Antonio Álamo

Born in Córdoba (Spain) in 1964, he soon moved with his parents to Madrid. At the age of 17, he settled in Seville. He graduated in law from the University of Seville and from a young age showed an interest in theatre, becoming both a playwright and a director.^[2][3]

Author of a number of sharp-witted comedies, Álamo has written around a dozen plays since 1991, among them the trilogy made up of Los borrachos (1993), Los enfermos and Yo, Satán. In 2006, he collaborated on the staging of El príncipe tirano by the Renaissance writer Juan de la Cueva for the Centro Andaluz de Teatro in Seville. Directed by Pepa Gamboa, this plot about greed, ambition and the contradictions of human nature was reworked by Álamo from two original texts, La comedia del príncipe tirano and La tragedia del príncipe tirano.^[4]

Co-director of the theatre company El Traje de Artaud, he has worked as assistant director to Alfonso Zurro and Jesús Cracio. With his play Veinticinco años menos un día, written in 2005, and premiered on 17 September 2011 at the Teatro Español in Madrid, he set out to pay tribute to English theatre.^[5][6]

In 2007, he wrote Cantando bajo las balas, an impossible dialogue between Millán Astray and Miguel de Unamuno.^[7]

In 2009, he wrote, together with Juan Carlos Rubio, the play La ciudad de todos los tiempos, based on texts by Borges and music from One Thousand and One Nights, a project with which the city of Córdoba supported its bid to become the 2016 European Capital of Culture.^[8][9]

In 2012, he wrote La copla negra, a play set in Cádiz, "the south of the south", whose protagonists are a group of chirigoteros (Carnival song performers). It premiered in Córdoba on 22 March 2013.^[9]

In October 2015, he premiered Juanita Calamidad, a decidedly dark comedy that, in the author's words, is:

"a kind of anti-Yerma: a schoolteacher reluctant to motherhood and to anything that involves commitment".^[10]

The premiere took place at the Teatro Palacio Valdés in Avilés with the following principal cast: Ana López Segovia (Juanita Calamidad), Teresa Quintero and Alejandra López Segovia.^[11]

Álamo is associated with the so-called "dramaturgy of the millennium", a generation of playwrights influenced by the avant-gardes, Samuel Beckett and Fernando Arrabal, which has grown up around the Marqués de Bradomín Prize.^[12]

This generation includes the Asturian writers Maxi Rodríguez, José Busto, David Desola and Borja Ortiz, among others.^[13]

Positioned on the threshold of the digital age, they draw on the Spanish dramatic tradition (such as José Luis Alonso de Santos or Fermín Cabal) but see their work as incomplete without a strong narrative backbone. In Álamo's own words, he feels "the need for a world with fiction".^[11]

Some of Antonio Álamo awards include:

• 1991 – Marqués de Bradomín Prize for La oreja izquierda de Van Gogh.^[14]
• 1993 – Tirso de Molina Prize for Los borrachos.^[15]
• 1993 – Ciudad de Alcorcón Prize for Los borrachos.^[16]
• 1996 – Editorial Lengua de Trapo Novel Prize for Breve historia de la inmortalidad.^[17]
• 1996 – Borne Theatre Prize for Los enfermos.^[18]
• 1996 – Ercilla Prize for Best Production of the Year for Los borrachos.^[19]
• 1996 – Palencia Theatre Prize for Pasos.^[20]
• 2000 – Caja de España Prize for Grande como una tumba.^[21]
• 2004 – Premio Jaén de Novela for El incendio del paraíso.^[22]
• 2004 – "Cordobés del Año" (Cordovan of the Year), awarded by the Asociación Cultural Al-Ándalus of Palma del Río.^[23][24]
• 2005 – Borne Theatre Prize for Veinticinco años menos un día.^[25]
• 2006 – Chivas Telón Prize for Best New Play for Yo, Satán.^[26]
• 2007 – Yo, Satán received the awards for Best Production, Best Direction (Juan José Martín) and Best Supporting Actor (William Guite) at the Municipal Theatre Awards of Caracas.^[27]
• 2007 – Jury Prize for Best Show at the Mostra Internacional de Teatro de Rivadavia for Cantando bajo las balas.^[28]
• 2007 – Chivas Telón Prize for Best Play of the Year for Cantando bajo las balas.
• 2010 – World Theatre Day Prize, awarded by the Diputación de Sevilla.^[29]
• 2017 – Premio Córdoba an Escena, awarded by the ESAD and the Diputación de Córdoba.
• 2017 – Premio Lorca for stage adaptation for El pintor de batallas.
• 2017 – Teatro Rojas Prize for Best New Play for El pintor de batallas.^[30]
• 2020 – XXI SGAE Children's Theatre Prize for La increíble historia de la caca mutante.
• 2023 – Premio Lorca for playwriting (Autoría Teatral) for Sí, a todo.^[31]

