Corral de comedias

Corral de comedias, literally a "theatrical courtyard", is a type of open-air theatre specific to Spain. In Spanish all secular plays were called comedias, which embraced three genres: tragedy, drama, and comedy itself. During the Spanish Golden Age, corrals became popular sites for theatrical presentations in the early 16th century, when the theater took on a special importance in the country. The performance was held in the afternoon and lasted two to three hours, there being no intermission, and few breaks. The entertainment was continuous, including complete shows with parts sung and danced. All spectators were placed according to their sex and social status.

Before the end of the 16th century there were no buildings devoted to theater in Spain. Representations of comedias were instead held in the courtyard of houses or inns where a stage with background scenery was improvised along one of the sides. The three remaining sides served as public galleries to the wealthy, with the remaining spectators watching the play from the open courtyard. The courtyard structure was maintained in permanent theaters built for the purpose from the end of the sixteenth century, called corrals de comedias, which used the open-air enclosed rectangular courtyard typical of a block of houses. Playwrights and dramatists such as Lope de Vega, Juan Pérez de Montalbán, Tirso de Molina, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca created works which were performed in corrales de comedias.

The first permanent theater of this type, Corral de la Cruz, was constructed in Madrid in 1579. The number of theaters increased rapidly after 1600, responding to the public's enthusiasm for this new form of entertainment. The oldest surviving corral, albeit significantly altered, is the Corral de comedias de Alcalá de Henares. This corral, formerly a courtyard theatre, has been roofed and used as a teatro romántico and a cinema, leading to major changes in the building's architecture. The last known such courtyard theatre to be built in Spain, Corral de comedias de Almagro, in Almagro, Castile-La Mancha, is a purpose-built theater that dates to 1628. This only functioning courtyard theater still standing, once one among the many, annually celebrates the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico (International Classical Theatre Festival);

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