‘Native Brazilians think that animals think they are human...’
‘The loneliness of a man in the middle of an empty room is very much different from the solitude of a man in the corner of an empty room.’
‘Organising a theatrical play is like organising a social group.’

This and many other thoughts about theatrical activity, which show how theatre exists even beyond itself, and that it is a constituent part of the social organisation in which we are inserted, are in the videos of the Miradas Digitais (Digital Glances) collections. The first phrase was by the great and sorely missed Amazonian playwright Francisco Carlos, in one of the episodes of the Dramaturgias (Dramaturgies) podcast. The second phrase comes from theatre director Bia Lessa, in the Poéticas do Espaço (Poesy in Space) episode of the audio-visual series De Onde Se Vê (From Where One Can See). The third phrase in the triumvirate is by Marco Aurélio, present in the episode O Teatro e a Cidade: Teatro e Inclusão, (The Theatre and the City: Theatre and Inclusion) within the series Teatro e Circunstância (Theatre and Circumstance), produced by SESC TV.

There are documentaries of the series known as Cena Inquieta (Restless Scene) that map, in an unique and unprecedented manner, the theatre groups in different parts of Brazil. It also brings programmes that make us aware of the way in which theatre groups from outside Brazil think and get organised, such as those of the Ibero-American scene, like in Mirada 2010 (Glance 2010), such as Quando o Teatro Rompe suas Fronteiras. (When Theatre Breaks Its Borders), showing also how theatre is right beside other types of artistic language, such as plastic arts, music, and dance.

‘It is in the theatre that ‘no’ is possible as an answer. The person can actually say no!’

This possibility of transgression is present in the look, speech and career path of so many artists that are part of this unique and priceless collection. The phrase of the great actor Paulo César Perejo perfectly sums up the inexhaustible ability to invent, shown by theatre. It is part of the episode Transgressões (Transgressions), of the series Teatro e Circunstância (Theatre and Circumstance), and reminds us that all phases of oppression are there to be confronted. To think things over, get emotional, bring something back to memory, expand one’s look: we need to glance at this collection so we may proceed through these difficult days with added strength.

Paula Autran
dramaturgy teacher, writer, and journalist