Álamo published Breve historia de la inmortalidad (Lengua de Trapo Narrative Prize 1996, published by Lengua de Trapo) and has contributed short stories to the collections Páginas amarillas (Lengua de Trapo, 1998) and Daños colaterales (Lengua de Trapo, 2002). In 1998 he published his second novel, Una buena idea, with Planeta, in which he uses the voice of a child to criticise literary solemnity.^[32]

The following year saw the appearance of ¿Quién se ha meado en mi cama? (Lengua de Trapo, 1999). He has also published a collection of short stories, Los perros y los gatos. His novel Nata soy (2001) later served as the basis for his play Yo, Satán.^[33] In 2004 his novel El incendio del paraíso was published by Mondadori.^[34]

• Los gatos o los perros, followed by La oreja izquierda de Van Gogh, Ed. Mágico Íntimo, no. 8, Seville, 1986.
• Breve historia de la inmortalidad, Ed. Lengua de Trapo, no. 11, Madrid, November 1996.
• Una buena idea, Ed. Planeta, Barcelona, 1998.
• ¿Quién se ha meado en mi cama?, Ed. Lengua de Trapo, no. 38, Madrid, 1999.
• Nata soy, Ed. Random House Mondadori, Barcelona, September 2001, February 2002, November 2003, and June 2005.
• Una buena idea, Ed. Random House Mondadori, Debolsillo 21, Barcelona, January 2004.
• El incendio del paraíso, Ed. Random House Mondadori, Barcelona, November 2004.

• "No me digan que no", in the volume Páginas amarillas, Ed. Lengua de Trapo, Madrid, November 1997.^[35]
• "Besos para mi mujer", Extramundi y los Papeles de Iria Flavia, Summer 1988.
• "El principio de la continuación", in 27 narradores cordobeses, Ed. Centro Cultural Generación del 27, Área de Cultura de la Diputación de Málaga, Málaga, 1999.
• "Héctor", Ed. Comité Ciudadano Antisida de Sevilla, 1999.
• "Véronique", in Lo del amor es un cuento, Ed. Ópera Prima, Madrid, 1999.
• "Maletas vacías", in Cuento al Sur (1980–2000), Ed. Batarro, ed. Pedro M. Domene, Málaga, 2001.
• "Justicia infinita", in Cuentos eróticos de verano, Ed. Tusquets, Barcelona, 2002.
• "Morir lo más lejos posible", in Daños colaterales. Hazañas antibélicas, Ed. Lengua de Trapo, Madrid, 2002.
• "Todo el mundo tiene amigos raros", in Tragedias de Shakespeare, Ed. 451, Madrid, 2007.

• Lo que cuentan los viajeros, Ed. Plaza & Janés, Barcelona, 1998.

• La oreja izquierda de Van Gogh, (Marqués de Bradomín Prize 1991), Instituto de la Juventud, "Premio Marqués de Bradomín" collection, Madrid, 1992.
• Pasos (Palencia Prize 1996), Ed. Asociación de Autores de Teatro, Madrid, 1997.
• Los enfermos (Borne Prize 1997), Ed. Bitzoc, Palma de Mallorca, 1997.
• Los borrachos, Ed. Ayuntamiento de Alcorcón, 1994. Theatre Prize, XIII National Competition "Ciudad de Alcorcón".
• Caos, Ed. SGAE, Madrid, 2001.
• Grande como una tumba (Caja de España Prize 2000), Ed. Caja de España, Valladolid, 2001.
• El punto, Ed. Asociación de Autores de Teatro, Madrid, 2003.
• Veinticinco años menos un día (XXX Premio Born 2005), Primer Acto, no. 312, Madrid, 2006.
• Yo, Satán, Ed. UNAM, Mexico City, 2006, in an anthology of six contemporary playwrights.
• Johnny cogió su fusil, stage adaptation of Dalton Trumbo's novel, in collaboration with Jesús Cracio, Primer Acto no. 316, Madrid, 2006.
• Cantando bajo las balas, Ed. Ñaque, Ciudad Real, 2007.
• Veinticinco años menos un día, Arola Editors, Barcelona, 2007.
• En un lugar de la niebla, Ed. Instituto Cervantes, October 2011.
• Patadas, Ed. SGAE, Madrid, 2011.

