{"id":221467,"date":"2016-07-27T12:39:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T15:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=221467"},"modified":"2016-07-27T12:39:14","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T15:39:14","slug":"theatrical-costumes-naturalism-and-invention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/theatrical-costumes-naturalism-and-invention\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatrical costumes: naturalism and invention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lavish

Reproduction images<\/span>Lavish costume made for TBC\u2019s Lady of the Camellias<\/em>Reproduction images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The study of theatrical costume is recent in Brazil, and, to researcher Fausto Viana, this tardiness is understandable:\u00a0 only in the 1970s did the first academic works of any importance about the theater\u2014of interest to actors primarily\u2014begin to circulate in the country.\u00a0 Later, directing was given its due regard, with the technical aspects of theater, beginning with stage design, receiving academic attention only in the 1990s.\u00a0 Enthusiasm for theatrical costume came later still, says Viana, a professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo School of Sciences, Arts and Humanities (EACH-USP) and head of the Stage Costume Research Center associated with the office of the dean of research.\u00a0 \u201cInterest has been growing a great deal in recent times,\u201d adds Viana, who also teaches graduate level courses at the School of Communication and Arts (ECA-USP). \u201cResearch groups are being created all over the country. I hope that they continue to multiply and establish new fronts for research.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Viana, the newest of these fronts is his FAPESP-backed study\u00a0 \u201cO figurino teatral das renova\u00e7\u00f5es c\u00eanicas brasileiras\u201d (The theatrical costume of a transformative Brazilian stage), scheduled for book release in the second half of 2016.\u00a0 It is a byproduct of his doctoral thesis, O figurino teatral das renova\u00e7\u00f5es c\u00eanicas do s\u00e9culo XX: Um estudo de sete encenadores<\/em> (2004) (Theatrical costume and the transformations of the 20th<\/sup> century stage: a study of seven set designers) that included the work of the greatest names in field\u2014Constantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht\u2014from the specific point of view of the theatrical costume.\u00a0 While the list of foreign artists ends with Ariane Mnouchkine, a living French director, Viana\u2019s study follows the careers of Brazilians only up to the 1960s. In his view, the subsequent period had been covered thoroughly; the first decades of the 20th<\/sup> century, on the other hand, should be studied and analyzed with utmost urgency. \u201cI\u2019m interested in saving what might be lost,\u201d says Viana.<\/p>\n

\"Playbill

Reproduction images<\/span>Playbill featuring Eduardo VictorinoReproduction images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

For the Brazilian portion, Viana chose seven outstanding examples of costume design and creative vision: actor Jo\u00e3o Caetano dos Santos (1808-1863), actor\/director Eduardo Victorino (1869-1949), Os Comediantes theater company (1938-1947), Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN) (Experimental Black Theater, 1944-1968), Teatro Brasileiro de Com\u00e9dia (TBC) (Brazilian Comedy Theater, 1948-1964), Alfredo Mesquita (1907-1986), the School of Dramatic Arts (EAD, founded in 1948), and visual artist, architect and cinematographer Fl\u00e1vio de Carvalho (1899-1973). In choosing these key organizations and figures, Viana realized\u2014among other intentions\u2014his wish to dispel the popular notion that the world of Brazilian stage and theatrical costume design was transformed through the sole efforts of Tom\u00e1s Santa Rosa J\u00fanior (1909-1956) and his play, Vestido de noiva <\/em>(Wedding dress), by Nelson Rodrigues. Rosa Junior\u2019s production\u2014brought to the stage by the Os Comediantes theater company from Rio de Janeiro\u2014premiered in 1943.<\/p>\n

The significance of the costume in theatrical performances lies its ability to bring together all of the human dimensions of a character and somehow \u201ctell his story,\u201d says Viana, for whom the costume and the stage are one and the same. Adding her take, Vera Imp\u00e9rio Hamburger, an art director for film and theater from ECA-USP, explains that \u201cthe costume is crucial because it is the only visual element in motion\u2014the one that creates narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Success stories<\/strong>
\nOf Jo\u00e3o Caetano\u2014famous in his time as an actor in Rio de Janeiro, well connected at the emperor\u2019s Court, and a connoisseur of French theater\u2014there survives nothing more than a photograph of him on the stage, not enough to develop analyses of his work as costume designer. Through the writings of stage designers who came later, especially Victorino, and what Jo\u00e3o Caetano himself left us in his 1861 book Li\u00e7\u00f5es dram\u00e1ticas<\/em> (Dramatic lessons), we can interpret the second half of the 20th<\/sup> century from the point of view of its hegemony, both in Brazil and in Europe. Indeed, a preoccupation with the aesthetics of garments that characterized this period reached such an extreme that historical and psychological accuracy were often overlooked.<\/p>\n

\"Paulo

Reproduction images<\/span>Paulo Autran in the TBC\u2019s Leonor de Mendon\u00e7a<\/em>Reproduction images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Elizabeth Azevedo, also of ECA-USP\u2019s Department of Performing Arts, found modernizing tendencies in Emilio Doux (1798-1876), a Portuguese living in Brazil who, towards the end of his life, began his acting career in Rio de Janeiro.\u00a0 According to Azevedo, Doux introduced more naturalism into his style than was common for the time; and, although there is no record of the costumes used in his performances, we can still infer\u2014based on references to plays on contemporary themes called \u201cdramas de casaca<\/em>\u201d (tailcoat dramas, after the street clothing of the time)\u2014a sense of modernization.<\/p>\n

