Simon Breden

With twenty years dedicated to researching theatrical rehearsal processes and fifteen years of professional directing experience, I have developed a distinctive profile as a leading specialist in creative practice within Spanish and European theatre. My work bring together historiographical research, ethnographic observation, and first-hand rehearsal experience, allowing me to analyse how creative processes shape performance, authorship, and collaboration.

My first monograph (Tamesis, 2014), was the first sustained study of the creative processes of Els Joglars and Teatro de la Abadía, documenting their rehearsal rooms through participant observation, archival analysis, and interviews. It established a model for understanding contemporary Spanish practice through the lens of creative process rather than text or production alone. My monograph, Federico García Lorca (Routledge, 2025) offers the first systematic reconstruction of Lorca's rehearsal methods. Drawing on the writings of collaborators such as Rivas Cherif, Xirgu, and Ugarte, it reframes Lorca as an innovative director, deeply engaged in ensemble work, actor-centred exploration and collaborative authorship. The study situates Lorca's rehearsal process within wider European trends of the early twentieth century, expanding understanding of his theatrical contribution beyond his dramatic writing.

Alongside these books, I have produced a detailed participant-observation account of Jeremy James' fuegoártico ensemble methodology (Daring Adaptations, 2023), analysing how collaborative dramaturgy develops in devising contexts. I have also documented the rehearsal culture of the Fundación Siglo de Oro through an extended interview with its director Rodrigo Arribas (2021) and a peer-reviewed article on its working processes (2022).

My book, Unity Theatre y la Guerra Civil española (Escolar y Mayo, 2020), developed within a national research project, includes a substantial reconstruction of the rehearsal methods of the 1930s-40s British Unity Theatre, demonstrating the political and pedagogical role of amateur rehearsal cultures.

Across articles, chapters, translations, and public engagement, I consistently foreground rehearsal as a key site of artistic meaning, examining how working processes influence interpretation, adaptation, and staging. My parallel career as a pracitioner-working with institutions such as the Royal Court Theatre, Teatros del Canal, Teatro de la Abadía, and the Fundación Siglo de Oro-further informs my scholarship, grounding it in practical experience of directing and assisting on productions from Marlowe to Lope de Vega.

This combined trajectory has positioned me as a recognised expert on rehearsal methodology in Iberian theatre, contributing new frameworks for documenting, analysing, and historicising creative processes from the early twentieth century to the present.