Views/reViews
Views/reViews
The House of Companhia Teatro Contemporâneo

click here for this article in Português


After three months working hard, the Companhia Teatro Contemporâneo announced the opening of its headquarters. The house, a 1910 building in Botafogo, south part of Rio de Janeiro, has rehearsal rooms, administrative office, and a theatre with 130 seats. It will be a place for rehearsals, research, theatre, dance and music workshops, a place of working and enjoynment. "It  is a dream come true", says Dinho Valadares, a young director, actor and producer of the Company (this last function he shares with Wagner Uchôa). Dinho wants the house to become  remarkable for the cultural and innovative activities that the company intends to promote.

The house and the company, created in 1998, have no sponsorship. I have asked him how he deals with that, does he worry about that? Dinho worries about art. "I am worried about doing something that will satisfy me artistically. I don't guide my work by the profit of tickets. I believe that the artist's function is not only on the stage, he must be involved in other activities to make a living. "

The first event of the Company in its house was the Nelson Rodrigues festival, a company's performance of short scenes from the plays of  Nelson Rodrigues, one of the most important Brazilian playwrights. But Dinho believes that the productions which had consolidated the Company  are the ones of Shakespeare's plays. There are a group of plays, a Shakespearean trilogy as he described, forming a unity of signs/codes since its title:  Romeo and Juliet became Adorable  Romeo and Juliet; Richard III became Adorable  Richard III and Hamlet became Adorable Hamlet. But why are they so adorable? "This was because we don't follow Shakespeare's  text thoroughly. It is not an orthodox performance. So we thought that by changing the title the audience would be able to identify our non conventional intention. It  also breaks a kind of prejudice that usually people have with Shakespeare's plays, thinking that it is a "nuisance". As it was a trilogy  with intervals between the productions the word "Adorable" made the identification easier. If someone liked one  "Adorable", they could easily identify the others. "

At present, the company has a dual nucleus of actors, the "old" and the "new" ones. Dinho explains:  "The old ones are involved in our current rehearsals , the first play to be performed in our HQ, they are Nelson Meloreto, Silvia Carvalho, Marco Santos. We also have others that are not working particularly in this production as William Santiago; and the new ones are acting  in Goldoni's  Arlequim, servidor de dois patrões, they are Alessandra Schor, Rodrigo Passos, Alessandro Valéryo.

The Companhia Teatro Contemporâneo's  house will hold several workshops on theatre in August. As Dinho says: "It is a place of learning, practice and entertainment." Those points, art and entertainment  sometimes foment crucial arguements among artists and critics, and how does he feel about that? He says: "I think it is fundamental to the play to be involved in the work. Doing so, we could touch people in an involving environment, only in a comfortable environment people can let it go. Even in sexual intercourse one must to be involved to get there. I could only put myself in your hand if I feel confident, so is life, so is theatre.

 

GET IN TOUCH

Email: dinhov@terra.com.br

htttp://www.ciadeteatrocontemporaneo.com.br

Address:   R.Conde of Irajá 253 - Botafogo - Rio de Janeiro-  RJ -  Brazil -  CEP 22271-020

Phones: ( 55 21) 2548-1294/ 2537-5204

click here for this article in Português

©2004 Andréa Carvalho

For more commentary and articles by Andréa Carvalho, check the Archives.

Andréa Carvalho  is a producer, playwright, and writer in Rio de Janeiro.
Besides being multi-lingual, she is the "mammy" of two lovely children.

 

 

 

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