THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MÉRIDA’S INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CLASSICAL THEATRE IN THE NO-DO

Abstract

The paper investigates the representation that the NO-DO newsreels made about the Mérida’s Classical International Theatre Festival for three decades, and it is deeply revealed the image reflected by them about this event through the information broadcasted during Francoism between 1959 and 1975, with the dissemination of 9 reports that provide us with essential material to know in depth how this Extremaduran cultural meeting functioned during the dictatorship. With the use of a qualitative methodology, after viewing all the reports, a wealth of data and anecdotes have been found, bringing us closer to the development of this event with images of great interest showing the dissemination capacity that this event already had during the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s, skilfully used by the dictatorship to offer a friendly image of the course of the lives of the Spanish people. Relevant actors such as Francisco Rabal, Gemma Cuervo or José María Rodero are the protagonists of the images that were filmed and spread in this visual document. It’s an essential audiovisual record to know how the festival established itself throughout the country, as well as the theatrical information that is revealed in each newsreel, since it was the only informative source that Spaniards saw every week in cinemas.