Lectures at the Residencia

La colmena científica o El café de Negrín

JOSÉ RAMÓN FERNÁNDEZ

Among the activities organized to commemorate its 100th anniversary, the Residencia de Estudiantes commissioned a new play. La colmena científica (The scientific beehive) brings back an essential element of the history of the institution as told by its protagonists: the coexistence of art and science, dialogue and tolerance. The play retrieves and disseminates a lesser-known aspect of the history of the Residencia: the pioneering work of its scientific laboratories.

The proposal to the Centro Dramático Nacional (National Drama Centre) to sponsor the play focused on the spontaneous gatherings that took place at noon at the Laboratory of General Physiology led by Juan Negrín.A group of residents met for years in the lab to drink strong coffee and to chat "Canary Island style" about the stories of the day, the latest scientific publications and advancements, or any other news. Among those present were José Moreno Villa, Miguel de Unamuno, Francisco Grande Covián, Paulino Suárez, Francisco Beceña, Marcelino Pascua, and José Hernández Guerra, with casual visitors such as composer Jesús Bal y Gay, and the distinguished speakers who were invited to the Residencia, such as Le Corbusier, Max Jacob, and Marie Curie.

José Ramón Fernández (Madrid, 1962). A playwright with a degree in Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, he has released some 30 plays, written by himself or in collaboration with other writers.

His play Para quemar la memoria won the Premio Calderón de la Barca in 1993, and he was finalist for the Premio Tirso de Molina for La tierra in 1998. Nina won the Premio Lope de Vega in 2003. Las manos, the first part of his "Trilogía de la Juventud" (written with Yolanda Pallín and Javier García Yagüe), won, among others, the Premio Ojo Crítico  and  the SGAE's Premio Max for the best play written in Castilian in 2002. The authors were finalists for the Premio Nacional de Literatura 2003 for Imagina, the second part of their trilogy.

Fernández has produced fifteen plays written by foreign writers in the last ten years. His works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Arabic, Polish, Romanian, and Greek.

He currently works at the Centro de Documentación Teatral of the Ministry of Culture and teaches drama writing at the Laboratorio William Layton in Madrid.