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Interview
7 July 2019 2.00 h

Montse Vellvehí

Director of the Institut del Teatre

Art has to be uncomfortable

We encourage more company-thinking and less the individual concept. These are difficult times Art has to be heartbreaking. We’re expressing ourselves, and everyone has to do as they feel
At the Institut del Teatre we try to provide tools for students to develop their imaginations The methodology has changed. Now the theatre is more multidisciplinary, it’s evolving

The actor and cul­tural man­ager from Mataró, Montse Vel­lvehí, is the di­rec­tor of the In­sti­tut del Teatre’s Ad­vanced School of Dra­matic Arts (which teaches per­for­mance, stage de­sign, di­rect­ing and play-writ­ing). She sees train­ing as pro­vid­ing a tool­box that should en­hance the artist’s tal­ent. Her job is to train the fu­ture pro­fes­sion­als who will fill the bill­boards of our coun­try and who will have the task of push­ing the the­atre in new di­rec­tions.

Are there too many ac­tors in Cat­alo­nia?
It’s bet­ter to look at qual­ity rather than quan­tity. We as­pire to do things very well. Stu­dents here are very well trained. It’s true that not many can get into large pro­duc­tions, but in the the­atre there are many other spaces to fill.
Does train­ing raise the bar in the the­atre in­dus­try?
Yes, there’s no doubt about it. We hope that the stu­dents will find the right bal­ance be­tween their own spe­cific path­way and hav­ing a broad cross-sec­tion of knowl­edge so that they can ex­er­cise their pro­fes­sion with rigour.
There is an ini­tial im­pulse to be­come an actor and then comes the the­ory. How can you stop knowl­edge over­whelm­ing in­tu­ition?
At the In­sti­tut del Teatre we al­ways try to pro­vide tools that stu­dents can use to de­velop their imag­i­na­tions, which al­lows them to de­velop as artists. Pure im­pulse, mo­ti­va­tion, are cru­cial, be­cause it’s mar­vel­lous to have a start­ing point from which to ex­press your­self. We don’t want to clip their wings. We also want them to com­mit to the stage they are in. They de­velop their opin­ion for them­selves, with­out any im­po­si­tions. We shape the fu­ture of the­atre and we want to give them the tools they need to ex­press their view of their re­al­ity.
You are also an actor. Are you able to teach bet­ter if you’ve been one your­self?
It de­pends on the in­di­vid­ual. From my point of view, it gives me strength and ex­pe­ri­ence when it comes to ex­plain­ing my­self bet­ter to the class. How­ever, they are dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sions. There are many good teach­ers who are not act­ing any more. It’s not a sci­ence.
Are the sub­jects you teach flex­i­ble enough to ab­sorb changes that are hap­pen­ing in the the­atre?
We’re now work­ing on a new cur­ricu­lum, to adapt to these very changes. Some of the sub­jects are the same as 20 years ago, in sub­stance, but the method­ol­ogy has changed. Now the the­atre is more mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary, it’s evolv­ing.
A decade ago, there was talk about giv­ing out de­grees as if it was a uni­ver­sity of the arts.
That’s a pro­ject that would be very wel­come. We are now af­fil­i­ated with the Uni­ver­sity of Barcelona. Our ad­vanced qual­i­fi­ca­tion will now be a de­gree. The level must be uni­ver­sity level.
Ad­vanced the­atre courses have mul­ti­plied in re­cent years.
Com­pe­ti­tion is good. If you have a mo­nop­oly over a form of train­ing, you don’t have the need to im­prove.
You are now se­lect­ing stu­dents for next year.
It’s a lot of re­spon­si­bil­ity. With per­for­mance, for ex­am­ple, we re­ally value the skills first and then also their po­ten­tial, and their abil­i­ties. With the skills, we check the level of per­for­mance, their move­ment, singing and voice. Those who pass this first fil­ter do a week of work to iden­tify their po­ten­tial. Of the 300 peo­ple who apply, we end up of­fer­ing 36 places for per­for­mance (12 places for phys­i­cal, 12 mu­si­cal and 12 tex­tual), 12 for stage de­sign and 12 for di­rec­tion and play-writ­ing.
Does the In­sti­tut del Teatre help artists enter the pro­fes­sion?
We en­cour­age pro­jects be­tween stage de­sign­ers, di­rec­tors, play­wrights and per­form­ers. Last year, we re­leased Amnè(i)s(t)ia. Now we’re prepar­ing Flam, with Roger Bernat. It’s meant as the first step to­wards the stu­dents join­ing the labour mar­ket. As is the ex­hi­bi­tion Quadrienal de Praga, which is being pre­sented by a small group of stu­dents who are about to grad­u­ate. Or the Adrià Gual Prize, which has been award­ing pro­jects to groups from the In­sti­tut del Teatre for years.
There are also final de­gree pro­jects that make the jump to the pro­fes­sional world.
Like the mu­si­cal 9 to 5, which after play­ing at the TGB, will now be shown in Maldà. We also en­cour­age them to join to­gether and build com­pa­nies.
A few years ago, the trend was more for every­one to find their own way.
We en­cour­age more com­pany-think­ing and less the in­di­vid­ual con­cept. These are dif­fi­cult times.
Is there now a glass ceil­ing for new artists?
There are many peo­ple who work in small spaces, which aren’t even the­atre spaces. We see it at the school. There is a very pow­er­ful fab­ric, al­though it’s fairly in­vis­i­ble.
Some older per­form­ers say that the In­sti­tut del Teatre does not pro­duce top ac­tors, but it does give them a very good min­i­mum level.
A top actor be­comes one over time. It’s hard to find some­one who stands out if they haven’t been able to work on a large-scale pro­duc­tion, but there are peo­ple who are very well trained, in singing, music, danc­ing and act­ing.
It seems to be a good time for writ­ers, at least ac­cord­ing to Vic­to­ria Szpun­berg, who has re­cently re­vived var­i­ous works.
I agree, al­though I do think it is dif­fi­cult to gen­er­alise.
Cur­rent af­fairs make it eas­ier to con­nect quickly to the spec­ta­tor.
Art has to be heart­break­ing. We’re ex­press­ing our­selves, and every­one has to do it the way they feel it, how­ever they want. Art has to be un­com­fort­able, it is won­der­ful that we are ques­tioned. At school, we also pose stu­dents chal­lenges and ask them ques­tions to find the for­mula to de­fend free­dom of ex­pres­sion.

in­ter­view

Vellvehí in profile

Many theatre-goers will remember Montse Vellvehí on horseback, because she has ridden a horse twice on stage, once for the play Bodas de sangre (2018), by Federico García Lorca, and also earlier in her career, in the oneiric drama 28 i mig (2013), inspired by Fellini’s seminal 8½. She has also accompanied Clara Segura in a very outlandish comedy at the Borràs Theater, Madame Melville (2011). And Vellvehí has also been the director of the Shakespeare Festival, when it was promoted by the stage designer and director, Paco Azorín, at the Can Ratés country house in Santa Susanna, and later in attempts to introduce it in Mataró and Barcelona, until she decided to resign from the post in 2015.

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