In 1931, at the start of the Second Republic, the La Barraca university theatre group was created – with government funding – with the aim of bringing Spanish classical theatre to the most remote rural areas and those with scant cultural activity. The project was presented at the Central University of Madrid.

From the time it was launched until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, La Barraca continued to attract university students, who ultimately performed a total of 13 plays in 74 Spanish provinces. Federico García Lorca was the first director; Miguel Hernández, the last. La Barraca was coordinated by humanities students, along with four architecture students; various avant-garde artists also collaborated.

People tend to think of La Barraca as Lorca’s pet project. In fact, the proposal was spearheaded by a group of humanities and science students, inspired by changes already happening abroad, where such theatre groups were beginning to become commonplace. 

And so, lawyers and architects came face-to-face with classical texts by Calderón de la Barca or Lope de Vega. Lorca identified fully with the project’s goal. So much so, he even openly admitted to having set works aside, half-written, to remain on the road with La Barraca in order to take the classics out of the ivory towers and bring them into the light and fresh air of the villages. I am sure his travels with La Barraca helped him finish writing tragedies such as Yerma.

In short, a creative force emerged from the universities to break established norms, building utopias in a joyful movement brimming with hope.

What the university theatre group was proposing then was the renewal of Spanish stage arts. That is why it took the classics and set out in search of the places most in need of action. The group even recorded everything they experienced and did in a report, today known as the “Memoria del teatro universitario” (Report on the university theatre group).

A couple of years earlier, in 1929, Lorca had written El público (The Audience), one of his “teatro bajo la arena” (literally, theatre under the sand, or underground theatre) plays, the most daring type of theatre, one that refuses to be seen by the usual conservative spectators of “teatro al aire libre” (open-air theatre). The playwright wrote a dialogue for five students, who ended up enthusiastically destroying everything to create a new society. Students who would become the forerunners of a future audience. There is something linking that dialogue with Lorca’s love of La Barraca and that group of students – educated, amateur performers, with no professional flaws, capable of generating dreams.

In short, a creative force emerged from the universities to break established norms, building utopias in a joyful movement brimming with hope. Because there was a desire for knowledge. A knowledge that was transmitted orally, in this case, through the word and classical texts. A knowledge utopia that sought to revolutionize an entire people with the universalization of culture, a concept that, curiously, shares part of its etymology with university.

Only the power of knowledge can drive its transmission. Question leads to question, creating horizons that allow us to move forward. These horizons must always come from the desire to learn

Only the power of knowledge can drive its transmission. Question leads to question, creating horizons that allow us to move forward. These horizons must always come from the desire to learn. University has been and should be a point of both departure and arrival, and theatre, an indispensable medium.