Group theater, cultural action and university extension in the modernization of the performing arts in Brazil

Abstract

This paper explores the links between artistic production, cultural action and university extension. It highlights the importance of the theatre poetics, debates and interventions developed by Brazilian university groups for the academic outreach and development of the arts in Brazil. These are historical contributions that go back to the student theater movements that emerged in Rio de Janeiro (1938), São Paulo (1943), Pernambuco (1946) and Pará (1941), which played important roles in the modernization of Brazilian theater, throughout the 1990s, when university group theater – which brought together figures such as Lume Teatro (SP) and Teatro da Vertigem (SP) – became a reference for an experimental scene and pushed forward the development and popularization of the performing arts. Currently, the synergy between artistic production, cultural action and universities has made it possible to research, disseminate and popularize theories and creative procedures that have been discussed and systematized in the academic circle, while the production of artistic collectives (from the downtown and/or peripheral neighborhoods) has become the object of scientific research. An interaction with two-way benefits. The debate is based on studies developed by Silvana Garcia, Nanci Fernandes, Décio de Almeida Prado, Raimundo Matos de Leão, Newton Cunha, Teixeira Coelho and other researchers. From a brief analysis of this flow of cultural action with an extensionist character, the objective is to understand the historical contribution of university theater and group theater pedagogy as a mobilizing, social and political tool for university extension and the Brazilian artistic production.