The Teatre Lliure in Barcelona is one of Spain's most important creative and exhibition centres. Its current manager is the theatre director Juan Carlos Martel Bayod, and it is a member of the mitos21 European network of public theatres.
The Lliure's objectives today fall within four areas: the stage, the digital stage, cultural action and educational action.
They are all linked by a commitment to society and the community, and the engagement with the city is combined with a national and international profile; contemporary creativity in hybrid formats, highlighting the timeless value of the performing arts as a whole. Making theatre accessible to all audiences goes hand in hand with managing an institution within the framework of the new parameters of economic and environmental sustainability, as it is about to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary.
The Teatre Lliure was founded as a cooperative in 1976 by a group of artists led by Fabià Puigserver, and is now a private foundation, in which the following public authorities have a shareholding: Barcelona City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, the Government of Catalonia and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
The organisation has two venues: one in Montjuïc, which includes the large format Sala Fabià Puigserver (maximum 720 seats) and the small format Espai Lliure (maximum 172 seats), and another in Gràcia, with a medium sized theatre (maximum 250 seats).
