, and the painter's creative fury will finally blow up when the Legion Condor destroys the town of Gernika for the Spanish fascists. Picasso's work and inspiration will then combine art and denounce in a unique masterpiece. With a first travel to the US, the painting will start a tour of denounce that will transform it into an outcry to wake up the world.

.... ... .