Divisions in Theatre Scene

Amazon and the rest of Brazil

Theatre experts interviewed for this mapping found it difficult to name festivals, companies or artists in the northern (Amazon) region. One must call Regional SESCs and Secretarias de Cultura directly in those states to obtain substantive information. It sometimes seems as if Brazil were two countries — or two networks, rather. In addition, it seems that too many festivals that take place in the Amazon are for Amazonian companies - not out of a provincialism but because of small budgets and the high price of airplane tickets to the Amazon.

Commercial and Art Theatre

A conflict has arisen between two camps in Brazilian theatre: the commercial theatre and the teatros de grupo (group theatre companies) or art theatre. The government wants to create the Plano Nacional de Cultura, a series of laws and directives that will establish public funding for theatre directly from Brasilia. The problem is that the theatre scene cannot agree on how funds should be allocated to theatre. In one camp you have the producers of Rio and São Paulo like Nilson Raman, the Globo actors and commercial theatre names and producers making their demands and in the other camp you have people like Ney Piacentini defending the interests of group theatre companies making their separate demands. Both have distinct ways of producing and, they argue, require distinct funding mechanisms. In the commercial theatre camp a producer raises funds and hires a team to put on a play. A teatro de grupo, on the other hand, works together engaging in experimentation of innovative theatre languages over time and requires long term financing. Both camps deserve to receive subsidies to work and the MinC has to understand that there are disparate ways of making theatre. Communication between the two camps is difficult and breaks down at times. Some want dialogue; others want conflict. Both have their own agenda and want to influence the outcome of the Plano Nacional de Cultura. One opportunity of exchange would be for the Dutch to share how Holland deals with funding of commercial and art theatre. It would also be interesting if the Dutch suggested a mediation using their ‘polder model’ method of negotiation to help out with this divide.