The Festival

Temporada Alta was born at the hands of Bitò Produccions and supported by Girona City Council from the outset. The program only included four hilarious shows which were staged at the La Mercè Centre Cultural in Girona. In this first edition, the festival created the Theatre Patrons' Club, a formula created by Bitò to bring more money into theatre programs and which was to become one of the keys to establishing the festival.

Outstanding artists: Talleret de Salt.

In its second year Temporada Alta already had two premiers, but it is still a simple closed program to open the theatre season in Girona.

Outstanding artists: Juan Echanove.

For the first time the Temporada Alta cycle programmed two foreign shows and began to travel the road that years later would make Temporada Alta an international festival of the highest level.

Outstanding artists: Sèmola Teatre i Philippe Genty.

Temporada Alta is still a cycle of theatre for the people of Girona. It already includes, however, four premiers. One of them was Ubú President by Els Joglars.

Outstanding artists: Els Joglars i Sèmola Teatre.

The 1996 edition was one of the most important ones. In five years the number of spectators has doubled and Bitò began to trace the embryonic design of festival with the complicity of Girona City Council. The poster was commissioned from an artist for first time. Since then one of the surprises of the festival each year would be the poster.

Outstanding artists: Talleret de Salt, La Fura dels Baus, Adolfo Marsillach, Víctor Ullate, Pep Bou, Mauro Gioia i Foostsbarn Travelling Theatre.

Another decisive edition. For the first time Temporada Alta presented a festival format and wide program open to different scenic languages designed to increase the quality of the artists and audience a little more each year. Opening of a new space, the Salt Theatre.

Outstanding artists: Talleret de Salt, Els Joglars, La Fura dels Baus, Tantakka Teatro, Núria Espert, Marta Carrasco, Robert Lepage, Hanna Schygulla i Jango Edwards.

Temporada Alta is now an international theatre festival, for the number of shows, the premiers and the participation of foreign companies, even though it is only financed by the Girona and Salt City Councils and the companies who were members of the Theatre Patrons' Club.

Outstanding artists: Sèmola Teatre, La Fura dels Baus, José Luis Gómez, Núria Espert, Pep Bou, Jango Edwards, Leo Bassi, Philippe Gaulier, Irina Brook i Misia.

The festival reaches maturity, the beginning of a design that must define the next stage in the evolution of the project and the role to be played by Catalan and Spanish theatre, but without forgetting Europe.

Outstanding artists: Adolfo Marsillach, Núria Espert, Vicky Peña, Montserrat Carulla, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Lluís Homar, Pepe Rubianes, Roger Bernat-General Eléctrica, Josef Nadj, Albena Teatre i IT Dansa.

This edition was marked by the first visit of the director Peter Brook to Temporada Alta. The festival stabilised itself in a year without significant growth.

Outstanding artists: Peter Brook, Rosa Novell, Compañía Nacional de Teatro de México, Ute Lemper, Àlex Rigola, Rafael Álvarez El Brujo, Faemino y Cansado i Dagoll Dagom.

The festival can no longer benefit from its most emblematic space, the Girona Municipal Theatre. The closure for reform work did not, however, affect the loyalty that the audience had maintained with the festival since its beginnings. For the first time, Temporada Alta participated in the production of three shows.

Outstanding artists: Milva, Companyia Kràmpack, Comediants, Boban Markovic Orkestar, Maurizio Scaparro, Comediants, Centre Dramatique de Tours, Pascal Comelade, Chano Domínguez, Sol Picó, Albert Boadella i Mal Pelo.

Even more joint productions, with seven shows. The exclusive presence of the actress Isabelle Huppert, with 4.48 psychose, would make Temporada Alta known abroad.

Outstanding artists: Isabelle Huppert, Meret Becker, Antonio Canales, Pere Arquilué, Maurice Bejart, Declan Donnellan, Cecilia Rossetto, Royal Shakespeare Company, Avner, Susana Rinaldi, Lluís Homar i Rosa Novell.

After eleven years of festival, Temporada Alta received the support of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The Catalan government recognised the role the festival played in Catalan theatre as an entry point for international shows and the work done in the production of events.

Outstanding artists: Maria Friedman, Josep Maria Pou, Maurice Friedman, Amparo Rivelles, Núria Espert, Maribel Verdú, Maddalena Crippa, Charo López, Rosa Maria Sardà, Patrice Chéreau, Carles Santos, Javier Daulte, Mercè Sampietro, Albert Pla, Vicky Peña i Djivan Gasparyan.

