Pamplona (EFE).- The Government of Navarra presented this Saturday the Prince of Viana Award for Culture to the writer and theater director Alfredo Sanzol, director of the National Dramatic Center, in an event held at the Cistercian monastery in the town of Fitero.
The President of the Government of Navarra, María Chivite, highlighted at this event the playwright’s ability to “bring to the surface” the truth that theatre tells, and added that Sanzol has earned his right to “access to the throne of Spanish dramaturgy.”
During his speech, Chivite has claimed the role of knowledge, culture, talent and creation as “nuclear elements of our model of society and development”, and has highlighted their power to counteract a “populist wave that, precisely, bases its reason to be in the simplification of the message, in a childish policy that proposes block solutions, simple and without nuances.”
He also claimed the value of “knowledge, education, creative freedom, citizens’ rights, ideological pluralism, respect for differences, coexistence and policies that generate quality of life”, and stressed the need to strengthen these areas so that “they are always well established and can withstand attempts to bring them down or weaken them”.
The place where creativity is born
During the delivery, Sanzol reflected on the “place from which creativity is born”, stating that it would be a space that “could have a great concentration of mass: a mixture of everything we are born with, plus what we learn by imitation, plus what we know from practice and experience. “A mass of such high density that it could seem like nothing.”
In addition, he has taken a look at his development in the artistic and theater fields. Thus, he has stated that he has never had the feeling of “having arrived anywhere professionally,” because since he began writing and then directing he felt “the fullness of meaning.”
“What I was doing made perfect sense because I was doing it, and finishing a project only led to the same place, to a new beginning,” he added.
Sanzol ended his speech by thanking everyone for the professional support and recognition he has received in Navarra. “This award makes me very happy,” he said, “and gives me the strength to keep returning to that place that seems like nothingness but is full of everything.”
Winner of the National Literature Award
Alfredo Sanzol, a theatre director and playwright from Navarra, holds a degree in Law from the University of Navarra and a degree in Stage Direction from the Royal School of Dramatic Art in Madrid.
He has written and directed several works, such as ‘Great Days’, ‘Yes, but I’m not’ or ‘The Magic Calm’, and he has also been in charge of directing and adapting classic authors such as Sophocles, Oscar Wilde, Valle-Inclán, Lope de Vega or Shakespeare.
Sanzol is currently director of the National Drama Centre, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture.
In addition, the writer and theater director has a wide range of distinctions, among which are several Max of the Performing Arts, the Valle-Inclán Theater Award or the National Literature Award.
Development of the act
The award ceremony took place inside the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real de Fitero. The ceremony was chaired by María Chivite, and was also attended by the president of the Parliament of Navarra, Unai Hualde, the mayor of Fitero, Miguel Aguirre, and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Government of Navarra, Rebeca Esnaola .
Other authorities have also attended, such as the Government delegate, Alicia Echeverría, as well as several councilors of the regional Executive, local councillors, deputies, senators, regional parliamentarians and other mayors of Navarrese municipalities.
The Prince of Viana Award
The Prince of Viana Prize for Culture, an award given by the Government of Navarra since its creation in 1990, celebrated its 35th edition this year.
It is an award that is awarded at the proposal of the Navarrese Council of Culture and the Arts, and in recent years it has gone to such outstanding figures as the composer Teresa Catalán, the photographer Carlos Cánovas, the writer and professor Tomás Yerro or the writer Dolores Redondo.
