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| Zé Celso Martinez Correa | |
|---|---|
| Name | Zé Celso Martinez Correa |
| Birth date | 1941-03-30 |
| Death date | 2023-05-05 |
| Birth place | Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Occupation | Actor, director, playwright |
| Years active | 1961–2023 |
| Known for | Teatro Oficina, "O Rei da Vela" |
Zé Celso Martinez Correa was a Brazilian stage director, actor, playwright, and cultural agitator central to São Paulo's avant-garde theatre from the 1960s into the 21st century. He co-founded Teatro Oficina and produced landmark productions that intersected with figures and movements across Brazilian literature, music, visual arts, and politics. His work engaged with the legacies of Oswald de Andrade, Ariano Suassuna, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and contemporaries such as Glauber Rocha and Caetano Veloso.
Born in Piracicaba, São Paulo (state), he was raised during the era of Getúlio Vargas's legacy and the post-Estado Novo transformations. He studied at the Universidade de São Paulo and became involved with student cultural circles linked to the Centro Popular de Cultura and the Movimento Estudantil of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Early influences included Brazilian modernist figures such as Mário de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, and international dramatists like Samuel Beckett, William Shakespeare, and Jean Genet.
He co-founded Teatro Oficina in the district of Bela Vista and staged seminal productions including a landmark version of O Rei da Vela by Oswald de Andrade, which featured collaborations with musicians and visual artists from the circles of Tropicália, MPB, and the São Paulo art scene. Productions incorporated texts by Ariano Suassuna, Machado de Assis, Mário de Andrade and adaptations of works by Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and Federico García Lorca. He worked with actors and collaborators associated with Stela Miranda, Rogério Sganzerla, Zózimo Bulbul, Fernanda Montenegro, and musicians from Gilberto Gil to Tom Zé. Major seasons at Teatro Oficina intersected with festivals such as the Festival de Inverno de Campos do Jordão and exchanges with institutions like Teatro Nacional de São João and international venues in Paris, Lisbon, and New York City. He directed site-specific spectacles that referenced Brazilian historical events including the Proclamation of the Republic (1889), the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état, and cultural icons like Pernambuco's folklore and the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
His direction merged elements of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, Brechtian epic techniques, and the Brazilian Modernist provocations of Oswald de Andrade's Anthropophagic Manifesto. Productions featured multimedia collaborations with artists linked to Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, and Tarsila do Amaral's modernist legacy, as well as musicians from Tropicália and Bossa Nova traditions. Staging often used improvisation and collective authorship practices influenced by Jerzy Grotowski and ensemble methods practiced by Peter Brook and Eugène Ionesco-adjacent avant-garde movements. His scenography incorporated visual references to Brazilian painters such as Candido Portinari and Lasar Segall, while dramaturgy dialogued with poets and playwrights including Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Clarice Lispector.
He was a prominent cultural figure during the Brazilian military government period, aligning with leftist intellectuals and artists including members of the Partido dos Trabalhadores, critics of the Diretas Já movement's opponents, and allies of filmmakers like Glauber Rocha. His art became a site of protest against censorship practiced by institutions tied to the Military dictatorship (Brazil), provoking police interventions and censorship battles with municipal and federal authorities in São Paulo administrations ranging from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva-era debates to controversies under conservative municipal offices. High-profile disputes involved heritage preservation fights over the Teatro Oficina building, attracting support from figures such as Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, and institutions like the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional.
He maintained long-term personal and artistic partnerships with collaborators spanning generations, mentoring younger artists connected to the USP theatre departments and collectives in Centro Cultural São Paulo and beyond. His death prompted tributes from cultural institutions including the São Paulo State Government, Ministry of Culture, and artists associated with Tropicália and the contemporary theatre community. His legacy is preserved in archives at institutions like the Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo and studied in academic programs at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Estadual Paulista, and international theatre departments in London and New York University. He influenced generations of directors, actors, playwrights, and cultural activists across Latin America and Europe, shaping discourse around performance, politics, and Brazilian identity.
Category:Brazilian theatre directors Category:Brazilian actors Category:People from Piracicaba