Word: tula
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...authors, José Maria Da Quinto and José Gordon, thought up a way to skirt the government censorship of the stage. Why not form a private club to put on shows for members only? Franco's rules did not forbid it. So the club La Carátula (The Mask) was born...
Hundreds joined, paying monthly fees of 20 pesetas ($1.84). Playwrights took no royalties. Directors and actors donated their services. Within a year La Carátula staged single performances of a score of modern plays banned from the public theater (e.g., Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie). Madrid's top critics attended and wrote much-discussed reviews. Author Da Quinto exulted: "A small window has opened out on the world...
Lest the censor interfere, La Carátula did not make any public announcement of the show. But word seeped through the cafes. The club's membership quickly expanded. When the curtain rose on a simple cardboard backdrop depicting Bernarda Alba's village home, a capacity audience was on hand. In the front row sat the supreme censor himself, bespectacled Garcia Espina, Director General of the Theater and Cinema...
...Censor Says. Critics rushed out to write their reviews. They were stopped cold by an order already on their desks. It was from Censor Garcia Espina: "No reviews permitted, now or in the future, of La Carátula shows. Only short news items...