Gregorio Martínez Sierra
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Gregorio Martínez Sierra (6 May 1881 – 1 October 1947) was a Spanish writer, poet, dramatist, and theatre director, a key figure in the revival of the Spanish theatrical avant-garde in the early twentieth century.
Biography
Firstborn son of Eduardo Martínez Cuesta and Emilia Sierra Muñoz, he had 5 sisters and 2 brothers. In 1900, he married the writer María de la O Lejárraga García. The deft handling of female characters in Martínez Sierra's works has been attributed to the collaboration of his wife.<ref>O'Connor 1966</ref> Since the publication of her memoir Gregorio y yo ('Gregorio and I', 1953), her authorship of many of his plays has been increasingly recognised by scholars.<ref>Martínez Sierra 1953; O'Connor 1977</ref>
Work as a poet and playwright
Martínez Sierra's literary career began at the age of 17 with the publication of El poema del trabajo ('The Poem of Work', 1898), a volume of poetry in the modernist style. His subsequent books of poetry included Diálogos fantásticos ('Fantastic Dialogues', 1899), Flores de escarcha ('Frost Flowers', 1900) and La casa de primavera ('The House of Spring', 1907).
As a playwright, Martínez Sierra was one of the few progressive dramatists whose productions achieved any measure of commercial success at the time of their composition.Template:Citation needed<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> His major works include La sombra del padre ('Shadow of the Father', 1909), Primavera en otoño ('Spring in Autumn', 1911), Sólo para mujeres ('For Women Only', 1913), Mamá ('Mama', 1913) and El reino de Dios ('The Kingdom of God', 1916). Template:Lang ('Cradle Song', 1911), which has been called his "masterpiece",Template:Citation needed<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> was popular across the Spanish-speaking world, and an English-language adaptation transferred to Broadway in 1927. Several of Martínez Sierra's plays were adapted into films, including Template:Lang (as Cradle Song, dir. Mitchell Leisen, 1933).
Work as a publisher and director
Martínez Sierra's influence was largely as a publisher and director. Through his publishing house, Renacimiento ('Rebirth'), he translated the work of William Shakespeare, Maurice Maeterlinck and Santiago Rusiñol, and introduced the work of European playwrights including George Bernard Shaw and Luigi Pirandello to Spain. The authorship of the translations published under Gregorio's name belongs undoubtedly to his wife, María Lejárraga, who was fluent in several languages (French, English, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese)<ref>Aguilera Sastre 2012</ref> and she had published translations under her own name before, after and during her attachment to him.
In 1917 he was appointed Director of Madrid's Teatro Eslava and remained there until 1925, transforming the venue into Spain's first Art Theatre.<ref>Martínez Sierra 1926</ref> Amongst a series of Spanish and foreign playwrights<ref>Playwrights staged at the Eslava during Martínez Sierra's tenure included Shakespeare, Molière, Goldoni, Dumas, Ibsen, Barrie and Bernard Shaw; Anderson 1984, p. 27</ref> whose work he produced "in a new, forward-looking style",<ref>Edwards 1985, p. 131</ref> it was at Martínez Sierra's invitation that Federico García Lorca created and staged, at the Eslava, his first play, El maleficio de la mariposa ('The Curse of the Butterfly'), in 1920.
Filmography
- Mamá, directed by Benito Perojo (1931, based on the play Mamá)
- Primavera en otoño, directed by Eugene Forde (1933, based on the play Primavera en otoño)
- Una viuda romántica, directed by Louis King (1933, based on the play Sueño de Una Noche de Agosto)
- Cradle Song, directed by Mitchell Leisen (1933, based on the play Template:Lang)
- Yo, tú y ella, directed by John Reinhardt (1933, based on the play Mujer)
- Julieta compra un hijo, directed by Louis King and Gregorio Martínez Sierra (1935, based on the play Julieta compra un hijo)
- Susana tiene un secreto, directed by Benito Perojo (1935, based on the play Susana tiene un secreto)
- Template:Lang, directed by Gregorio Martínez Sierra (Argentina, 1941, based on the play Template:Lang)
- Template:Interlanguage link, directed by Gregorio Martínez Sierra (Argentina, 1942, based on the novel Tú eres la paz)
- Los hombres las prefieren viudas, directed by Gregorio Martínez Sierra (Argentina, 1943, based on the play Los hombres las prefieren viudas)
- El amor brujo, directed by Antonio Román (Spain, 1949, based on the ballet El amor brujo)
- Template:Lang, directed by Fernando de Fuentes (Mexico, 1953, based on the play Template:Lang)
- Honeymoon, directed by Michael Powell (UK/Spain, 1959, based on the ballet El amor brujo)
- Template:Lang, directed by José María Elorrieta (Spain, 1961, based on the play Template:Lang)
- Cradle Song, directed by José Luis Garci (Spain, 1994, based on the play Template:Lang)
Screenwriter
- La ciudad de cartón (dir. Louis King, 1934)
- Dama de compañía (dir. Alberto de Zavalía, 1940)
- La novia de la Marina (dir. Benito Perojo, 1948)
Director
- The Trial of Mary Dugan (1931, co-director: Marcel De Sano)
- Julieta compra un hijo (1935, co-director: Louis King)
- Template:Lang (1941)
- Template:Interlanguage link (1942)
- Los hombres las prefieren viudas (1943)
Notes
References
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External links
- Spanish male dramatists and playwrights
- Spanish publishers (people)
- Spanish theatre directors
- 1881 births
- 1947 deaths
- Spanish opera librettists
- Writers from Madrid
- 19th-century Spanish writers
- 19th-century poets
- 20th-century Spanish male writers
- 20th-century Spanish poets
- 20th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights
- Spanish male poets
- 19th-century Spanish male writers