Enrique Lanz

Founder and Director

Premio Nacional de Teatro para la infancia y la juventud 2014 Ξ Premio Prestigio Turístico Nacional

(Granada, 1964). He has directed Etcétera since 1981. He combines self-teaching  with courses taught by reputed teachers of theater, including Xavier Fàbregas, Albrecht Roser, Henryk Jurkowski, and Jean-Pierre Lescot.

With his first productions, Sypnosis (1985) and Trans (1990), he reached the most important European puppet festivals, including Charleville-Mézières, Bielsko-biala, Mistelbach, Pleven, and Athens. Given the relevance and prestige gained by these invitations, in 1994 Etcétera became the first theater company in Spain to be filmed in high definition by Televisión Española. In 1996 Lanz co-produced the oratorio Motets in Dialogue by G. Bouzignac along with the la Société de Musique Ancienne, the Maritime Alps Department Choir, and the Théâtre de la Massue. That year Transwas invited to Tehran’s International Puppet Festival, where it was selected as the best performance; Sypnosis followed that by earning the same distinction in 1998.

In 1997 Lanz produced Peter and the Wolf, which garnered the Teatralia National Award in 1999 for best children theater. This work opened the doors of Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu‘s main hall to children in 2002 and today counts more than two thousand performances in Spain, Europe, and the Americas.

Since that time the director’s work has trended toward staging puppet productions, which have a classical music repertoire as their source: La Serva Padrona (1998), The History of Babar the Elephant (2001), and Dreaming the Carnival of the Animals (2004), The Little Theatre of Bernat (2005), El retablo de maese Pedro (2009), and The Box of Toys (2009).

For his work on El retablo de maese Pedro, Enrique Lanz was named best stage director for the 2008-2009 season by Barcelona’s then opera critic.

2005 and 2006 saw extraordinary public success through nearly one hundred  performances of Peter and the Wolf and Dreaming the Carnival of the Animals at the Centro Cultural de la Villa (Madrid). In this setting, now called Teatro Fernán Gómez, The Box of Toys premiered during the Christmas season of 2009. A similar version, The Attic of Toys, came to the Teatro Real in 2011.

As a teacher, he has taught in Spain, Cuba and Ecuador. His company has been a source of professionals in this theater specialty throughout three decades. Between 1998 and 2007, he was artistic director of «The Puppet Fair» organized by the Huerta de San Vicente, and, since 2005, he also directed “El rinconcillo de Cristobica», an event promoted by the Diputación de Granada, which addresses the art of animated figures. He has curated several exhibitions dedicated to his grandfather, the multifaceted artist, Hermenegildo Lanz. He has also been artistic consultant for the annual mechanical cabaret theater event at Granada’s Parque de las Ciencias.

He is curator and exhibition designer of Puppets. 30 years of Etcétera, at Granada’s Parque de las Ciencias.

More information:

Emisora Habana Radio,«Etcétera apuesta por un teatro de arte. Entrevista a Yanisbel Martínez y a Enrique Lanz, del Grupo de Títeres Etcétera (I)», por Marilyn Garbey

Emisora Habana Radio, «Entender por qué es necesario el teatro. Entrevista a Enrique Lanz y a Yanisbel Martínez, del Grupo de Teatro de Títeres Etcétera (II)», por Marilyn Garbey