arTISTs
PAULA DIOGO
She was born in Lisbon, in 1977. She is a performer and stage director with a particular interest in improbable ideas. With an artistic background based on collaborative processes, she has been meandering through art making and producing in recent years. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Training of Actors / Directors by the ESTC in Lisbon, and a Master’s in Performing Arts from the LHÍ (Icelandic Academy of Arts) with grants from the FCG and the GDA. She was a co-founder of Teatro Praga (1995-08), TRUTA (2003-10) and O Pato Profissional Lda (2003-10). In 2004 she was distinguished by CPAI with the Teatro na Década Award – Best Actress for the performance Private Lives, by Teatro Praga. In 2006 she received a grant from the CNC to follow the work of the Gob Squad (UK / DE) in Berlin. In 2007 she attended the Staging Course of the CCA Program at the FCG, with the british company Third Angel. In 2010 she was a resident director at the NTN in Naples, Italy, under the artistic direction of Antonio Latella. She has worked with several artists and companies over the years, such as: Lúcia Sigalho, Filipe Melo, Antonio Latella, Tiago Rodrigues, Madalena Victorino, Nuno Carinhas, João Pedro Vaz, Pedro Lacerda, Jacinto Lucas Pires, mala voadora, Cão Solteiro, Alain Fourneau, Rimini Protokoll, Philippe Quesne among others. In recent years, within Má-Criação, she has collaborated regularly with the artists Alfredo Martins, Cláudia Gaiolas, Alex Cassal and Alexander Kelly, consolidating a platform that joins creators from different artistic and geographical backgrounds. She lives in Lisbon.
Paula’s work is supported by apap – FEMINIST FUTURES – a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.
ALEX CASSAL
He was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1967. In the 1980s, he co-founded the Porto Alegre Street Theatre Group Movement, where he searched for new directions for art in public spaces, within groups such as Ói Nóis Aqui Traveiz and Alcateia. He has a B.A. in History from the State University of Rio de Janeiro – UERJ. He is a director, playwright and performer. His works explore the relationship with the other and unveil scenic mechanisms to create spaces for encounter and artistic daring. In Brazil, he is part of the group Foguetes Maravilha, responsible for shows such as Ele Precisa Começar (2008), Ninguém Falou que Seria Fácil (2011), Síndrome de Chimpanzé (2013) and Mortos-Vivos: Uma Ex-Conferência (2017). In Brazil, Alex collaborated with numerous theatre and dance artists, such as Enrique Diaz, Felipe Rocha, Renato Linhares, Alice Ripoll, Dani Lima, Gustavo Ciríaco, Clara Kutner, Denise Stutz, Michelle Moura, Ricardo Chacal and the Dimenti group. With Alice Ripoll, he directed the dance short film Journey to the Navel of the World, shown in Uruguay, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, the U.S., Canada, China and Japan. In Portugal, he worked with artists as Tiago Rodrigues, Cláudia Gaiolas, Paula Diogo, Jorge Andrade, Marco Paiva, Márcia Lança and Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz. Recently, he created the shows As Cidades Invisíveis (2016), Tiranossauro Rex (2017), Ex-Zombies: Uma Conferência (2018), Morrer no Teatro (2019), Speed Date (2020) and Biblioteca do Fim do Mundo (2021), among others. He lives in Lisbon.
CONTRIBUTORS
DANIELA RIBEIRO
She was born in Porto, in 1980. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto and attended Restart’s Filmmaking course. She has worked as a cultural producer since 2006. Between 2008 and 2017 she was the communication and production coordinator at Galeria Zé dos Bois. She is the founder and coordinator of RAMA EM FLOR, a queer feminist community festival. Since 2017, she has collaborated with several artists in the performing arts, such as: Alfredo Martins, Andresa Soares, Paula Diogo, Márcia Lança, Mariana Tengner Barros and Rita Vilhena. Between 2018 and 2019, she was a producer at Teatro Meia Volta e depois à direita quando eu disser. From 2020 to 2022 she was Teatro Praga’s production director. Currently she is Má-Criação’s production director.
CARLOS ALVES
He was born in Lisbon in 1978. He holds a B.A. in Theatre from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School and was part of Teatro Praga until 2006, where he worked as a performer and creator. Later, he collaborated with creators such as Paula Diogo, Martim Pedroso, Alfredo Martins and Nuno Carinhas, not only as an actor and performer, but also as an executive producer (O Pato Profissional) and an assistant director (Teatro Griot). He did voice-overs and played small parts in television and fiction. He was a regular collaborator at Galeria Zé dos Bois from 2009 to 2017, where he hosted, bartended and managed the bars and ticket office for the performing arts service. He usually collaborates with Má-Criação in the areas of creation, production, and communication.
ALFREDO MARTINS
He was born in Viana do Castelo, in 1980. Alfredo holds a degree in Theatre from the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo, Porto. He also attended the Dartington College of Arts (UK). He is a co-founder of teatro meia volta e depois à esquerda quando eu disser. Within it, he has directed the following shows: O nome das ruas (2006), URBANIA (2010), Nacional-Material, Paisagem com Argonautas (2011), OZZZZZ (2013), Días Hábiles (2017) and Silent Disco (2019). As an actor and co-creator, he has worked with numerous artists, such as Stefan Kaegi, Benedetto Sicca, Vera Mantero, Catarina Miranda, Paula Diogo and Alex Cassal.
