Manuel Molins i Casaña (Alfara del Patriarca, Horta Nord, 1956), is a teacher and playwright.

He founded the Grup 49 theatre group, which, in the 1970s, aimed to recover the language and culture of the Valencia region. In Grup 49 and with other companies, he has participated in many festivals and encounters of independent theatre.

A prolific author, his work spans through a great diversity of subjects, techniques and purposes. He has published over thirty plays, with titles such as Dansa del vetlatori (1978), Quatre Històries d'Amor per a la Reina Germana (1981), Ni tan alts ni tan rics (1989), Trilogia d'Exilis (1999), Abú Magrib (2002), La Divina Tramoia (2002), Elisa (2003), Combat (l'última cinta de Maria Callas) (2006), Monopatins (Skaters) (2007), Dones, dones, dones (2009), Els valents de Valor (2010) and València, Hollywood, Iturbi (2012), amongst others, and still has several unpublished plays.

He has been awarded several prizes, such as the Critics Prize from Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana, the Octubre theatre prize, eight times the Valencian Writers' Prize and two times the València Prize. In 2008 his work centered the I International Theatre Symposium of the University of Alacant.

He is an honorary member of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC, Association of Catalan Language Writers).



Up-date: Josep Miàs for AELC.
Photographs: © Carme Esteve/AELC.