Calle Agustín de Rojas

Before he wrote, Agustín de Rojas Villandrando lived it all. Born in Madrid in 1572, he was a soldier in France, a prisoner at La Rochelle and a corsair against the English, before joining the troupes of actors that traveled Spain from town to town. Out of that life came El viaje entretenido (1603), in which four players chat as they travel and portray the theatrical trade from within. Its most famous page ranks the wandering companies by their size and their misery, from the bululú —⁠a lone actor who recited in exchange for food⁠— up to the great company, leaving a record of how people survived on the boards in Lope’s day. The street runs through Ciudad Jardín, in Chamartín.