Events

Galo Salinas was born in Coruña in 1852. A prolific writer, he was one of the pioneers of Galician theatre, while his role as the founder and editor of Revista Gallega. Semanario de Literatura e intereses regionales (1895-1907) (with contributions from authors such as Leandro Carré, Francisco Tettamancy and Florencio Vaamonde) brought him into regular contact with members of the Cova Céltica cultural circle. He died in the city of his birth in 1926.

Galo Salinas’s career as a playwright began in 1890 when he was awarded first prize in a literary competition organised by the Coruña-based Liceo Brigantino cultural association, for a one-act historical drama entitled A torre de Peito Burdelo. In 1892, he won the only theatre competition in Galicia that year (awarded by the Amigos de Pontevedra society), for the drama Filla...! His first theatrical critique, on the underdevelopment and near-invisibility of theatre practice in Galicia (Memoria acerca del teatro gallego. Causas de su poco desarrollo e influencia que en el mismo puede ejercer el regionalismo, 1896) suggested a regionalist solution to the problem, in the form of a business investor: a generous, regionalist-minded friend of Galicia, who would be willing to subsidise a Galician tour of home-grown theatre writing and production. He was also closely involved in the short-lived Regional School of Recital project, founded in Coruña in 1903.

Textos recuperados. De Galo Salinas a Castelao (2012) is a collection of Galician theatre texts from the period 1903-1923, edited and annotated by Iolanda Galanes, with a critical introduction by Laura Tato Fontaíña. Published by the Francisco Pillado Mayor Library and Archive Collection of Theatrical Literature (managed and coordinated by ILLA), the volume comprises nineteen texts, offering new understanding of and insights into some of the lesser-known aspects of the history of the theatre in Galicia. The four texts by Galo Salinas bear witness to his evolution and pioneering contribution as a Galician playwright: Sabela, comedia nun acto, first performed in Madrid in 1903 by the Madrid Galician Centre recital group; the innovative one-act dramatic prose poem, Entre dous mundos. Poema dramático nun acto e en prosa (1919), which introduced urban middle class life as a subject in Galician drama; a return to familiar local settings and characters in Copas e bastos. Sainete de feitos gallegos, nun acto, first performed in Coruña in 1922; and another traditional-style comic monologue from the same year, Os meus amores.