In Valencia, a spark has been ignited that goes far beyond a premiere: a micro-musical that holds a mirror up to the job uncertainty of those who take to the stage. That heartbeat has a name of its own, 'No-Diva' by Marta Estal, and has burst onto the scene at Russafa Escènica – Festival de Tardor with such force that it has won both main prizes, becoming a symbol of talent, satire and advocacy.
The context in which this piece emerges is not accidental: the motto of the 15th edition, "A pirouette with a double backflip," describes in a few words the daily juggling act of a sector that creates, experiments, and exposes itself while suffering. budgetary constraints and delayed aidThe edition closed with a great public response and, at the same time, with the shadow that the IVC aid order —on which 47% of the executed budget depends— was still unresolved at the end of the festival.
'No-Diva': when bel canto looks in the mirror of uncertainty
Marta Estal's piece stems from an idea as brilliant as it is relatable: a soprano trained to aspire to the highest levels who, instead of La Scala in MilanShe ends up singing in a café in Russafa. From that premise, with subtle humor, self-parody without condescension, and bel canto served in intimate capsules, 'No-Diva' portrays the everyday struggle of the emerging artist that tries to carve out a niche without losing its voice —literal and metaphorical— in a saturated market.
Estal writes the text, directs, and performs, weaving together popular arias associated with Maria Callas with contemporary touches that soften the solemnity and bring opera into sharp, direct engagement. Those who attend 'No-Diva' experience an incredibly close connection between performer and audience, perceive the risk of each note in unconventional spaces, and are swept away by its energy. that energy that only the micromusical format provides when it fits in a shop, a cafe or a coworking space.
The revelation lies not only in the ingenuity, but in the way the invisible is made visible: the sacrifices, the string of gigs, the endless auditions, the poorly paid commissions. All of this woven together with the theatrical tradition and an intimate humor that speaks to both the layperson and the seasoned viewer, and which explains why The connection with the public has been so immediate.
In the words of the organization, Russafa Escènica is fertile ground for experimenting with different artistic languages and taking risks. 'No-Diva' confirms this: in 30 minutes, and with admirable economy of resources, the production suggests a long and ambitious scope, opens doors to its scenic expansion, and offers a "B-side" of bel canto that can rarely be enjoyed so intimately and with such irony. This charisma, versatility, and critical acumen explain the double professional acclaim that Estal's production has received. awarded twice in this edition.
Two awards that validate the impact
On the one hand, the jury of the 'IX SGAE Foundation – Russafa Escènica Playwriting Award', chaired by actress and costume designer María Poquet and composed of programmer and theater producer Sara Rey and playwrights, actors, and stage directors Chema Cardeña and Paula Llorens, highlighted the play's "versatility, its risk-taking, its connection with the audience, and the text's particular sensitivity to the realities of the struggles faced by emerging performers." The award includes a prize of 1.000 euros and the playwright's collaboration. Xavi Puchades to accompany the expansion From a micro-musical to a one-hour work, with a premiere in dramatized reading format scheduled for February 2026 at the SGAE headquarters in Valencia.
On the other hand, the 'I Premi Llavor'—awarded by programmers invited to the festival—also went to 'No-Diva'. The jury included, at the national level, Jaume Gomila (director of FIET, the Balearic Islands Children's and Youth Theatre Festival), Xabier Payá (director general of Culture for Getxo and member of the board of the Network of Publicly Owned Theatres, Auditoriums and Festivals), and Joan Negrié (artistic director of FITT, the Tarragona International Theatre Festival). And, from the Valencian Community, Isabel Cunyat (Assistant in Cultural Programming at Benetússer), Silvia Martínez (Paranimf of the Jaume I University of Castelló and RECLAM Theatre Festival), Josep Policarpo (Cultural Technician for the Alcoy City Council and director of the Alcoy Theatre Festival), and Jacobo Pallarés (President of RIEE and director of Sala Inestable). This panel highlighted "the high quality of the proposal, its complete dramaturgy, the vocal brilliance, and a well-rounded combination of humor and virtuosity" that bring the public an innovative reflection on opera. without losing its freshness or critical edge.
Both accolades point to something essential: 'No-Diva' engages with tradition from the present, and its modular nature facilitates its growth without betraying its spirit. At this intersection of skill and daring, Russafa Escènica fulfills its role as a breeding ground and springboard. paving the way for the professionalization of emerging creators who find in the festival a real environment of visibility, support and programming.
The context of the festival: figures, venues and a willingness to take risks
The 15th edition of Russafa Escènica—held over 11 days—presented 23 shows (16 of them world premieres) and a total of 193 performances, with 101 sold out. Average occupancy reached 83,4%, 2,1 percentage points higher than the previous year, while 5.222 of the 6.429 tickets offered were sold for performances that required them. In parallel, 12 complementary activities were organized—10 of them aimed at professionals—which attracted 594 people. Of these industry-focused sessions, 9 were fully booked, a clear indication of interest and demand for training and networking opportunities. a clear thermometer of tissue health.
