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The American actress Meryl Streep, 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, attended the performance in Gijón of a production with the most universal scenes of Spanish theatre, represented by Asturian drama students. Streep said the performances have "sparked a lot of things inside her" and she was excited and moved.

The performer who has been nominated for the most Oscars and Golden Globes in history has been honoured by 19 future actors who have taken to the stage at the Higher School of Dramatic Art of the Principality of Asturias (ESAD), in Gijón.

Under the watchful eye of Streep, they have performed several texts from The House of Bernarda Alba, by Federico García Lorca; Life is a Dream, by Calderón de la Barca; Don Juan Tenorio, by José Zorrilla, and El Caballero de Olmedo, by Lope de Vega.

Also interspersed are fragments of the playwright Juan Mayorga, who last year received the Princess of Letters, and Doña Rosita the spinster, one of the many works with which Núria Espert – awarded in the category of the Arts in 2016 – has triumphed on stage.

Accompanied by her brother and the President of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, Ana Isabel Fernández, Streep was very excited to witness these scenes, and sometimes smiled on huge faces when the actors gave nods to some of the films that the chameleonic actress has starred in.

Very focused throughout the performance, which lasted 25 minutes, the actress came out on stage at the end of the performance and gave numerous long hugs to the students. "Seeing this performance has awakened a lot of things in me. It's been wonderful. You have done fantastically well," he said, with words choked with emotion, to the future actors, who have put their "hearts" on stage.

Streep confessed that she still has "a lot of dreams to fulfill" and proclaimed the importance of theatre, which helps to "understand the contradictions and the meaning of life. [...] Interpreting is like sculpting in the snow."

Begoña Quirós, one of the actresses who took the stage, said she was "in ecstasy" after having played Streep, who "was really grateful" for the work done. "It's struck a chord with him. I was very excited," said Quirós, whose 10-year-old son was able to give her a bouquet of flowers and give the American a hug.

  • Princess of Asturias Awards
  • cinema