It was the Portuguese Victorino, a set designer living in Rio, who introduced modern ideas along the lines of those proposed by contemporary innovators of the European stage (Adolphe Appia from Switzerland and Edward Gordon Craig from Britain, for example), while at the same time defending what he called the \u201ctruth of the stage\u201d against the forceful style so characteristic of Brazilian performances at the time. \u201cThanks in part to Victorino\u2019s influence, the great names around 1910 began to adopt character-appropriate theatrical costumes,\u201d explains Viana. Beginning a trend that survived up to the 1970s, a number of actors of that era also designed and kept their own costumes, on and off the stage. \u201cHaving your own tailcoat meant you were an actor,\u201d says Viana quoting an interview with Paulo Autran.<\/p>\n

\"actress

Reproduction images<\/span>actress Maria Falc\u00e3o of Victorino\u2019s companyReproduction images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

After facing a conviction for disobedience following his discharge from the military, Afro-Brazilian Abdias Nascimento (1914-2011) finally staged his first play in a S\u00e3o Paulo prison in 1943. Along with other inmates, Nascimento founded the Teatro do Sentenciado (Convict\u2019s Playhouse), where he staged Revista penitenci\u00e1ria <\/em>(Penitentiary review), a play in which the actors played male and female roles.\u00a0 Nascimento himself took care of improvising the costumes used in the play. Two years on, one would see a similarly remarkable simplicity of costume design in Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s The Emperor Jones,<\/em> staged by TEN.<\/em>\u00a0 Despite a lack of resources, the company\u2014the first \u00a0to stage a black actor in the main role and introduce orix\u00e1s [Afro-Brazilian divinities brought to the country with slaves from Southwest Africa]\u2014 in its play Sortil\u00e9gio<\/em><\/p>\n

Wealth and luxury<\/strong>
\nWe see a far different experience when examining the career of Alfredo Mesquita, from S\u00e3o Paulo, whom Viana considers a \u201ckey figure in the thinking behind costume design in Brazil.\u201d Well-connected and born to a wealthy family that owned O Estado de S.Paulo <\/em>newspaper, Mesquita accepted many costumes donated by members of the elite to the Escola de Arte Dram\u00e1tica (School of Dramatic Arts) at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (EAD-USP)\u00a0 in an USP collection that he founded.\u00a0 Mesquita also designed the costumes featured in many plays staged by the EAD; and, by hiring professional stage and costume designers, introduced a\u00a0 level of professionalism to the school that was extraordinary in the world of Brazilian theater up to that time.<\/p>\n

\"O

Reproduction images<\/span>O sortil\u00e9gio<\/em>, performed by Teatro Experimental do NegroReproduction images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The Brazilian Comedy Theater showed an even greater degree of refinement, making a huge technical leap for the theater scene as a whole with the arrival of a large group of professionals from Europe. Its founder, Franco Zampari (1898-1966), was a man of considerable fortune who had emigrated from Italy to work at the Matarazzo Corporation. The group he brought with him included directors Adolfo Celi and Luciano Salce, and stage and costume designer Gianni Ratto. \u201cIn the 1940s, S\u00e3o Paulo was already a dynamic financial center, able to support a theater that did entirely European-style productions,\u201d explains Viana. A European practice in costume design introduced in Brazil at the time required making an initial version of the costume entirely in cotton. Only after \u00a0dressing the actor in this experimental version and studying his movements would the final costume be sewn together.\u00a0 \u201cThe TBC allowed itself this luxury,\u201d says Viana. He also mentions that costume designer Aldo Calvo \u201calmost bankrupted TBC\u201d when he imported 80 meters of French crystal tulle fabric to make a single garment for actress Cacilda Becker in her role in Lady of the Camellias. <\/em><\/p>\n

Viana decided to include Fl\u00e1vio de Carvalho among the most important of Brazil\u2019s 20th<\/sup> century scenographers\u2014a decision prompted less by Carvalho\u2019s lasting contributions and influence than the originality of his projects, which at times foreshadowed the ideas of visionaries like Antonin Artaud. Notoriously irreverent, Carvalho in 1933 staged O bailado do deus morto <\/em>(Dance of the dead God), which he described as a laboratory \u201cfor experimenting with what emerges as essential in the world of ideas: scenes, modes of diction, mimicry, dramatic presentation of new expressive elements, and lighting and sound problems that could affect the movement of abstract forms.\u201d\u00a0 The figures on the stage would emerge as totems wearing masks and large mops of hair. Equally innovative were Carvalho\u2019s sculptural stage and costume designs created in 1954 for the IV S\u00e3o Paulo Centennial Ballet.\u00a0 \u201cTo understand what the IV Centennial Ballet really meant for the visual arts, dance, and theater,\u201d explains Viana, \u201cwill require us to wait until its story is written. It may turn out to be the baptismal certificate of contemporary Brazilian stage design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nTheatrical costume and the transformations of the Brazilian stage (n\u00ba 2013\/09333-2<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong>\u00a0Regular Research Grant; Principal Investigator<\/strong>\u00a0Fausto Viana (ECA-USP); Investment<\/strong>\u00a0R$31,831.12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The history of costumes for the Brazilian stage since the 19th century ","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[241,263],"coauthors":[137],"class_list":["post-221467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-history","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221467"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=221467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}