Sanchis Sinisterra, José

b. 1940, Valencia

   Dramatist

   Sanchis Sinisterra combines playwriting and directing with a thorough academic knowledge, and has written widely on the modern theatre. His dramatic style draws on historical research and literary sources. In 1990 he won the National Theatre Prize (see also prizes). He founded the Teatro Fronterizo in 1977 and the Beckett Theatre in Barcelona in 1989. He has reintroduced classical myth to the modern stage, and reworked master-pieces from the past, often with a contemporary political slant. Many of his plays deal with the discovery of the New World: Conquistador o El Retablo de Eldorado (Conqueror or the Eldorado's Retable) (1985); Crímenes y locuras del traidor Lope de Aquirre (Crimes and Extravagances of the Traitor Lope de Aquirre) (1986), and Naufragios de Álvar Núñez (Álvar Núñez's Shipwrecks) (1991). He has also written works based on or related to modern literature, for instance, Joyce's Ulysses, Melville's Moby Dick and Cortázar's Rayuela. He is the author of ¡Ay Carmela! (1986), one of the outstanding successes of the contemporary stage, adapted for the cinema by Carlos Saura in 1989.

   MARÍA FRANCISCA VILCHES DE FRUTOS