The festival occupied several neighborhoods in Valencia and public and private venues such as El TEM, La Mutant, La Rambleta, Sala Russafa, Sala Círculo, the CCCC, La Beneficencia, and Nau 3 Ribes. It also took over retro shops, academies, real estate agencies, cafes, coworking spaces, and restaurants in the Russafa neighborhood to host short performances. unconventional spacesThat iconic format that defines its DNA. Under those conditions, the audience experience acquires a unique intensity, because Proximity alters the pulse of the sceneand each performance resonates in dialogue with the place and the audience.
“Every year we feel the pressure to put together a program that is on par with—or even surpasses—the previous editions,” admits artistic director Jerónimo Cornelles. With 16 world premieres out of 23 titles, the undertaking involved faith in the creators, many of them with their first experiences writing or directing; the reward has been a harvest of bold proposals. capable of attracting new audiences and opening up new languages.
For Cornelles, the Valencian performing arts are sustained by a solid foundation of established professionals and a vibrant pool of young talent. Every May, the organization opens a call for applications to plan the following year's program, assuming an enormous financial risk—as they themselves point out—because the current IVC grant application process was not resolved in time, affecting almost half of the executed budget. Within this context, Culture is produced while stability is demanded..
Operationally, Russafa Escènica mobilized some 140 people, including 71 performing arts professionals involved in a program featuring local, national, and international works. The impact extends beyond the festival days: the Vía Escènica program will guarantee a regional tour of the short performances in 2026, visiting ten municipalities in the province of Valencia—Alaquàs, Alboraia, Aldaia, Alfafar, Almussafes, Alzira, Benifaió, Foios, Quart de Poblet, and Rafelbunyol—linking together processes of mediation and exhibition that They will broaden the scope of the projects born in the neighborhood.
Fifteen editions, one identity and a demand to the institutions
Beyond this year's snapshot, the festival has premiered 323 shows throughout its history, and its programming has been enjoyed by nearly 93.400 people. This figure underscores its impact as a cultural catalyst, attracting new audiences and serving as a laboratory for performing arts practices, at the grassroots level in neighborhoods and cities. Therefore, the organizers are once again asking institutions to strengthen public-private collaboration and that effectively support initiatives arising from the sector itself, which demonstrate year after year their ability to mobilize audiences and generate community.
In fact, the edition closed with 5.766 people attending the program and parallel activities, consolidating Russafa Escènica's brand as a platform for discovery. The motto "A pirouette with a double backflip" served as both metaphor and warning: the programming is excellent and the festival maintains its momentum, but it's a balancing act for survival. Perhaps that's why a piece like 'No-Diva' resonated so deeply, with its humor and sharp wit, It puts words and music to a shared reality by so many cultural workers.
A dynamic ecosystem: programming, venues and other offerings
The performing arts and cultural activity of the city and its surroundings both feeds into and is fed by the festival. Sala Russafa, for example, kicked off its 15th season on September 18th and raised the curtain with 'La reina pirata' (The Pirate Queen), written by Marta Salinas and directed by José Zamit, a sign of the theater's continued connection with the Russafa Escènica network. fifteen years of complicity and neighborliness.
Following the same territorial network logic, the fourth edition of Vía Escènica activated creative residencies in ten municipalities in July, where the festival team led mediation sessions with observation groups made up of local residents. In September, these groups selected two more shows from the program to perform in their towns, thus integrating the cultural decision in the life of each municipality and strengthening the bonds between creators and citizens.
The sector, however, is not isolated from current events. The DANA storm affected some thirty performing arts companies—companies, venues, and technical services—damaging infrastructure and programming. Even so, professionals insisted on continuing to work and reorganizing schedules. recover from losses, another symptom of collective resilience in a profession accustomed to setbacks.
The city also moves to the rhythm of other independent festivals that awaken after summer: La Mutant hosted new editions of Truenorayo Fest, Russafa Escènica, and Circuito Bucles in September, a trio that shapes a map of musical, performing arts, and contemporary dance offerings each season. From there, it is reconfigured the cultural pulse of Valencia with a cadence of premieres, residencies and dialogues between disciplines.
The festival had already been engaging with its times. In its 14th edition, under the motto 'Fins ací arribarà la mar' (The sea will reach here), more than 30 proposals were presented, including 14 world premieres, and the festival reiterated its lament over the uncertainty surrounding some unresolved institutional funding that was impacting the budget. This context explains why titles such as 'No-Diva' doesn't emerge from a vacuumbut as part of an ongoing conversation about the sustainability of the sector.
The program of venues and featured artists also illustrates the diversity and commitment: 'Princeses, cavallers i dracs. El dia que deixàrem de ser xiquets' (Princesses, Knights and Dragons. The Day We Stopped Being Kids), by Jerónimo Cornelles and Guadalupe Sáez, landed at the Teatre Principal to focus on adolescence in its transition to adult responsibility; meanwhile, 'Arcángeles' (Archangels), by Chema Cardeña, condensed eighty years of harassment and persecution of the gay male community, woven into stories inspired by real people, a reminder that The scene is also memory and denunciation..
