The 2011 edition of the Grec Festival of Barcelona had still not closed when Ricardo Szwarcer’s successor was announced. This was the director and set designer Ramon Simó, a professional on the Catalan performing arts scene born in Tarragona in 1961.
With a degree in Philosophy and Education Science from the University of Barcelona, Simó teaches acting and stage management at Barcelona Theatre Institute, where he also worked as the head of the Centre for Research, Documentation and Promotion from 1989 to 1991.
Simó combined this work with the post of artistic director at the Tàrrega Street Theatre Festival, a popular performing arts fair founded in 1981 that has placed this town in Urgell county on the map of southern European theatre. He directed this festive events in 1996, 1997 and 1998, overseeing the establishment of greater rationalisation, improved conditions for visiting companies and the promotion of the fair as a venue where programmers and artistes can meet. Over that period, Simó also focused particularly on staging visual and contemporary productions, establishing venues that enable more technical complex shows to be performed and opening up the fair to the Spanish and international markets.
From 1999 to 2006, he was a member of the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC) Advisory Council, chairing the Reading Committee, whilst from 2006 to 2009 he was head of stage management and dramaturgy at the Theatre Institute.
Simó has worked as a stage director and manager both at public theatres (including productions at the Centre Dramàtic, the TNC, the Centro Dramático Nacional and the Teatre Lliure, for example) and on coproductions for festivals. He has also worked in the private sector, with companies and theatres ranging from El Teatro Fronterizo and the Sala Beckett to Focus, CIRTA and many more, including musical troupes. He has also worked with Benecé Produccions as a director and stage manager for different events.
Simó also performed in four shows produced by Lisboa Zentral Cafè (a quintet with which he recorded the CD Almanac in 2003) and is the author of such drama teaching books as La retòrica de l’emoció (Ed. Institut del Teatre, 1988) and Stanislavski. La tècnica de l’actor (Ed. Institut del Teatre, 1989), as well as publishing articles in magazines devoted to the performing arts and the prologue to the Catalan edition of Samuel Beckett’s complete plays.
His arrival at the helm of the Grec Festival of Barcelona was marked by the opening of a new stage in the festival’s trajectory in which the goals include staging international productions that encourage spectators to reflect on the contemporary world and the promotion of the Catalan performing arts.
The 2011 edition of the Grec Festival of Barcelona had still not closed when Ricardo Szwarcer’s successor was announced. This was the director and set designer Ramon Simó, a professional on the Catalan performing arts scene born in Tarragona in 1961.
With a degree in Philosophy and Education Science from the University of Barcelona, Simó teaches acting and stage management at Barcelona Theatre Institute, where he also worked as the head of the Centre for Research, Documentation and Promotion from 1989 to 1991.
Simó combined this work with the post of artistic director at the Tàrrega Street Theatre Festival, a popular performing arts fair founded in 1981 that has placed this town in Urgell county on the map of southern European theatre. He directed this festive events in 1996, 1997 and 1998, overseeing the establishment of greater rationalisation, improved conditions for visiting companies and the promotion of the fair as a venue where programmers and artistes can meet. Over that period, Simó also focused particularly on staging visual and contemporary productions, establishing venues that enable more technical complex shows to be performed and opening up the fair to the Spanish and international markets.
From 1999 to 2006, he was a member of the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC) Advisory Council, chairing the Reading Committee, whilst from 2006 to 2009 he was head of stage management and dramaturgy at the Theatre Institute.
Simó has worked as a stage director and manager both at public theatres (including productions at the Centre Dramàtic, the TNC, the Centro Dramático Nacional and the Teatre Lliure, for example) and on coproductions for festivals. He has also worked in the private sector, with companies and theatres ranging from El Teatro Fronterizo and the Sala Beckett to Focus, CIRTA and many more, including musical troupes. He has also worked with Benecé Produccions as a director and stage manager for different events.
Simó also performed in four shows produced by Lisboa Zentral Cafè (a quintet with which he recorded the CD Almanac in 2003) and is the author of such drama teaching books as La retòrica de l’emoció (Ed. Institut del Teatre, 1988) and Stanislavski. La tècnica de l’actor (Ed. Institut del Teatre, 1989), as well as publishing articles in magazines devoted to the performing arts and the prologue to the Catalan edition of Samuel Beckett’s complete plays.
His arrival at the helm of the Grec Festival of Barcelona was marked by the opening of a new stage in the festival’s trajectory in which the goals include staging international productions that encourage spectators to reflect on the contemporary world and the promotion of the Catalan performing arts.
