Dr Olga Celda Real

Visiting Research Fellow

Contact details

olga.e.celda_real@kcl.ac.uk

Biography

Olga is a Dramaturg and a Dramatic Translator. She holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Performing Arts by the ESAD (University of Valencia), a B.A. (Hons.) in Drama (University of Manchester), an MA in Performance and Culture (Goldsmiths, University of London), and a PhD in Spanish Cultural Studies (King’s College London). Her professional career encompasses theatre research, American drama programs, teaching, drama translations and collaborations as a dramaturg and as a theatre practitioner. In the UK she was Movement Director for the Manchester Youth Theatre; a main collaborator for the I Festival de Teatro Español in Manchester (OLA); Mentor Dramaturg for emerging Spanish playwrights at the Colours of the Chameleon Festival at the Traverse Theatre; Curator of the new writing project SLICES, directing eight short new plays for the East End Collaboration Festival; and run for two academic years the Drama Programme at Marymount College (USA) in London for American undergraduates. Her translation work encompasses the catalogue for the Spanish Film Festival !VIVA! at Manchester’s Cornerhouse; García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba for Shared Experiences in co-production with the Royal Court, García Lorca’s Yerma for the Theatre of Chipping Norton and José Martín Recuerda’s The Inmates at the Convent of Saint Mary Egyptian for Manchester University/ Manchester Greenroom. Dr Olga Celda Real submitted her thesis 'An Ignored Dramatic Genre: the Contribution of the Sainet to the Making of Valencian Cultural Capital (1845-1939)' to King's College London in 2018.

Olga was granted the Trevor J. Dadson J. Publication Enhancement Fund Award in 2021 by the Trustees of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (AHGBI) to help with the completion of her book, The Valencian Sainet: Drama and Socio-Cultural Identity (1845-1939), published by Peter Lang (2023). She was awarded a British Academy / Leverhulme Research Grants Award 2022-2023 for her proposal: The Rumbling of Dissent Laughter: Francoist State Censorship and the Agrupació de Autors Valensiáns. The resulting monograph will deliver a first-time dramaturgical analysis of Valencian sainets during the early years of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in Spain and the cultural activity of a set group of Valencian authors belonging to this literary association.

Olga is a member of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (AHGBI), the Academician of the Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana (RACV) in London, Honorary Member of the Patronage of the Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana (RACV), member of the Colectiu Fullana de Professors d'Universitat i Doctors in Valencia (Spain) and academic collaborator for the research journal ITAMAR (University of Valencia, Spain).

Research Interests

The Valencian Sainet/ El Sainet valencià/ El Sainete Valenciano
Valencian socio-cultural identity
Spanish theatre and drama censorship during the early decades (1939- 1959) of Franco’s dictatorship
Spanish inner exile playwrights
Performativity and theatres as social space
Theatre translation and dramaturgy
Interdisciplinary perspectives in theatre and dance analysis

Conferences and Presentations

Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana (1915), Valencia (Spain)

Presentation of thesis (November 2019): 'An ignored dramatic genre: the contribution of the sainet to the making of Valencian cultural capital (1845-1939)'

66^th Annual Conference of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (March 2021)

Paper: ‘Socio-Cultural Identity: Drama, Polyglossia and Performativity in the Valencian Sainet (1845-1939)’ as part of section ‘Narratives and Identities’.