The festival itself offered striking contrasts, as a chronicle from the house recounted on its first day: Álvaro de la Merced's 'Holocaust' versus Juan Mandli's 'Absent Child'. Two 'Viveros' situated at opposite poles, the present-day voice of a hyper-creative youth versus the body gazing at the past in a gesture of farewell. With these counterpoints, the idea of Russafa Escènica takes root. Listen to the real and the fictional in all its ages, in dialogue with spaces and audiences.
The cultural movement is not confined to the stage. In the visual arts, the Rosa Santos Gallery hosted Joan Sebastian's 'After Opalka,' extending Roman Opalka's conceptual gesture of numbering, one by one, to infinity. At the IVAM, in collaboration with the Reina Sofía Museum, a major retrospective of Soledad Sevilla—'Rhythms, Plots, Variables'—brought together more than a hundred works from the 60s to the present, always "in search of the unfinished." Both milestones underscore the continuity between experimentation, memory, and institution.
The audiovisual sector achieved its own milestones: the Cantabria Film Archive programmed a series on the "Evolution of Fantasy Cinema," including iconic titles such as Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' and the Wachowskis' 'The Matrix,' and another dedicated to Polish cinema directed by women, which will travel to Valencia, Madrid, and Murcia, among other cities. In that same vein, the Valencia Film Archive hosted the preview of the seventh feature film by Argentine filmmaker Albertina Carri, '¡Caigan las rosas blancas!' (Let the White Roses Fall!), previously presented in Rotterdam, where she revisits formal explorations begun in earlier works, demonstrating once again that Cinema, like theater, is a territory of risk..
The essay 'La rabia' (The Rage), a volume in the Cine Collection from Ediciones Contrabando, also revolved around Carri's work. It was written by Michèle Soriano, a researcher and passionate admirer of Carri's filmography. Furthermore, in the area of social commitment and outreach, the interactive comic 'La biosfera que nos une' (The Biosphere That Unites Us) introduced Valencian youth to the work of the NGO Cesal in the Haitian-Dominican Transboundary Biosphere Reserve. Created by Carlos Valles, Rubén Rico, Sara Ruiz, Alba López, and Álvaro Serrano, it serves as an example of how... narratives and territories intersect to educate and raise awareness.
Further appealing to a wider audience, CaixaForum València presented 'Top Secret', a journey through the history of espionage in film, from classic 20th-century tales to modern reinterpretations of the genre. Simultaneously, Panorama Flamenco returned to the Teatre Talia with a stellar lineup featuring Pedro El Granaíno, Alba Molina, the Barcelona Flamenco Ballet, and the duo of Daniel Caballero and Nerea Carrasco, reinforcing the idea that the city beats in several rhythms at once and that the scene coexists with other arts in the same ecosystem.
Also deserving of mention is Deva Sand, a French artist and researcher, director of the Centro Calima cultural platform in Gilet (Valencia) and curator of Calima'RT, who passed away at the age of 57. Her project, described during her lifetime as "a flash of light," symbolizes the will to weave an artistic community From a local perspective with an international outlook, an intuition very close to the philosophy of Russafa Escènica.
Why 'No-Diva' has become an immediate reference
The success of 'No-Diva' cannot be explained solely by its technical excellence or the boldness of its premise. It lies in its ability to encapsulate a collective feeling with a light and precise style, without resorting to victimhood and without losing its humor. Its author and star, Marta Estal, has skillfully played with the conventions of bel canto, cleverly quoting popular arias associated with Maria Callas, and simultaneously grounding a story of struggle that resonates with so many of her colleagues. This balance allows the piece to work in a neighborhood bar and to expand to an hour without losing its essence. In other words, It's a round message format which the festival was able to detect and embrace.
The fact that both the technical juries and the programmers agreed in recognizing the work illustrates another point: the market seeks high-quality proposals with a distinct identity that truly connect with the audience. Xavi Puchades's involvement in the process of expanding the work and the staged reading planned for February 2026 outline a clear roadmap, where experimentation with the short format becomes trampoline for wider circuits without losing the essence of closeness that made it shine.
In the sum of the numbers—5.766 attendees, 193 performances, 83,4% occupancy, 12 parallel activities with 594 participants—and in the sum of the gestures—open calls, networks with venues, support for playwrights—Russafa Escènica reaffirms its role as a central hub for contemporary performing arts in Valencia. With teams of 140 people and 71 artistic professionals, and with the Vía Escènica project planned to expand to ten municipalities in 2026, it offers more than just a program: articulates an ecosystem where pieces like 'No-Diva' are not coincidences, but logical consequences of a living habitat.
Without moralizing, what this edition leaves us with is the certainty that risk pays off when there is listening, mediation, and skill, and that precariousness, named without euphemisms, does not prevent us from celebrating an excellent harvest. 'No-Diva' has captured the tone of an era and the shape of a possible future: closer, more hybrid, more courageous. On that path, the invitation to support and protect what works —from the institutions and from the public— sounds as in tune as the arias that, in a cafe in Russafa, reminded us why we keep going to the theater.
