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Production No. 142

Mas Alguém Me Perguntou Se Eu Queria Ir Ao Teatro?!

A Text that brings us closer together


"But did anyone ask me if I wanted to go to the Theater?!" is a question that many young people ask themselves, when a habit of cultural fruition is not created in their lives. Although most teenagers in Viana do Castelo are familiar with coming to the Theatre since childhood, some resistances arise at this age. Thus, it was the desire of Teatro do Noroeste - CDV not only to bring them closer to the Theatre but also to the texts of the curricular plan of the Portuguese discipline of the Secondary School. Thus, putting on stage 2 teenagers, with stories that could happen to any one of those sitting in the audience, with the use of technologies that on one hand remove, but on the other reduce distances, the texts that are often "monsters" in their heads, end up acquiring a normality that awakens the interest and demystifies.


The Board of Teatro do Noroeste – Centro Dramático de Viana, CRL.Elisabete PintoRaquel AmorimAna Perfeito

Why is our educational service so important?


In the matrix of Teatro do Noroeste - CDV is inscribed the mission of contributing to what was designated and understood by the formation of audiences and, today, has evolved into the concept of audience development. In fact, since the historical and territorial context of its foundation, in Viana do Castelo, in 1991, as Resident Company of the Sá de Miranda Municipal Theatre, the Northwest Theatre - Dramatic Center of Viana do Castelo has been a pole of professional artistic creation and programming that offers a set of cultural activities dedicated to virtually all age groups, education cycles and social strata. And if, at that time, the practices of what we now understand as educational service included elementary strategies, such as offering free tickets and transportation to the population as strategies of initiation to the formation of cultural habits, currently, the Northwest Theater - CDV pursues much more ambitious goals in terms of cultural fruition. Being careful not to incur in practices that we consider paternalistic and that can be directives in the way of making the public see and even think, we face education, mediation and accessibility to cultural goods in a qualitative and democratic way. That is, we seek the best for the widest possible range of citizens. And not something else.

Since 2017, we have been renewing and increasing mediation and accessibility activities, such as Ver Com As Mãos - Sensory Recognition Prior to the scenic area for blind spectators. Gestu - Simultaneous Translation in Portuguese Sign Language is also dedicated to deaf spectators. And, in an expanded manner, Digestivo - Post-Performance Conversations promotes what we believe to be a still necessary and didactic desacralization of cultural fruition spaces. This set of initiatives is now part of the production structure of Teatro do Noroeste - CDV and covers each of the company's own creations in at least one session, and the largest possible number of host creations, as it happens in the Viana do Castelo Theatre Festival, which the company organizes, and in which all the shows include these initiatives.

The accessibility, mediation and education associated to the theatrical performance and to the activity of a Company like Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana Castelo, which has the responsibility of being the Resident Company of Teatro Municipal Sá de Miranda, are areas simultaneously exciting, challenging and, apparently, as inexhaustible as utopian. Just when we think we've found a new solution, a better answer for a certain audience or for a specific work, the next challenge soon appears, in a society where the democratization of practices and citizens' rights is more and more demanding. And rightly so.

Raquel AmorimDirector of the Educational Service of Teatro do Noroeste-CDV
Ricardo SimõesArtistic Director

Synopsis

This is the question we ask ourselves when, at school, we are forced to go to the theater to watch a "little theater" that will help us understand the Portuguese syllabus and score high on the national exam. But no! Gil Vicente's verse is lost; Garrett's, tragedy; and Fernando Pessoa's, the account of so many heteronyms. And to make matters worse, you can't use your cell phone!

From the Text

When we set out to create this show, the premises were: an actor and an actress, with training in interpretation, as young as possible; two cell phones; to create a theater show that would contemplate the syllabus of the Portuguese High School subject, in a rhapsody of texts capable of exciting the public to which it was intended, i.e., and very specifically: the students of High School, with ages starting at 15.

After auditions to find the interpreters, Francisco Lima and Rafaela Sá, and having as assistant Patrícia Alves, a final year student at UTAD, we started rehearsals having as textual material the plays (there are only 2!), the chronicles, the novels and a pre-selection of poems of some authors of the curricular programs of the three years of the Portuguese discipline.

