The playwright María Velasco (Burgos, 40 years old) has been awarded this Thursday with the National Prize for Dramatic Literature for the year 2024 for her work First blood. The text, which premiered in May at the Valle-Inclán theatre in Madrid, directed by the author herself and produced by the Centro Dramático Nacional (CDN), invokes the memory of a girl kidnapped and murdered in the 1990s in Burgos, whose case was dismissed without the culprit being found. The aim is to reflect on the naturalisation of sexual violence, child abuse or the terror with which girls of her generation grew up due to crimes such as this one or the most media-covered one of the time, that of the girls of Alcàsser, who went out into the street in fear and “asking for forgiveness, with the feeling that public space was not theirs”, wrote Velasco in the programme for the show.
The play, which was also awarded the 31st SGAE Jardiel Poncela Theatre Award in 2022, will be performed from 14 to 24 November at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (Barcelona), on 29 and 30 November at the Teatre El Musical in Valencia and on 21 and 22 March 2025 at the Central in Seville.
The award, The award, granted by the Ministry of Culture, is worth 30,000 euros. In its argument, the jury highlights the winning title for “the dramatic force of a fabulous text, with beautiful lyrical language (… ) With a unique and very personal style, María Velasco manages to bring theatre as an art to its maximum expression, communicating, with direct dialogue, a story conceived in a totally scenic way. Halfway between the memorial, the document and the gothic tale, First blood It encourages us to reflect on realities that distress the entire social fabric and confronts us, with exquisite delicacy, with the terror caused by the abuse and deaths of women and girls.”
Nevertheless, First blood She flees from the macabre and even seeks humour in a world of violence. After the premiere of the play in Madrid in May, Velasco told this newspaper: “All my works arise from self-inquiry, when I come across something that worries me or hurts me. But it is not an individual inquiry, but rather shared concerns, searches shared with women of my age, with actresses of different generations and people around me.”
In a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS from Mexico, where she is participating in a cycle of creative women, Velasco today admitted her joy at the “unexpected institutional recognition” of a theatre like hers, “which formally moves in no man’s land, between contemporary and popular stage languages.” At the same time, she recognizes that her works are not easy either because of their themes, often traversed by the same systemic violence against the weak and the dead that she addresses. First blood.Although it has a very loyal audience, I know that it is a difficult theatre, still difficult for the spectators. That is why I believe in the need to continue to influence this.”
Seasoned in Madrid’s alternative scene, Velasco has in recent years made the leap to more institutional circuits to become one of the most striking voices in contemporary Spanish drama. Among her titles are: Hunting scenes (2018), The foam of the days (2019); I will cut off men from the face of the earth (Max Award 2021 for best playwright) and Harakiri (2022). In April 2025, a new piece will premiere, The aliens will come and have your eyes, in Nave 10 of Matadero Madrid.
Born in 1984, the creator holds a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University and a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts Practice and Visual Culture from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the University of Alcalá. For two years she was a member of the Institute of Cinematography and Visual Arts. She has also produced and directed some of her shows since 2013 and has made adaptations for the Teatro de la Zarzuela and dramaturgies for dance companies. In addition, she has published theory on film, essays and narrative and more than a dozen plays. She has received awards such as the Max Aub–Ciutat de València Award (2017), the Heidelberger Stückemarkt International Award (2022) and the Max Award for Best Theatrical Authorship (2022). Her texts for theatre have been translated into several languages (French, Italian, English, German, Turkish…).
The jury was chaired by Jesús González, Deputy Director General for the Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Literature. The members were Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, proposed by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE); Euloxio R. Ruibal, by the Royal Galician Academy; Arantzazu Fernández Iglesias, by the Royal Academy of the Basque Language; Enric Gallén Miret, by the Institute of Catalan Studies; Maria Àngels Francés, by the Valencian Academy of the Language; José Vicente Peiró, by the Spanish Association of Literary Critics; Carolina Fernández, by the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE); Guillermo Laín, by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); María Jesús Bajo, by the Association of Writers of Spain-Association of Theatre Authors (ACE-ATT); Raquel García-Pascual, by the Centre for Gender Studies of the UNED; Irene Pardo, for the Ministry of Culture, and Paula Carballeira, awarded in the previous edition.
The award recognised Paula Carballeira in its last edition, joining a long list of winners, including Pablo Remón, Guillem Clua, Alberto Conejero, Yolanda García Serrano, Alfredo Sanzol, Juan Mayorga and Angélica Liddell, among others.