CLÁUDIA GAIOLAS
She was born in Lisbon in 1976. She holds a B.A. from Lisbon Theatre and Film School and studied Anthropology at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences. She is a performer and director. She co-founded Teatro Praga. She has worked with companies as Mundo Perfeito, mala voadora, Truta, Má-Criação, teatro meia volta e depois à esquerda quando eu disser, Teatro da Garagem, as well as with Tiago Rodrigues, Tónan Quito, Giacomo Scalisi, António Mercado, André Murraças, Joaquim Horta, Madalena Victorino, Jean-Pierre Larroche, Rui Horta, Clara Andermatt, Martim Pedroso, Agnès Limbos, Dinarte Branco, Gui Garrido and Alfredo Martins. For the Teatro São Luiz, she staged “Antiprincesas”, a series of shows geared to children featuring characters such as Violeta Parra, Frida Kahlo and Clarice Lispector.
ELSA MENCAGLI
She was born between Denmark and Italy in 1990. She holds a B.A. from the Aarhus School of Architecture and a Master of Fine Art in Performing Arts from the Iceland University of the Arts. As a multimedia artist, she creates and thinks across media, from sculptural installation to video and performance. Through practices of attentive listening and attunement to both the body and the environment, her creative work takes form in the attempt to reveal and make felt what often remains unnoticed. She is interested in crafting conditions to experience diverse modes of encounter that may create shifts in perception and propose different modes of inter-relation.
ESTELLE FRANCO
She was born in 1975 in Paris. She has been living and working in Brussels since 1998. She holds a degree in Dramatic Art from the Conservatoire Royal de Liège (2004), where she received the Prix Supérieur, with distinction. She participated in several performances and films. In Belgium, she collaborates with Bénédicte Liénard and Mary Jimenez, Dominique Roodthooft, Agnès Limbos, Les Karyatides cia, Félicie Artaud, Marie DL, Fiztcarraldo cia, Maya Bösch and Latifa Laâbissi, among others. In Italy, she has worked with Antonio Latella and Linda Dalisi. In Portugal, she collaborated with Má-Criação, Alfredo Martins and Martim Pedroso. In 2015, alongside Marie Bos, Francesco Italiano and Guillemette Laurent, she co-founded the Belgian collective Le Colonel Astral. Recently she participated in the Retrouvailles-occupation Bastille with Nathalie Béasse, Sortir du Noir with Atlas of Transitions and Boccaperta! by Emmanuel Texeraud.
MASAKO HATTORI
She was born in Japan in 1972. She studied at the University of Arts and Design in Kyoto and at the Higher School of Art in Aix-en-Provence. She currently lives in Spain and develops her work as a video maker between Japan, France, Portugal, Spain and Belgium. She frequently collaborates with different artists and institutions in the areas of performance, theatre and dance, such as Christian UBL, Groupe Bernard Menaut, La macana, D.blacka, Compañía Elefante Elegante, Javier Martin, Ikue Nakagawa, Mikel Arístegui, Má-Criação and Teatro Meia Volta e depois à esquerda quando eu disser. In 2017, alongside the light designer Octavio Mas, she created the company Kokoharuka specializing in the creation of theatre and performance projects.
RENATO LINHARES
He was born in Brazil in 1981. He is director, choreographer, actor and dancer. In 2001 he joined Intrépida Trupe, a Brazilian company of new circus, where he directs the show Metegol (2005). In 2002 he met Enrique Diaz and Mariana Lima, creating the Improviso Collective, and the plays Do Not Look Now (2004) and Otro (2010), presented in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. He has been part of the Brazilian group Foguetes Maravilha since 2011. He has recently created shows in collaboration with artists such as Enrique Diaz, Adriana Falcão, Alámo Facó, Paula Diogo, Alex Cassal, Laura Samy and Alice Ripoll. With Cristina Moura and Mariana Lima, he directs the multilanguage process TRANSATLÂNTICO, with a collective of artists from Latin America, Europe and Africa.
other collaborators and close partnerships
Alegria Gomes, Alexander Kelly, Ana Carolina Lopes, André Studer, Aurora dos Campos, Binete Undonque, Bruno Huca, Cárin Geada, Celestial Bodies, Chris Thorpe, Crista Alfaiate, Daniel Pizamiglio, Daniel Worm, Desvio, Dimenti/BR, Diogo Alvim, Fábio Osório Monteiro, Felipe Rocha, F. Ribeiro, Foguetes Maravilha/BR, FRAME Colectivo, Gaya de Medeiros, Gui Garrido, Joana Frazão, João Bento, João Lopes Pereira, João Tuna, José António Tenente, José Luis Carvalho, Jorge Carvalho, Keli Freitas, Lígia Soares, Lurdes Capela, Maria do Céu Carvalho, Márcia Lança, Marco Mendonça, Marco Paiva, Maria João Machado, Mariana Ricardo, Marta Carreiras, Miss Suzie, Paulo Oliveira, Pedro Lacerda, Pixel Reply, Rafaela Jacinto, Saulo Santos, Sérgio Henriques, Sónia Baptista, Stella Rabello, teatro meia volta e depois à esquerda quando eu disser, Terra Amarela, Tomás Ribas, Tónan Quito, Third Angel/UK, Vagar, VAIVEM/AR, Vanda Cerejo, Wilma Moutinho, Yaw Tembe.