We have chosen The Maias, by Eça de Queiroz; The Farce of Inês Pereira, by Gil Vicente; Amor de Perdição, by Camilo Castelo Branco; The Lusiads and the Sonnets by Luiz Vaz de Camões; Cantigas de Amigo, by D. Dinis; Escárigas de Escárição, by D. Dinis; and Cantigas de Escárcios, by D. Dinis. Dinis; songs of mockery and cursing by unknown authors; the Sermão de Santo António aos Peixes, by Padre António Vieira; Frei Luís de Sousa, by Almeida Garrett; Tabacaria, by Álvaro de Campos; O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis, by José Saramago; Sísifo, by Miguel Torga; and Pelo Sonho é que Vamos, by Sebastião da Gama.

We ended with a tribute to the musical adaptation of Camões' poem: Mudam-se Os Tempos, Mudam-se As Vontades (Time Changes, Wills Change), by José Mário Branco, which projects us into the future from a sonnet almost 500 years old. All in exactly 60 minutes without intermission, with the right to ring out.

Just like in school. Only in the theater.

It was a dynamic of writing in process, involving the four of us as co-creators of the show. Through conversations and text analysis, as well as more and less guided improvisations, we were building the dramaturgy together. For this reason, we did not introduce any notes or dittelationships in the text, which we created during each rehearsal. And, also for this reason, we opted for the unedited publication of the full text of the play But someone asked me if I wanted to go to the theater?!

The best wish is that this text can be for others what it was for us: a working textual material. A point of departure and return. A vessel. A theater text.


Ricardo SimõesStage DirectorArtistic Director

The Cast

Francisco Lima

Born in 1999 in Vila Nova de Famalicão, she completed her acting course at the Academia Contemporânea do Espetáculo de Famalicão.

She made her professional debut with O Quarteto Para O Fim Dos Tempos, directed by Jorge Pinto and produced by Ensemble - Sociedade de Actores, having also collaborated with companies and structures such as: Academia Contemporânea do Espetáculo de Famalicão, Casa das Artes de Famalicão, Cão Danado and Teatro Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana, where she was part of the cast of Mas Alguém Me Perguntou Se Eu Queria Ir ao Teatro?!


Rafaela Sá

She began her theatrical training in 2015 in the Professional Course of Acting in ACE -Famalicão.

In 2017 she made her professional debut with "Mulheres-Tráfico", directed by Manuel Tur, having then participated in: "Das Tripas, Coração" - 99: Um Ano Para o Centenário_ Teatro Nacional São João, directed by Nuno M. Cardoso and Nuno Cardoso; "(A Tragédia) de Júlio César", directed by Luís Araújo in an Ao Cabo Teatro production with co-production Teatro Nacional São João and São Luiz Teatro Municipal; "Mas alguém Me Perguntou Se Eu Queria Ir ao Teatro? !" a creation of Teatro do Noroeste, directed by Ricardo Simões; "A Vós" directed by Sara Barbosa, Luísa Braga and Rafaela Sá; "António Marinheiro" and "Terror e Miséria na Queda da Democracia" productions of the Os Quatro Ventos Theatre Company, directed by Pedro Ribeiro.

With the company Cão Danado she participated in the exchange program Creativity UK and filmed with the French film director Pascal Luneau.

Stage Assistant in "Wild Spring" by Arnold Wesker, directed by Jorge Pinto, co-production Ensemble - Sociedade de Actores /TNSJ.

At the ACE Escola de Artes de Famalicão she worked as stage assistant of: Emilia Silvestre, João Castro, Miguel Eloy, Paulo Calatré, Pedro Lamares, Tiago Correia, Tony Oliveira and directing assistance to Nuno Rocha.

He debuted in cinema with "Cair", a short film by Vasco André dos Santos produced by Versum Creative Studio in partnership with XS Filmes and "Estações da Vida. Vento da Desordem", a film by Tomás Baltazar. In television, he debuts with the RTP1 miniseries "Fernão Lopes: A História de um Soldado Desconhecido" directed by Hugo Diogo.

