Célia Helena

Founder and actress

The actress, director and education specialist Célia Helena (1936-1997) built a trajectory in which life and work were entwined. At the age of 16, she began her studies with the Italian director Ruggero Jacobbi. At 17, she made her debut in film and, a year later, participated in her first show.

In the 1960s, she integrated politically engaged artistic groups that fought against repression, persecution and extinction of rights during the years of the military dictatorship.

In 1972, she went to schools distant from the urban center, neighborhood associations and churches, as well as provincial cities, to make art an instrument of agglutination, expression and communication of concerns and changes. A pioneering work at the time that serves as a model in the present.

In 1977, during the military regime, with no room for the assembly or formation of groups that stimulate critical actions, expression of ideas and artistic events, she decided to open the Célia Helena Theatre.

In 1989, she initiates the formative studies, with the technical-vocational actor course. To comprehend the students and educators’ way of thinking and improving capacities, she gathered philosophers, actors, stage directors, psychoanalysts and vocal and movement professionals for the exchange and construction of a methodology grounded in the artistic process, creative autonomy and social role of actors.