Temporada Alta presented a very special and interesting edition with performances by Jan Fabre, Thomas Ostermeier, Peter Brook and Johan Simons. Many critics considered Temporada Alta as the best festival in the country. The Ministry for the Arts collaborated with Girona for the first time.

Outstanding artists: Isabel Coixet, Carme Elias, La Fura dels Baus, Toti Soler, Enric Casasses, Eduardo Mendoza, José Sanchis Sinisterra, Julia Migenes, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jan Fabre, Peter Brook, Thomas Ostermeier, Anne Tismer, Mario Gas i Leonor Watling.

The four-year agreement signed with the Generalitat enabled designing the festival of the future with the pretension that it become the Autumn Festival still missing in Catalonia.

Outstanding artists: Miguel Poveda, Enrique Morente, Sergi López, La Fura dels Baus, Mariza, Gelabert-Azzopardi, Animalario, Rafael Spregelburd, Victoria Chaplin, Jaume Sisa, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Sol Picó, Ahmed Ghazali, Ismael Lo, Teatre Lliure, Sala Beckett, TNC, Joel Joan, Camut Band, Watermill, Els Joglars i Joan Ollé.

Temporada Alta became the Autumn Festival of Catalonia and opened the remodelled Municipal Theatre of Girona with a performance of La Nit just abans dels Boscos under the direction of Àlex Rigola. The cast was headed by Josep Maria Pou, Pere Arquillué, Francesc Orella, Andreu Benito, Jordi Bosch and Lluís Homar.

Outstanding artists: José Luis Gómez, Laurie Anderson, Peter Brook, Àlex Rigola, Kristyan Lupa, Pascal Comelade, The Watermill Theatre, Agnès Jaoui, Ubu Theatre, Carlota Subirós, Gonzalo Cunill, Carles Santos i Erre que erre.

EL CANAL, Scenic Arts Centre of Salt/Girona, premiered its first shows during the festival closing ceremony. From that moment on EL CANAL and Temporada Alta would work intensely along two lines: the production of shows by Catalan playwrights and joint international productions that would help artists become better known abroad.

Outstanding artists: Dario Fo, Martin Wuttke, Sergi Belbel, Carles Alfaro, Paolo Conte, Claudio Tolcachir, Daniel Veronese, Benjamín Biolay, Peter Brook, Joan Ollé, Jérôme Deschamps i Macha Makeïeff, Frederic Amat, Ballet Preljocaj i Michel Camilo Trio.

In an edition where the festival had the highest audience attendance and occupation of its history, Temporada Alta timidly began the joint production of shows with festivals and theatres from outside the country. The four-year period was over and now we had to design the future of the festival and the new stage which will open up as of 2010.

Outstanding artists: Pau Miró, Marta Carrasco, Llibert Fortuny, Patrice Chéreau, Xavier Albertí, Lluïsa Cunillé, Jordi Prat i Coll, Rosa Maria Sardà, Àlex Rigola, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Martín Wuttke, Ricardo Bartís, Lisa Nelson i Steve Paxton, William Kentridge, Ani di Difranco, Peter Brook, Leandre Ribera, I Colombaioni, Rafel Duran, Antonio Simón, Mariano Pensotti.

2009 was by far the best year because of the high quality programme, featuring both national and international artists, and the number of shows premièred. There were 6,230 more spectators than in the previous edition. The 2009 festival also maintained its commitment with festivals and theatres from outside Catalonia to put on coproduced shows, thanks to the financial assistance of the Interreg IV programme of the European Union.

Outstanding artists: William Kentridge, Declan Donnellan i Cheek by Jowl, Peter Brook, Daniel Veronese, Claudio Tolcachir, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Maria Pagés, Krystian Lupa, The Watermill Theatre, Picolo Teatro di Milano, Slava Polunin, Baro D'evel Cirk, Ute Lemper i Christoph Marthaler.

The festival took a small step forward in 2010: the programme and the productions premièred were high in quality and audience reception was excellent. That's why the 2010 edition had the highest number of visitors in the festival's history.

Outstanding artists: Krystian Lupa, Claudio Tolcachir, Michael Pennington, Teatri Uniti, els germans Forman, Joan Ollé, Julio Manrique, Tricicle, Marta Angelat, Sergi López, Carles Santos.