The solo performance ‘Lady in Red on a Grey Canvas’, featuring José Sacristán, is set to receive the prestigious audience award
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 27th June (EUROPA PRESS) –
This coming Monday, commencing at 7:00 p.m., the Tenerife Auditorium ‘Adán Martín’ will be the venue for the twenty-seventh edition of the ‘MAX Awards for Performing Arts’ at a glamorous event dedicated to commemorating the Tenerife dramatist Ángel Guimerá on the hundredth anniversary of his passing. .
The award details were unveiled at a press briefing on Thursday by the Minister of Culture and Museums of the Cabildo de Tenerife, José Carlos Acha, the institutional director of the Performing Arts at the SGAE Foundation, Ana Graciani, and the artistic director of the ceremony, José Padilla.
Acha emphasised that it is a “privilege” for the Cabildo that Tenerife was selected to host the ceremony as it signifies “support and recognition” for the performing arts and dance of the islands, along with the pride that the event is orchestrated by a native of Tenerife (José Padilla) and is dedicated to a Tenerife luminary (Ángel Guimerá). “This enhances our standing within the national sector,” he remarked.
Graciani expressed gratitude to the technical team at the Tenerife Auditorium for their “dedication and professionalism” and the “passion” they exhibit towards the performing arts, while advocating for the peripatetic nature of these awards.
“It is not solely due to our love for travelling and the reciprocal philosophy we apply in venues, but to bring this grand festival of the performing arts closer to Spanish territories, acting as a spokesperson for the realities of these disciplines in each location, highlighting their unique characteristics. “, she noted.
The Tenerife playwright José Padilla adopted this year’s theme, ‘The stage, journeys of fantasy’, to centre the gala’s concept around the figure of Ángel Guimerá. “The experience is profoundly moving, and I am immensely grateful for the trust placed in me,” confessed Padilla.
Indeed, he elucidated that during his investigation into Guimerá’s life and oeuvre he has unearthed that “there are numerous facets of being Tenerife, identity is varied, and so is art.”
With a two-hour extravaganza, the stage of the Auditorium will be adorned with some of the poems, aspirations, fears and dreams, in a spectacle directed by Padilla and featuring a distinctly Canarian team comprising choreographer Paula Quintana; Yaiza Pinillos as costume supervisor; Rayco handling characterisation; Príamo Estudio (by Eduardo Moreno and Pau Fullana) providing the set design and composer José Pablo Polo overseeing the sound and musical arrangement.
Also gracing the stage will be a troupe of Canarian performers such as Kevin de la Rosa, portraying Guimerá; Carmen Cabeza (as María Guerrero and Guimerá’s mother), Christian Cánovas and Almudena Puyo, alongside a dance group led by Quintana and comprising dancers Ico Botanz, Alicia Hernández Butragueño and Daniel Morales.
In addition to Guimerá, a progenitor of the Catalan ‘Renaixença’ and an advocate for the adoption of Catalan as his own language, a tribute will also be paid at the gala to Margarita Xirgú and María Guerrero, stalwarts of Canarian theatre.
REGARDING TWENTY DIVISIONS AND THREE SPECIFIC ACCOLADES
The musical interludes to enliven the gala will be delivered by Blanca Paloma and the Tenerife St. Pedro, accompanied by various personalities including Pedro Guerra, Chanel, Toni Acosta, Daniel Abreu, Jesús Carmona, Salva Reina, Natalia Álvarez Simó, Marta Fuenar, Juanjo Llorens, Marta González Vega, Paco Déniz, Roberto Torres, Natalia Menéndez, Fernando Navas will present the awards. , Carmelo Alcántara, Soraya González del Rosario, Severiano García, Mónica López, Carlota Gaviño, Aranza Coello, Irma Correa and Toni Tabares.
During the press conference, Graciani revealed the ‘Max Audience Applause Award 2024’, which acknowledges productions that have enjoyed enduring success and extended runs, bestowed upon ‘Lady in Red on a Grey Canvas’, a collaboration between Saber Productions, Pentación Espectáculos, TalyCual and Islamusa.
José Sacristán takes the lead in this monologue exploring grief and lost love, under the direction of the late José Sámano, adapted from the eponymous novel by his colleague Miguel Delibes.
“Receiving an audience award is one of the greatest rewards because when conceiving a production, the ultimate aim is for audiences to attend and enjoy it, and if they do and recommend it, there is nothing more gratifying,” remarked Jesús Cimarro, director of Pentación Espectáculos.
For Cimarro, the crux of the success lies in the meticulous staging, but primarily in the “superlative performance” by José Sacristán and in a narrative “that profoundly captivated the audience.”
The awards feature 20 competitive categories and three special honours such as the prestigious Max Award recognising the illustrious career of actress Nuria Espert, the amateur or social Max Award acknowledging the endeavours of the LaTrup University Theatre Association Troysteatro de La Laguna (Tenerife) in its amateur capacity and the Max Audience Applause Award for ‘Lady in Red on a Grey Canvas’.
