The influence of Heitor Villa-Lobos on the Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona: analysis of the composer's devouring in the spectacle Macumba Antropófaga

• Grant number: 25/06327-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Theatre
• Principal Investigator: Rafaella Uhiara
• Grantee: Amanda Ferraresi Nascimento
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/15032-4 - Sound archives of theater: implementation of a basis for research on the sound dimension in performing arts, AP.JP

Abstract

This study is dedicated to analyzing the process of sound creation in one of the most relevant and long-standing theater companies in the country. Although there is a significant amount of research on Teatro Oficina, no study has focused on its sound identity, despite sound playing a structuring role in the performances of the iconic company led by José Celso Martinez Corrêa, who referred to his plays as "carnival operas."One path to understanding the language and the aesthetic and sonic choices of the São Paulo-based company is through the study of the anthropophagic encounter between Teatro Oficina and the Brazilian modernist composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959). A key performance to observe this influence is Macumba Antropófaga (Anthropophagic Macumba), first staged in 2011 and restaged in 2017, whose creative motif was Villa-Lobos' work Choros No. 10 - Rasga Coração, which became the "embryonic stem cell of the company, revolutionizing Oficina's choral work through the complexity of the music" (A Bigorna, 2017, p. 6). Since then, the composer's works have been incorporated into every production directed by Zé Celso.To understand how Teatro Oficina transformed its sonic identity through the influence of Villa-Lobos, we will begin by collecting and organizing the available records of the play, listing the compositions used and their respective scenes. Next, we will conduct a series of interviews with musical directors, actors, and musicians who worked with Villa-Lobos' compositions during the creative process and performances of Macumba Antropófaga. From this material, it will be possible to analyze how Teatro Oficina appropriates the compositions in its creative process, their impact on the stage, and the transformations in the company's musical thinking.This study contributes to a new line of research focused on the sonic dimension of theater, providing future researchers and artists with a rich body of artistic creation, generating documentation through interviews about the creative process, thus becoming an important historical document for future research and one of the first studies focused on the music produced at Teatro Oficina.