ABSTRACT
In 1956, at a very tender age, I started working at the Arena Theatre of São Paulo,
of which I was the artistic director until I had to leave Brazil in 1971. At this time,
the Brazilian theatre was completely dominated by Italian directors, who used to
impose pre-established forms on every play performed. On stage we used to hear
Portuguese spoken with an Italian accent. To fight against this, in concert with
the actors, we created an Acting Laboratory in which we set about a methodical
study of the works of Stanislavski. Our first (and only!) guiding precept, at that
time, was that emotion took precedence over all else and should be given a free
rein to shape the final form of the actor’s interpretation of a role.