The Creators

Ricardo Simões

Co-creation and Directing

1979, Viana do Castelo. Graduated in Artistic and Cultural Management. Academic Merit Scholarship IPVC / DGES-MCES, in 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. Attended the PhD in Cultural Studies at the Universities of Minho and Aveiro, specializing in Sociology of Culture. Invited juror in Professional Aptitude Tests, ACE-Porto (2018) and Balleteatro (2019, 2021, 2022). Professional actor since 1997, did 1 year of training in OficinActores - Nicolau Breyner Produções - Lisbon. In more than 65 creations of Teatro do Noroeste-CDV from 1997 to 1999 and from 2006 to date has been: actor; assistant production and staging; communication; director and resident playwright from 2013 to 2015. He has collaborated and/or promotes collaborations with: ACERT; ACTA-Algarve; Artimagem; Comuna; Escola da Noite; Artistas Unidos; Circuito Ibérico Artes EsCénicas (Spain); CTA-Almada; CTB-Braga; Cendrev-Évora; Centro Dramático Galego (Spain); European Theatre Convention (Berlin); Mindelact Festival (Cape Verde); FITEI; UNESCO International Theatre Institute (Paris/Xangai); LU. CA; Bando; Teatrão; Seiva Trupe; Teatro das Beiras; Teatro Fontenova; TEC-Cascais; TEP-Porto; Teatro Municipal do Porto; Teatro Nacional S. João; Teatro Montemuro; Teatro Montemuro; Teatro Internacional de Teatro UNESCO (Paris/Xangai). João; Teatro Montemuro; Teatro Nacional 21; Teatro do Vestido; and with the creators: Carlos Avilez, João Mota, Jorge Silva Melo, Olga Roriz, Guillermo Heras, Fernando Gomes, Isabel Barros, Nuno Cardoso, Alexandra Moreira da Silva, Gonçalo Amorim, Pedro Mexia, Joana Craveiro, Albano Jerónimo, Sara Barros Leitão, among others. Since 2014, she has written, performed and/or staged: "Cenas da Vida dos Maias"; "Enquanto Navegávamos"; "A Casa do Rio"; "24A74 - Salgueiro Maia"; "Bodas de Sangue"; "O Sonho de Pedro"; "A Estalajadeira"; "Ovos Misteriosos"; "Rottweiler"; "Mas alguém me perguntou se eu quero ir ao teatro?!"; "Noites de Caxias"; "A Noite". In 2017, he created the Viana do Castelo Theater Festival, which he directs. He has been artistic director of Teatro Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana since September 2015.


Patrícia Alves

Co-creation and Direction Assistance

Born in 1999 in Viana do Castelo and attends a BA in Theatre and Performing Arts at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro.

She did her curricular internship in the Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana, where she was a stage assistant in the play Mas Alguém Me Perguntou Se Eu Queria Ir ao Teatro?!


Adriel Filipe

Lighting

Born in 1993 in Brazil. He was a child model in photography and passarele. Arrived in Portugal in April 2009, he took the Technical Course of Sociocultural Animation in the Secondary School of Monserrate, Viana do Castelo, which he completed in 2012. In 2010 he joined the cast of an amateur theater group from Santa Marta de Portuzelo (Grupo Parnassus) and participated in several theatrical initiatives and projects, both amateur and independent. He made his professional debut at Teatro do Noroeste-CDV in 2011, in the play "Ecos Verdes", by Castro Guedes. In 2012, she participated in a Masterclass in Theatre with the actor João Grosso, as well as later did other training in interpretation, with Pedro Giestas and Guilhermo Heras. She participated in several editions of the Summer School for Actors, having as trainers Guilhermo Heras, João Mota, Olga Roriz, Alexandra Moreira da Silva, Isabel Barros, João Henriques, Teresa Lima, Ricardo Simões, Nuno Cardoso, Antonio Simón, among others. She integrated the resident cast of Teatro do Noroeste-CDV between January 2014 and December 2019, having participated in the shows "João e o Pé de Feijão", "A Vida Trágica de Carlota, a Filha da Engomadeira", "O Gato das Botas", "Viva o Casamento", "Pinóquio" and "Perdição", by Fernando Gomes; "Pequenas Peças Desoladas" and "Bodas de Sangue", by Guilhermo Heras; "Anjo Branco" and "(I)migrantes", by Graeme Pulleyn; "A Estalajadeira" and "A Noite" by Ricardo Simõers, among other productions of the Company until 2018/2019. Since 2020, by challenge of the Artistic Direction he exercises, mainly, the function of Executive Producer, being in charge of the organization, implementation and monitoring of the creation, hosting and circulation processes of the Company, including and with emphasis on the Viana do Castelo Theatre Festival; as well as the maintenance and articulation between the Company's working spaces, reporting to the Directive Board, the Artistic Direction and the Direction of Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana.