Isabel Fernández wins Calderón de la Barca Prize with Campo de fuerzas
Isabel Fernández González has won Spain’s Calderón de la Barca Theatre Prize for New Authors with Campo de fuerzas. The award of 10,000 euros follows a competition assessing 104 texts. The jury praised the play’s treatment of failure and a return home, and the multiple voices emerging from its protagonist’s consciousness as it addresses feminism and rural–urban tensions.
Arts··Midday
Campo de fuerzas wins among 104 texts
Isabel Fernández González, a Spanish playwright, director and performer, has won the Calderón de la Barca Theatre Prize for New Authors with Campo de fuerzas. Spain’s Ministry of Culture awards 10,000 euros through the prize to support emerging playwrights. This year’s competition assessed 104 texts.[1], [2]
The jury praised the play’s sensitive treatment of failure and a return to the family home. It also highlighted the formal risk of multiple voices emerging from the protagonist’s consciousness. In its assessment, the work opens debates about feminism, generational differences and tensions between rural and urban life.[1]
The award supports authors at an early stage
The rules define a new author by public premieres: excluding short theatre pieces, the entrant must not have premiered more than one work on ticketed performance circuits. If the winning work applies for a distribution subsidy, it receives preferential consideration. The support therefore includes a funding-related provision alongside the cash award.[1]
Javier Monsalve, director-general for Performing Arts and Music, chaired the jury, with Marta Betriu Roure, deputy director-general for Theatre and Circus, as vice-chair. Last year’s winner Lucía Collini served on the panel. The award’s earlier recipients include playwrights Juan Mayorga, Luisa Cunillé, Paco Bezerra and Carolina África.[1]
Fernández combines stage work and social-science training
Born in León in 1993, Fernández studied Political Science and Sociology at Carlos III University of Madrid, followed by a master’s degree in Philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She trained in acting and stage direction at Santiago’s Escola Espazo Aberto between 2020 and 2024 and has lived in Galicia for more than eight years.[1]
In 2025 she co-founded ALOMAIS Teatro with Mateo Rodríguez and wrote and directed its collective production Ca-Co-Flex! That year she also won the Abrente theatre-text award for O Miradoiro and Santander’s Ricardo López Aranda prize for A Ele E Equis. Her work has been selected for artistic and literary residency programmes at Gaiás and Illa de San Simón.[1]
