The Nós do Morro (We from the Hill) Theatre Group, first founded in 1986 on the Vidigal Hill in Rio de Janeiro, got its inspiration in the work of other theatre troupes and groups that laid their mark on the panorama of theatre in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s. Its founding nucleus consisted of artists hailing from many different parts of the country, who in the favela found space to live and coexistence with local residents. It was this coexistence with the locals that enabled the execution of a project to grant access to art and culture, through theatre, for young residents of the favela, people who always lack Government policies in their favour, for the availability of means of production and cultural equipment.

Initiatives such as the work made available by Miradas Digitais (Digital Glances) are part of a process of response and resistance, that art is able to offer as an antidote against obscurity and also against the phobia which the usual powers that be have against culture. As the history of the world has proven, this efficient medicine is able to lead humanity to find a new way forward, showing that life that is led in and with art is more beautiful to be lived.

Because of the crisis that we have experienced over the last few years, we could not but take into consideration the actions of these theatre groups in their daily work to take theatre over to somewhere where it could be seen by the audience, wherever it may be: in traditional stages, in squares, or in other spaces in peripheries. One must also remember the importance of qualification work, the producers of a play, creators/pedagogues and their relentless fight in search of new knowledge and practices that lead to the creation of new aesthetics and performing experimentation.

These work projects are the proof that theatrical activities have resisted to political, social, and economic pressures, itself being a type of political art par excellence, always able to start afresh.

We therefore recommend the following video materials as examples of resistance and recovery of the ongoing work that has been carried out by the theatre groups:

• The Angu de Teatro (Theatre Mush) and Teatro de Fronteira (Frontier Theatre) Group (an episode of the documentary series Cena Inquieta – Restless Scene): shows the fight of these Pernambucan theatre groups, to keep the theatre scene alive, even amidst a situation of decline of traditional theatrical spaces within their State.


• Clariô de Teatro (Theatre Clarion, São Paulo), Dolores Boca Aberta (Dolores Open Mouth, São Paulo), Cia Candongas e Outras Firulas (Candongas Group and Other Frills, Minas Gerais) and the Grupo Via Magia (Magic Route Group, Bahia) (from another series of SescTV Theatre and Circumstance, in the episode Quando a Periferia É o Centro – When the Periphery Is the Downtown: the struggle waged by theatrical groups and troupes, seeking to make theatre and take it to the outlying communities, as well as the valuation of the role of art education and the demarcation of territorialities.

We would also like to highlight the documentary Vassiliev, about the Russian film director, Anatoly Vassiliev: the role of the film producer as a pedagogue and as a qualifying agent for the creation and development of a more universal style of aesthetics in the Russian theatre scene at the end of the 20th Century; it shows a process of creation based on qualification and on the acquisition of knowledge on the part of the acting cast and of the team of film directors.

The production Policarpo Quaresma, of Brazilian director Antunes Filho (1929-2019) represents one example of a joint effort for development of the work/research/formation of group, and creator actors.

Finally, as an example of international exchange and presentation of groups from outside the national scene, with a contemporary and instigating performing-arts proposal for production and for maintenance of the research and the permanent study, that can only be carried out by well-established groups, we recommend the webdoc of the performance Psico/Embutidos, Carniceria Escenica, (Psycho/Embedded, Scenic Slaughter) by Cia Titular de Teatro de la Universidad Veracruzana (Main Theatre Group of Veracruz University), from Mexico.

We from the Hill
Theatre Group and Cultural Association