Theaters and dancers are first-hand dreamers; imagination is a regular tool of work. Once, we were taught a deep, dark workshop plot, which only had a roof and land, and we imagined very easily the school we wanted a long time ago. Pointing to a place full of bursting irons and blackened cement, they called us “here there will be classrooms and there there will be test rooms”. We looked in the dark corner and saw the classrooms, the rehearsal rooms, and in them we saw the students: they were young and not so young that they wanted to be actors, technicians and dancers, who were preparing, trained there, in front of our eyes.

The Education Counselor had sent us an invitation. The quote was June 28, 2010, and by the time of day, we were at Eitb's headquarters in Bilbao. We entered the large hall, which was crowded with banks; the rostrum was ready for the speakers ahead. Actors, dancers, directors, technicians, scriptwriters, producers, managers and drivers sat in the banquilles. We would have more than a hundred people present in the field of performing arts.

The counsellor spoke and addressed us: “Right here, on the ground floor of this building we will be doing the Theatre, Higher School of Performing Arts. Here you can learn theatre, dance and scenery. In two years’ time, Escénica will open its doors in September 2012.”

Time has passed and imagination and illusion are still with us, but there is no trace of school. It is more than ten years since the members of the Basque performing arts began to claim the need for a higher school. There is a risk that the long-standing claims will be cooled down and left in the void. On this occasion, the Platform must be recognized by a Higher School of Performing Arts as the ability to keep alive the school’s flame and our ability to imagine.

In the 2014 budgets of the Basque Government there is a line that bears the name of the performing arts school. An appropriation of EUR 300,000 is included under this heading. Little more to start school, too much to stay out of class. We should start to see that with the money we spend it starts to create the school. The imagination has not run out of us, but it would be serious if next year we had to keep closing our eyes to see school.