Ricardo López Aranda was a Spanishplaywright. In 1958 he received the National University Theater Prize for his play "" and published a version of Oedipus. In 1960, his work "" received the National Calderón de la Barca Theater prize and in 1961 the Aguilar prize. The play was presented at the National Teatro María Guerrero that same year and taken to the cinema in 1962. In 1964 he wrote "", which received the fithe Lope de Vega award and was presented at the María GuerreroNational Theater in 1965. Many of the works written in this period, including the most successful ones, "Cerca de las estrellas" and "Noches de San Juan", are part of the Spanish realist mouvement. At the same time he writes a series of plays that belong to the Theater of Cruelty current. A third group of works, which include the aforementioned Oedipus, and, between 1963 and 1964 "" and the trilogy "Mario", "Sila" and "César" address major issues such as faith, freedom and power with language of tragedy. "Yo, Martín Lutero" was forbidden by Franco´s regime cesnsorship when it was already being rehearsed. He subsequently wrote several plays for children: the original musical "", and adaptations of The Blue Bird and Don Quixote, also premiered at the María Guerrero Theater respectively in 1966, 1967 and 1973. Between 1965 and 1971 he carried out numerous adaptations for television. In 1971 he received the Golden Quixote award for the scripts of the television series "Páginas Sueltas" and in 1978 wrote ":es:El_juglar_y_la_reina|El juglar y la reina". In 1969 he premiered in Madrid an adaptation of Benito Pérez Galdós´ novel Fortunata y Jacinta. The play would be re-released at the Santander International Festival in 1993 and at the Teatro Español in Madrid in 1994. He would also write, in 1977, the scripts for a television series based on the novel. In addition he wrote scripts for several films: "Cerca de las Estrellas", "Marta", "Tormento" and co-wrote the script of the film :es:Fortunata_y_Jacinta_|Fortunata y Jacinta. He drew inspiration from the work of Arthur Miller for his screenplays. He refrained from making public most of his poetry during this period. Only at the end of his life did he publish his book "El crisantemo y la cometa", written in 1971, and his "Biografía secreta" is posthumous. He is left a number of unpublished novels and essays. Between 1972 and 1977 he premiered a good number of adaptations of novels and classic plays, including El Buscón, and wrote several original works: "", "", and "Un periodista español". In 1978, "" premieres in Madrid, depictig the atmosphere during Spanish transition to democracy. In 1982 he moved to Mexico, where he wrote the scripts for the television series Leona Vicario. In 1983 he premiered in Madris "", inspired on the life of Queen Isabel II of Spain. In 1998 the Spanish Association of Playwrights published an anthology of his theatre. In 1998, the Santander City Council established the Ricardo López Aranda International Theater Award, which is currently a biennial.
