JAUME VILLANUEVA
Graduated in interpretation from the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, he is a theater director and author; actor, adjuster and dubbing director; and radio and television director and screenwriter.
He made his directorial debut in 1982 with Zoo Story, by Edward Albee, translated by Terenci Moix. That same year he won the Adrià Gual National Award for the best directorial project for The disappearance of Wendy, by Josep M. Benet i Jornet; starring Martí Galindo and Loles León, a great success with the public and critics in Madrid and Barcelona. Unable to come up with any mercenary strategy that would make him grow, he only directs when he feels intimately involved in the works he is passionate about. Love in stockings, by Allan Aikbourn; The survivor, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; The human voice, by Jean Cocteau; Carpa Barcelona (directed by Mario Gas for the Cultural Olympiad); Tirant lo Blanc; 1789, La Revolució, for Catalunya Ràdio, are some of his most personal productions.
In 2005, thanks to the unforgettable friendship of J. Arias Velasco, he founded Octubre Teatral, perhaps the most brilliant stage of his controversial theatrical career. Con Belisa, by Federico G. Lorca, which makes him worthy of the nomination as best visiting director by the Association of Entertainment Critics of New York (ACE); after an acclaimed national tour and a brilliant season at the Teatro Español, the work goes on an extensive international tour; it is worth noting the extraordinary reception in the theaters of the United States and Mexico, where he inaugurated the Cervantino Festival. El llanto, another Lorca represented in such emblematic theaters as The Carnival in Miami, La Barraca in Lisbon, Teatre Poliorama in Barcelona, or Teatro Español in Madrid where he had a brilliant season; unanimously acclaimed by the public and international critics has been a finalist in the Max awards (2009 and 2010).
La Vampira del Raval by Josep Arias Velasco with music by Albert Guinovart, one of the shows most loved by the Barcelona public, won five Butaca Awards and a Max Award for best musical composition. Romance by Curro el Palmo, conceived from Serrat's song; portrait of Barcelona xarnega immigrant is his most unusual show: premiered at the Barcelona Grec Festival, with Nacho Blanco, Quiqui Morente and Antonio Canales, considered, among experts, one of the best flamenco musicals of all time, closes, for now , the October Theatrical journey.
Founder of Ópera Popular de Barcelona, thanks to Cristina Raventós, he currently stages operas with total happiness.