• "La camarera del Sófloque’s", in the magazine El siglo que viene, Seville, July 1996.
• "El hombre que quería volar (pero no tenía un buen maestro)", in Teatro de la España demócrata: los noventa, Ed. Fundamentos, Madrid, 1996, edited by Candyce Leonard and John P. Gabriele.
• "Entre el cielo y la tierra se borraron los confines", Associació per la Fundació Escena, Barcelona, 1999, in the short-play show Sopa de radio.
• "Morir lo más lejos posible", bilingual Spanish–Arabic edition, Ed. Fundación El Legado Andalusí, in Cuento de las dos orillas, Granada, 2001.
• "Confesión", in La confesión, Ed. Asociación de Autores de Teatro, Madrid, 2001, for a production by Walter Manfré.
• "Cazando a Velázquez", Revista Sibila, Seville, October 2002.
• "Espaguetis", in Maratón de Monólogos 2002, Ed. Asociación de Autores de Teatro, Madrid, 2002.
• 11 piezas al azar, collecting the following works: "El premio", "Entre el cielo y la tierra se borraron los confines", "Grande como una tumba", "La camarera del Sófloque’s", "La última vez", "Mendigos", "Morir lo más lejos posible", "Muriendo" and "Una luz que ya no está", Ed. Avispa, Madrid, 2002.
• Vidas y ficciones de la Ciudad de Salamanca, gathering the following dramaturgies and texts: "Donde hay escalas, hay tropiezos", "La Guerra de los Bandos", "Cielo e infierno" and "Las lecciones del hambre", Ed. Consorcio de Salamanca, 2002.
• "Dos exiliados", in Exilios. 18 obras de teatro de autores argentinos, españoles y mexicanos, Ed. Biblos, Buenos Aires, 2003.
• "Dos exiliados", in Teatro breve andaluz, Ed. Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía, 2005.
• "Mendigos (pieza para tres payasos)", in Exclusión. 18 obras de teatro de autores argentinos, españoles y mexicanos, Ed. Sierpe, Mexico, 2012.
• "El mejor plan es el caos", in La soledad es el hogar del monstruo, Imagine Ediciones, Madrid, 2013.

• The Drunkers (2000), English translation of Los borrachos by Tony Baring.
• Chaos (2001), English translation of Caos by Peter A. Muckley.
• "Morir lo más lejos posible", bilingual Spanish–Arabic edition, Ed. Fundación El Legado Andalusí, in Cuento de las dos orillas, Granada, 2001.
• La Vallée de l’ivresse (2002), French translation of Los borrachos by Christine Gagnieux, Les Solitaires Intempestifs.
• Passi (2004), Italian translation of Pasos by Emiliano Coco, in Teatro spagnolo contemporaneo, Edizioni dell’Orso, Rome, 2004.
• Bolnavii, Romanian translation of Los enfermos by Ioana Anghel, in Teatru spaniol contemporan, Fundația Culturală Camil Petrescu, Revista Teatrală azi, Bucharest, 2005.
• Vint-i-cinc anys menys un dia, Catalan translation of Veinticinco años menos un día by Lurdes Malgrat, Primer Acto, Madrid, 2006.
• Los enfermos, Russian translation by Evgeny Shtorn in the journal Hawe, no. 9, 2012.
• Els malalts, Catalan translation of Los enfermos by Damià Borràs.
• Les Malades, French translation of Los enfermos by Cristina Vinuesa and Salwa Al Maïman.

• Blasted, by Sarah Kane. Published in the ADE (Asociación de Directores de Escena) journal, July 1999.

• "Sillas", in the journal of the Asociación de Directores de Escena, Madrid, 1993.
• Elogio del pánico, Ed. Centro Andaluz de Teatro, Seville, 1996, in the volume from the I Jornadas de Autores Andaluces.
• "Ideas temblorosas sobre el tiempo y la tragedia", in Colofón, Bulletin of the International Federation of Libraries of the Campo Freudiano, January 1997, no. 16.
• "Bailando con los deseos", in the collective volume Caprichos, Ed. Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía, Seville, 1998.
• "¿Dónde está el público?", Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Murcia, Murcia, 1998; also published in the magazine Imagen, no. 8, Caracas, February 1998.
• Prologue to La gata sobre el tejado de zinc caliente, by Tennessee Williams, Ed. El Mundo, 1999.
• En el principio era la máscara (annotated anthology of the dramatic texts of the Machado brothers and Juan de Mairena), Ed. Renacimiento, Seville, 2000.

• Los borrachos (fragment, with commentary by Alfonso Zurro), in 35 monólogos para ejercicios, compiled by Alberto Miralles, Ed. Avispa, Madrid, 1999.
• "Los espejos de Velázquez" (second interlude, fragment), Ed. Academia de España en Roma, Rome, 1999.
• "Qué he hecho yo para publicar esto", in 20 escritores jóvenes para el siglo XXI, ed. Noemí Montetes Mairal, Ed. DVD, Barcelona, 1999.
• “Ráfagas”, text for a photographic exhibition by Agustín Hurtado, November 2008, Casa de la Provincia, Diputación de Sevilla.
• Dramaturgia española de hoy, by Fermín Cabal, series of interviews with contemporary authors, Ed. Autor, SGAE, 2009.