Me Vuelves Lorca is a performing arts festival that takes place in Laroles (Nevada), a village of around 600 inhabitants in the heart of the stunning Alpujarra mountains near Granada, in southern Spain. It takes place every summer in a beautiful, handcrafted stone amphitheatre that was built by the local community in 2013. Plays begin as the sun sets and continue under the stars.
The Festival takes its inspiration from the figure of Granada poet and playwright, Federico García Lorca, and his passion for taking the theatre to the rural areas of Spain. It’s name is a quirky play on words that mixes the Spanish phrase “me vuelves loca” (“you drive me crazy”) with the name of the poet and it’s guaranteed to make native Spanish speakers smile.
It forms a part of the award-winning social development project, Un teatro entre todos, that aims to bring a little cultural and economic sparkle to this hidden corner of Spain.
Me Vuelves Lorca is defined by the excellence of its programme and the beauty of its surroundings. It offers visitors a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience and the opportunity to explore an undiscovered corner of southern Spain largely untouched by tourism.
Our story begins with an ancient cobbled corn-threshing circle in a state of considerable disrepair. … Transforming it into an amphitheatre seemed a novel way of breathing new life into an important part of local history.
The threshing circle was restored, thanks to a grant from the regional government of Andalucía, with a view to it becoming the future stage of the amphitheatre. The work involved the construction of retaining walls, the reconstruction of the outer rim of the threshing circle, which had fallen away completely and the restoration of the ancient cobbled floor. The work took a month to complete and the team was made up of one unemployed member of each family of the town, with about 20 families taking part in total.
Rows of stone seating were built around the threshing circle to transform it into an amphitheatre. We used the building techniques and materials traditionally used to create the agricultural terraces of the Alpujarra so that space we created would be in harmony with its spectacular natural surroundings.
With the help of the local Granada government (la Diputación de Granada), in July 2015 we were able to build much-needed stairs up the sides of the amphitheatre, as well as a toilet block and a storeroom for all the equipment. These much needed improvements meant the corn-threshing circle’s transformation into a theatre was finally complete.
Magical evening under the blood moon eclipse. Lorca would have loved it.
Winnie
Impresionante, el entorno, la gente, el proyecto. Obligatorio meterlo en la agenda.
Asun
Estoy en Laroles fascinada por lo genuino de todo. La sencillez de la puesta de escena, el guión seleccionado de textos varios de LORCA súper envolventes y la interpretación del actor y músico tan potentes en un escenario tan titánico con un público tan real... Me han hecho muy feliz y afortunada de estar viviéndolo, de estar presente. ¡Felicitaciones y muchas gracias!
I. Blanco
Desde mi humilde opinión, pienso que fue un buen espectáculo y un gran trabajo por la parte organizativa
Antonio Cruz Escobosa
Súper genuino, y muy muy cálido
Ixa
Gran concierto. La calidad de los músicos ha sido impresionante y el escenario, con vistas a las lomas de la Alpujarra, inmejorable. Además la organización ha sido buena y cuidadosa en los detalles. Repetiría seguro.
Lorenzo
¡Simplemente genial! El texto, la actuación y el entorno... ¡¡¡Me encantó!!!
Ana
Experiencia inolvidable! Se la recomiendo a todo tipo de personas que le guste la cultura y la naturaleza. Hay que poner en valor los pueblos de esta península, especialmente parajes tan interesantes y bellos como Laroles. El festival es estupendo, una gran programa-ción, un equipo organizador cercano, atento y profesional, el lugar y sus gentes, con muchísimo encanto
Salirse del turismo enlatado y disfrutar de la vida del pueblo, al mis-mo tiempo que tienes actividades culturales ha sido lo mejor de este viaje
Un fin de semana maravilloso dentro de un proyecto alucinante que toca el alma
¡Una experiencia impresionante: El enclave, las actividades y la gen-te!. Acercarnos un poco a Lorca me pareció increíble. El teatro del viernes me dejó sin palabras y muy emocionada. No daba crédito a lo que veía y escuchaba...
Organizado con mucho cariño y dedicación por la gente del pueblo que te hacen sentir como en casa
Dinamizar esta zona de un modo tan original, me parece una apuesta de éxito
Una experiencia transformadora
Marta, espectadora
Una experiencia inolvidable por la belleza del proyecto
Iván Prado, director de Festiclown
Una hermosa locura
Eduardo Noriega, actor
Laroles debería ser un lugar de peregrinación teatral
David García, actor
Me paso por Laroles y La Alpujarra ha sido maravilloso
Pepe Viyuela
Me vuelves Lorca is brought to you by an ever-growing (and hard-working!) group of volunteers from the local area and all sorts of other places. We pride ourselves on offering absurdly good theatre and music in a space that is as simple as it is beautiful. The result is magical. A return to the essence of theatre in unspoilt corner of southern Spain just waiting to be discovered.
So don’t just go on holiday this summer… travel. And enjoy a truly one-of-a-kind, off-the-beaten-track experience… in Laroles!
The Festival was set in motion by the local town hall (el Ayuntamiento de Nevada) in conjunction with the Me vuelves Lorca Association, a cultural association that has been working since 2009 to promote theatre in the area. Our aim is to challenge the lack of access to culture typical in rural areas and, in this way, follow in the footsteps of Lorca himself, whose theatre company (La Barraca) took the Spanish classics into every corner of rural Spain. In this way, the Festival represents a creative solution to a complex problem: it seeks to combat rural problems (depopulation, unemployment, lack of resources and limited access to cultural) in a different way, transforming culture into a catalyst for the local economy.
Drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you!
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