Àlex Rigola

Stage director and playwright Àlex Rigola is also the founder and director of the Heartbreak Hotel theater and company, which he has run in Barcelona since 2023. Rigola's career includes key leadership positions in European theater. He was director of the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona (2003-2011), the theater section of the Venice Biennale in Italy (2010-2016), and the Teatros del Canal in Madrid (2017-2018). His productions have achieved considerable international acclaim, touring countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Israel, Palestine, Chile, Mexico, Taiwan, and Australia.

Among his major adaptation and directing works are Anton Chekhov's Vanya (2017), Thomas Bernhard's L'home de teatre (2023), David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross (2024), and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (2025) at the Teatre Lliure. He has also directed opera, such as Madama Butterfly in Venice (2013) and Ljubljana (2023). He has adapted and directed his own plays, including Ophelia (Panic Attack) (2021), Migranland (2013), and The End (2010). Rigola has received numerous awards. For his production of Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouses (2004), he received the Salzburg Young Directors Award. His adaptation of Roberto Bolaño's 2666 (2007) won the Barcelona Critics' Prize (best show, dramaturgy, and set design 2008) and the 2009 Max Awards for best theater production and best set design. He was also recognized for his direction of Titus Andronic (2000) with the 2001 Butaca Award for best production and best director.