O palco como sala de aula: história da educação pelo teatro na capital brasileira (1830-1920)

Abstract

This research explores the historicity of theater in Brazil and its relationship with Education from 1830 to 1920 in the Brazilian capital, building a reflection on some institutional practices, subjects, knowledge and the press, whose debates regard the Brazilian cultural scene. Regarding to the press, different sources were analyzed, including printed and newspapers of the time, such as “Revista do Conservatório Real de Lisboa”, “Jornal do Conservatório de Lisboa”, “Almanak Laemmert”, “A Epocha”, “A platea”, “Diário de Notícias”, “Diário do Rio de Janeiro”, and others related to specialized press for theater audience. In relation to subjects and knowledge, documents such as letters and records from the Brazilian Dramatic Conservatory, in addition to books are investigated. We were also interested in knowing the trajectory of the former theoretical writings for theaters who are registered in Brazil, as well as the different characters and their activities focused on the theater, giving greater emphasis to the productions and actions of five of them: João Caetano (1808-1863), Eduardo Victorino (1869-1949), Maria Angélica Ribeiro/Nênia Silva (1829-1880), Josefina Álvares de Azevedo (1851-1913) e Júlia Valentim da Silveira Lopes de Almeida (1862-1934). In this study, we draft the relationship between theater and the different cultural and educational practices in action, considering the broad concept of the educational experience beyond schools. To beginning with the idea of genealogy and studies on “knowledge and power” present in the work of Michel Foucault, we showed an analysis of how the teaching and learning processes of theater, or “dramatic art”, took place in the Capital of Rio de Janeiro. Moreover, we tried to understand the existing power relations in the conduct of the "theatrical machine" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the practices staged by its subjects. Pertaining to institutions, we investigated the Brazilian Dramatic Conservatory, which is an institution created to carry out theatrical censorship. Besides that, we reflected on the purpose of the actor, the actress and child labor in the theater as well as the process of training, teaching and learning the occupation carried out from the organization, creation, structure and functioning of these and other institutions, such as the theater companies. Specifically, we analyzed the process of institutionalization of the teaching of this artistic knowledge from the projects, which existed since the 19th century with the attempt to create a dramatic school. At the same time, we investigated the process linked to the inauguration of the Escola Dramática Municipal, currently Escola Técnica Estadual de Teatro Martins Penna (ETETMP-RJ), which according to the historiography of the Education is considered the first public theater school in Rio de Janeiro whose foundation took place in 1908. We concluded that such experiences complement each other historically and, in this context, theatrical institutions, the various professionals involved with such practices, subjects such as artists, teachers and producers among others, constitute important elements to think about this imbrication between the educational universe and the experiences cultural, as practices of human formation.