Abstract

Starting from the recent statistical data of public funding to all cultural sectors at national, regional and local levels in Spain, the paper focuses on government action both in directly managing theatres and festivals or in just supporting independent production companies or off theatres. The main subjects are: supply and demand of performances, its distribution at national, regional and provincial levels, independent companies and production centres, public as well as private, the issues involved in the production and programming of shows, the structural weakness of the Spanish theatre system. A set of problems that, together with a downward trend of demand, calls for a necessary role of public intervention.