The Lope de Vega Theater in Vélez will reopen its doors on March 20 with a new look

The Lope de Vega Theater in Vélez-Málaga now has a date set for its first official opening to the public, March 20. After nearly two decades of waiting, the town's mayor, Jesús Lupiáñez, announced on Thursday afternoon at the Exile Center, also taking the opportunity to unveil the new corporate image of the theater, created by Nacho Herrera, the opening to the public will coincide with the proclamation of the Holy Week of Vélez-Málaga.

"Theaters, like good artists, know how to wait for their second act," began the presentation in which the details of the construction works of the Lope de Vega Theater and its new logo were explained. The works, which started on January 31, 2024, have now finished, just waiting for someone to fill those seats and applaud "as has always been done in Vélez-Málaga".

During the presentation, testimonials were given by people who had attended the "old Lope de Vega Theater". During their speeches, they tearfully recalled, as did those present at the event, all that has been experienced in the Vélez theater. One of them declared that the first movie he saw was The Colossus of Rhodes, by Sergio Leone, which was released in 1961, coinciding with the theater's first opening.

How the works of the Lope de Vega Theater were carried out

Part of the team from Constructora San José S.A., the company responsible for the comprehensive rehabilitation of the Lope de Vega Theater, attended the presentation of the new corporate image. The technical team detailed all the challenges they encountered, especially with the water found beneath the new Lope de Vega Theater, as they explained, they had to request two extensions from the State to delay the final opening, thus prolonging the execution time.

The works involved an investment of over 6 million euros, part of which was financed through the Next Generation European funds, included in the Public Buildings Rehabilitation Drive Program.

The formal acceptance of the works, as detailed by the council, represents the materialization of a project demanded by the town's residents, which "will return a cultural hub to the Historic Center". The Lope de Vega Theater will be able to host shows, concerts, and activities that "will strengthen the socio-cultural fabric of the municipality," they added.

Applause, the key to the new logo of the Lope de Vega Theater

Nacho Herrera Conde created the new corporate image of the Lope de Vega Theater. The 22-year-old from Vélez is not new to this work. One of his projects that went viral on social media was a logo inspired by the figure of the Murcian tennis player and winner of seven Grand Slams, Carlos Alcaraz. He did this for his final degree project. Through a detailed study of the athlete's game and experiences, Herrera managed to translate into a graphic symbol the energy, precision, and personality of Alcaraz, earning him support and visibility on social networks and design-specific media.

The new logo of the Lope de Vega Theater has technical similarities with the one he made for Alcaraz. Herrera Conde, as he explained, has focused his main idea on the "long-awaited applause that had not been seen at Lope de Vega for years". For this reason, he chose an event from 1985, also at Lope de Vega, which was presented by Joaquín Lobato and Evaristo Guerra to raise funds for the elderly residence at the Hospital San Juan de Dios. In that event, Pepe Luis Conde performed the song Arte veleño.

"And in Vélez, one must die," ended the song that made Lope de Vega 'flood' with applause. From those applauses, Herrera Conde analyzed the sound frequency using the spectrogram technique. "We captured the climax, traced all the lines, and what we have left is the new image of Lope de Vega," he explained.

The colors of the logo "reflect the pure essence of Vélez-Málaga and the Lope de Vega Theater", added the young man from Vélez. Red represents the curtain of the old theater; purple, which "represents that characteristic wall found in the previous theater"; sky blue comes from the part that crowns Lope de Vega, and green emphasizes the colors of the Vélez-Málaga flag.