Garnacha, more than half a life on stage

Cuadrado, a retired pediatrician, attended the Juan de la Encina Chair during his training at the University of Salamanca. At D’Elhuyar, which has always been the headquarters and rehearsal space for La Garnacha, he started at the age of 31, directing kids aged 12, 15 and 16: Juan Luis Herrero, Miguel Ángel Blanco and María José Pascual. The first work they tried to perform was ‘Epitaph for a Dreamer’ by Adolfo Prego, although they ended up performing the ‘Altarpiece of Greed, Lust and Death’ by Valle-Inclán. Then even teachers from the center participated, with Javier de la Iglesia as Valle-Inclán.

Since then, in four decades they have participated in 151 national theater competitions, they have obtained 77 first prizes and more than 408 awards of all kinds in total, creating a pool, since with La Garnacha actors who are now professionals such as Patxi Freytez performed their first performances, Eduardo Cárcamo and Mabel del Pozo. In parallel, other actors such as Javier Cámara came out of the Teatro Pobre of the IES La Laboral de Lardero, which celebrates 50 years under the orders of Fernando Gil Torner.

Those teenagers never left La Garnacha, they continued when they went to university and entered the job market, just like those who joined later. “About 300 people have passed by, many people who enter and leave, and the last one who entered and stayed is Megan,” says Herrero. «You have to like discipline and working as a team. That’s what I loved,” María José Pascual recalls, and points out that she actually wanted to play volleyball, but her friends wanted to do theater or basketball, so they drew lots and ended up on stage. «I liked it, but I had never imagined myself doing theater. But I was hooked,” Pascual confesses.

There is always an exception. His name is Eduardo Estefanía. «I am the only one who was not a student at D’Elhuyar, I came to Logroño for work reasons and since I had done theater in Zaragoza, and it is a drug that gets you hooked, I started looking for groups, I saw them and got in touch with them» , remembers Estefanía, who was excited, even if it was just, to be a tree. La Garnacha had just released ‘Don Juan Tenorio’ and did not have a role for him, but two years later they called him for a character. For more uniqueness, in 2013 Estefanía returned to Zaragoza. «What was most difficult for me about leaving Logroño was the company, although I still maintain contact. I come whenever they need me », he warns.

Rebeca Apellániz and Megan Duval, although already established in the group, are the latest additions, 27 and 15 years ago, respectively. «In the end we are like a family with a common ‘hobby’ that we love. “We are lucky to tour Spain doing what we like,” says Duval, who debuted at the age of 14 in a national competition in Ávila with ‘Macbeth’ due to the loss of another actress. And they won. All round. Currently La Garnacha is made up of six permanent actors and a group of technicians. Cuadrado usually chooses the text to represent, normally based on the cast available, and they have only ruled out another work, ‘The Physicists’ by Dürrenmatt.

The company, despite its awards, has never stopped being amateur. Not when she was nominated for the 2006 Max Award for Best New Show for ‘La noche de madame Lucienne’ by Copi directed by Ángel Facio nor when they won the Max Aficionado Award (2019). They have always kept their jobs as doctors, teachers, administrators… “When you tell people about the beatings we suffered, they don’t believe it because many times we operate outside, very far away, we unload at dawn on a Sunday and first thing on Monday there are “I have to go to work,” Estefanía emphasizes. «And many times with two different works in the same weekend in two different places. But we have to find a balance because we have family, work… and we don’t have to burn out,” Herrero acknowledges.

In 40 years of experience, they boast, they have barely made a mistake in the text. “We have included blood sausages when, at some point, you have a hit,” they admit.