Albert Boadella facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Albert Boadella
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Boadella in 2019
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| Born | July 29, 1943 |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Alma mater | University of Barcelona |
| Occupation | Actor, playwright |
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Notable work
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La Torna, Ubú President, ¡Viva Tabarnia! |
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Albert Boadella Oncins (born 30 July 1943, in Barcelona) is a Spanish actor and playwright. A playwright is someone who writes plays for the theater. He was one of the people who started the Els Joglars theater company. He was also its director, like a main leader, from 1962 to 2012.
Contents
About Albert Boadella
Albert Boadella studied acting and theater at special schools in Barcelona, Strasbourg (France), and Paris. When he was a student, he was part of a group of mime artists. Mimes are performers who tell stories using only body movements, without speaking.
In 1962, when he was just 19 years old, Boadella helped create the theater company Els Joglars in Barcelona. He started it with his friends Carlota Soldevila and Anton Font. Boadella spent his whole career with Els Joglars, working as an actor, director, and playwright. He wrote more than thirty plays.
His plays often had a strong message and made fun of powerful groups, especially the Catholic Church. Because his plays were so direct and critical, they sometimes caused arguments and problems with political leaders.
Challenges and Controversies
In 1977, after a play called La Torna came out, Boadella faced legal trouble. The play was about a real-life event and made fun of the army. He was put in prison and was going to be judged by a military court. But the day before his trial, he managed to escape from prison in a dramatic way and went to live in France.
When he came back to Spain in the 1980s, he continued to create plays that caused discussion. For example, Teledeum and Ubú President made strong criticisms of important figures like Jordi Pujol (a politician) and Salvador Dalí (a famous artist).
Besides his theater work, Boadella has also created and directed several TV shows. He has written books, including El Rapto de Talía and his memories in Memorias de un bufón.
In 2003, he wrote and directed a movie called ¡Buen viaje, Excelencia!. This film was a funny look at the last few months of the Spanish leader Francisco Franco.
Albert Boadella is also a big fan of bullfighting. He believes it is a very emotional art form. In 2006, he put on a play in Madrid that discussed the pros and cons of bullfighting. His support for bullfighting has earned him respect from some bullfighters, but also criticism from groups who are against it.
In 2007, his book of memories, Adiós Cataluña. Crónicas de amor y de guerra, won an award. At the book's launch, he said that his "goodbye to Catalonia" was real. He announced he would not work in Catalonia again because his plays had faced a "boycott," meaning people were refusing to support them.
From 2009, he became the artistic director of the Teatros del Canal in Madrid. This happened after he received an offer from the President of the Community of Madrid.
In 2012, he announced that Ramon Fontserè would take over as the director of Els Joglars. This announcement was made when Els Joglars was working with another theater company on a play by Miguel de Cervantes.
Boadella has received several awards for his work. In 2012, he won the Alfonso Ussía award for Person of the Year. In 2017, he received the Pepe Isbert National Theater Awards and a university award for bullfighting.
His Ideas and Beliefs
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When Albert Boadella was younger, he supported ideas related to Catalan nationalism, which is about Catalonia having its own identity. He was also part of the movement against the Franco dictatorship in Spain. He was seen as an important cultural figure because he supported the Nova Cançó, a movement of Catalan protest songs.
After the return of the Catalan government (the Generalitat de Catalunya), he became closer to the Socialists' Party of Catalonia. He wrote a play called Operació Ubú that made fun of Jordi Pujol and the ruling nationalist party. In his memories, Boadella shared that he sometimes made these choices to protect his plays from boycotts, rather than just because of his beliefs.
Throughout his long career, Boadella has always stood up for freedom and criticized dogmatism, which means being too rigid in one's beliefs. He has strongly criticized powerful groups, including Jordi Pujol, Francisco Franco, some religious leaders, and a political party called Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya. Because of this, he has sometimes faced strong disagreement from different groups, including some on the far-right in Spain, those who support Catalan independence, and some Catholic groups.
He has used his plays to make fun of famous cultural figures like Salvador Dalí. But he has also shown great admiration for others, like Josep Pla, in plays such as La increíble historia del Dr. Floït & Mr. Pla.
Boadella strongly disagrees with what he calls the "Catalanist drift" towards nationalism, which he believes happened with the Socialists' Party of Catalonia. He was one of the thinkers who helped start a group called Ciutadans de Catalunya, which later became the Ciudadanos party. He later supported a new party called Union, Progress and Democracy. In recent years, he has publicly supported the Ciudadanos party.
In 2018, he was introduced as the "President-in-exile" of Tabarnia. This is a satirical, or humorous, movement that makes fun of the idea of Catalan independence. It suggests that the areas of Tarragona and Barcelona should separate from the rest of Catalonia to form their own region.
Works
Theater Plays
- La torna (1977)
- M•7 Catalònia (1978)
- Operació Ubú (1981)
- Teledeum o Conferència per a l'aplicació pràctica de cultures extingides dins la planificació general de l'informe "Wallace Müller" (1983)
- Columbi lapsus (1989)
- Yo tengo un tío en América (1991)
- El Nacional (1993)
- La increíble historia del Dr. Floit & Mr. Pla (1997)
- Daaalí (1999)
- Ubú President o Los últimos días de Pompeya (2001)
- El retablo de las maravillas (2004)
- La torna de la torna (2005)
- En un lugar de Manhattan (2005)
- Controversia del toro y el torero (2006)
- La cena (2008)
- 2036 Omena-G (2010)
Television Shows
- La Odisea, 5 chapters (1976 - 1977) (Televisión Española)
Books
- Columbi Lapsus (1993)
- Teledeum (1994)
- Yo tengo un tío en América (1995)
- El rapto de Talía (2000)
- Memorias de un bufón (2001)
- Adiós Cataluña. Crónicas de amor y de guerra (2007), which won the Premio Espasa de Ensayo award
- Dios los cría y ellos hablan de sexo, drogas, España, corrupción... (2010), with Fernando Sánchez-Dragó
- Diarios de un francotirador. Mis desayunos con ella (2012)
- ¡Viva Tabarnia! (2018), with an introduction by Mario Vargas Llosa
- El Duque (2021)
- Joven, no me cabree. Contra el infantilismo progresista de la sociedad actual (2022), with an introduction by Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.
Films
- Buen viaje, excelencia. (2003)
Images for kids
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Boadella in 2019
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Ciutadans de Catalunya in Madrid: Rosa Díez, Albert Boadella and Fernando Savater.
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Boadella in 2015
See also
In Spanish: Albert Boadella para niños
