Welcome to the Festival of Spanish Theatre, London
2021 and upcoming events
APRIL 23rd
the mini Spanish theatre festival for emerging UK companies
We’re hoping to launch this event virtually so you can watch it at home and vote for your favourite performance. Plus, the opportunity to meet our acclaimed judging panel on Zoom when the winners are announce.
MAY
Masterclass with critically acclaimed director Ignacio García
Earlier this year we were forced to postpone García’s masterclass on verse drama, “The Golden Age on Stage: the actor straddling reality and dreams”. We are currently rescheduling it for May 2021, stay tuned for more information.
JULY
FesTeLõn Kids, the Spanish theatre festival for the little ones
This year we will be hosting the children’s theatre festival over a weekend in the summer. We will announce the chosen Spanish performance soon.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER
The 8th Edition of the Festival of Spanish Theatre in London
Fingers crossed we will be welcoming you back to our beloved John Lyon’s Theatre in the heart of London next Autumn. We have a very exciting line up of classical and contemporary Spanish theatre that will span over the two weeks, stay tuned for details.
We regret to inform you that the 8th Edition of FesTeLõn will not take place this autumn
We regret to inform you that the 8th Edition of FesTeLõn will not take place this autumn as planned because of the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Festival of Spanish Theatre in London will be postponed until autumn 2021 and the activities that were cancelled this spring will be rescheduled for January/February next year including FesTeLõn OFF, our theatre festival for emerging UK theatre companies, and also Ignacio García’s Masterclass on ‘The Golden Age on Stage: The Actor Straddling Reality and Dreams’, in April/May.
Reflections
‘Se abre el Telón con FesTeLõn’: we speak to…
A big thank you to everyone who made our online series ‘Se abre el Telón con FesTeLõn’ possible! Thank you for sending in your questions and participating. Thank you so much to our magnificent and generous board of Advisors for the time and care you took to answer the questions.
We’d also like to give a special thanks to our translators Kathy Phillips-Miles and Simon Deefholts, for their professionalism and kindness (from www.spanishliterarytranslation.com).
…Pepe Viyuela.
In this second instalment of our new online series where we give our followers the chance to ask our Advisors questions, we will be talking to actor Pepe Viyuela. An actor and a clown, he is a graduate in Philosophy and Drama and his career as an actor has developed primarily on the stage. Learn about his work here.
…Mary Parker.
We’re excited to have Mary Parker as our seventh and final guest. She has been a publicist at the National Theatre for over 16 years and has worked on many well-known productions such as War Horse, King Lear, Frankenstein and many more. If you’d like to know more, click here.
…Norah López Holden.
We’re so pleased to have the chance to speak to Norah López Holden. She trained at RADA and has developed her acting career on stage and on radio. If you’d like to know more, click here.
…Juan Carlos Rubio.
We’re thrilled to have Juan Carlos Rubio as our fifth guest in our online series. He is a well-known Spanish director and writer for theatre, television and film. If you’d like to know more, click here.
…Ignacio García.
We’re excited to have Ignacio García as our next guest because, as many of you will remember, we had a masterclass programmed with Ignacio García titled ‘The Golden Age on stage: the actor straddling reality and dreams’, which we have had to postpone due to COVID-19. As soon as normal theatrical activity resumes, the masterclass will be programmed and in the mean time we can enjoy this opportunity to talk to him virtually.
Ignacio García is an award-winning Spanish theatre director at the forefront of the Almagro International Classic Theatre Festival since 2018. If you would like to learn more about his work, click here.
…Ascen López.
We are delighted to have Ascen López as the third guest in our Curtains Up series. She is a graduate of Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid and has had an extensive career in Spanish theatre and television. If you want to know more, please go click here
Our next guests include Ignacio García, Norah L. Holden, Mary Parker and Juan Carlos Rubio. Follow us on social media so you join in and ask them questions.
…Natalia Calderón.
In this first instalment, we have the pleasure of beginning with Natalia Calderón. If you want to know about her, please click here
We come together with all the love and respect for those who have passed away because of Covid19. Natalia, a big hug in these difficult times. Nobody Knows – Natalia Calderón video
Take care everyone. Long live the Theatre! #StaySafeStayHome 
FesTeLõn OFF 2020: a mini theatre festival for amateur and emerging UK companies.
FesTeLõn OFF is a chance for amateur and emerging UK theatre companies to perform a piece of Spanish theatre in central London. The chosen companies were due to perform in April 2020 and the winning performance would be chosen to perform at FesTelõn 2020. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 we have had to postpone the event. We will let you know as soon as we have a new confirmed date.
We’d like to thank all the companies that submitted such interesting proposals and congratulate the following companies on being chosen to perform:
Verônica Santo ‘Adela y Martirio’
Santi Guillamon ‘The Divorce Court Judge- Ministry of Clown’
Monica Cox ‘La llamada de Lauren’
Santiago Peluffo Soneyra ‘Point of no return’
La Griot ‘La España negra. Jácara por un muerto’
We’re so excited to watch these performances as soon as we can. Stay tuned for updates Festeloner@s 
Thank you to those who attended the 7th edition of the Festival of Spanish Theatre in London! Without your support, this wouldn’t be possible. Especially thank you to those of you who come every year.
Thank you to our lovely and professional volunteers, the whole team have worked so hard and we are so grateful. Thank you to everyone one of the theatre companies for your enthusiasm and love for theatre, thank you for collaborating with us to consolidate these bridges between the UK and Spanish theatre.
Stay tuned as we will be posting information about up coming events and workshops in the next few days.
Long live the theatre beloved FesTeLõners!
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¡Gracias a tod@s los que asistieron la séptima edición del Festival of Spanish Theatre in London! Sin vuestro apoyo, nada de esto habría sido posible. Sobre todo, gracias a nuestro público fiel que asiste cada año.
Gracias a l@s queridísim@s y profesionales voluntari@s, todo el equipo ha trabajado mucho y estamos extremadamente agradecid@s. Gracias a cada una de las compañías de teatro por su entusiasmo y amor por teatro, gracias por colaborar en la creación de la consolidación de estos puentes teatrales entre Reino Unido y el teatro español.
Estad atent@s porque subiremos información sobre eventos y talleres en los próximos días.
¡Viva el teatro querid@s FesTeLõner@s!
Be a Friend
FeSTeLõn: The Festival of Spanish Theatre, London, is an independent initiative which creates a cultural exchange between Spanish theatre companies and London audiences. Since 2013 the festival has brought theatre companies from Spain to London each year giving them the opportunity to reach a new audience. If you would like to support us and be part of this project, you could see full info by clicking Here
Spanish Roots in Britain: FesTeLõn features in an online event hosted by the Spanish Embassy
We were honoured to be selected to take part in the online event ‘Spanish Roots in Britain’ hosted by Spanish Embassy in London and the British Spanish Society. This event showcased the best of Spanish talent in Britain.
FesTeLõn featured alongside the English National Ballet’s artistic director and lead principal dancer Tamara Rojo, artist Angela de la Cruz, fashion designer Emilio de la Morena, choreographer Avatâra Ayuso from the AVA dance company, Ana Belen from Abalon, along with many other amazing creators, designers and academics. It took place on 7th July and was only available for one day.
Fortunately, we’ve managed to extract FesTeLõn’s section so you can all watch it. Enjoy!