“We built ourselves within the periphery, within the peripheral movement. We are a black theater group.” The phrase said by Naloana Lima to arte!brasileiros sets the tone (and body) for the work built over the last 20 years by Clariô Theater Group.
The company, founded in Taboão da Serra by Naloana Lima, Alexandre Souza, Mario Pazini Jr. and Naruna Costa now has a larger number of members, but continues with the same goal: to produce and think about the arts on the outskirts of the metropolis. To make theater “FOR the periphery, IN the periphery and FOR the periphery”, as he often states.
In 2005, they opened Espaço Clariô, the company's headquarters in Taboão da Serra. The place that was created to provide continuity and consistency to the research of these artists expanded. There, at Rua Santa Luzia 96, the group came across a huge cultural gap proportional to a huge desire, especially among children and young people in the region, to enter the world of theater. The house (now a warehouse), which is located on the border between Taboão da Serra and São Paulo, became a space for the local community.
They began to occupy it with several collaborative projects, which earned them the State Governor's Award in 2014 in the cultural inclusion category. Today, Espaço Clariô is an open door to opportunities in the world of culture for Taboão and its surrounding areas – such as Campo Limpo and Capão Redondo, in the capital of São Paulo, and the cities of Embu das Artes and Itapecerica da Serra. However, the space is at risk of closing in the coming months. About a year ago, the owner of the property expressed the need to sell it. With the construction of the Vila Sônia subway station, the value of the building increased and the company finds itself unable to buy it, but it is opening up fundraising opportunities to maintain the cultural activity.
Dream big
In its artistic trajectory, Clariô brings a musical front, Clarianas, and four theatrical shows built from long research projects, which remain active in the company's repertoire.
The first, People's hospital, won several categories of the Cooperativa Paulista de Teatro (CPT) Award in 2009. Bringing together short stories and songs by Marcelino Freire from Pernambuco, the work focuses on the working women of Brazil, women from the outskirts of the city who open the doors of their homes to reveal what they came for and what their place is within the unequal structure of the country in which they live — Brazil. There, the embryo of Vulture eats carrion and flies!, which debuted in 2011. "In People's hospital, speaking about women, we also talk about mothers from the outskirts who often have their children killed by the police in the slums”. Vulture eats carrion and flies! delves into the subject. The play is based on the chronicles of the poet from Pernambuco, Miró da Muribeca, who, when narrating his life, denounces the racism naturalized in the violent approaches of the military police to black men in Brazil. In 2015, Severina, from death to life brings an adaptation of the work of João Cabral de Melo Neto, Death and severe life. The work is the first dramaturgy created by Clariô himself.
In recent years, they have debuted Tame Ox and the Holy Cross of the Desert, which won the Shell Award for Best Music, the Leda Maria Martins Award in the Ancestry Category and the APCA 2023 for Best Dramaturgy, tells a little-told Brazilian story: the Caldeirão massacre, in Ceará, in 1937. In dialogue with the aesthetics of the Bumba-meu-boi festivities and the Ceará reisado, the play tells the story of the Caldeirão Brotherhood of Santa Cruz do Deserto, a popular community that “dared to build an egalitarian society, a life in communion in the Cariri region of Ceará, but was persecuted and destroyed by official military forces”, explains the company's official text. Caldeirão was the first aerial bombardment of a civilian group in the country.
All the plays have something in common: they are based on a life experience that the members of Clariô know firsthand. As Naloana explains: “It’s a real experience, of being there and feeling it on your skin every day — 24 hours a day. This issue of racism, for example, which is everywhere; this colonial issue, of all the troubles out there, that we have to fight like hell every hour — not even every day. This material, this dramaturgy that emerged, could only have been created by these people” – and for these people.
It was this journey that led the group to think about how ancestralities — of the bodies on stage and in the audience — could also contribute to the scene. With a group made up mostly of black people, they immersed themselves in research into an aesthetic identity for traditional Afro-indigenous manifestations. As Cleydson Catarina, an artist who is part of the group, points out, it is about seeking to also see themselves as a school, to understand historically invisible knowledge. “Dramaturgy in theater — even black and peripheral theater — is still done with a white aesthetic, with a structure of white study. There are plays about us, but with a totally elitist, white, academic aesthetic. It is very scary to talk about our bodies still in this makeup, in this dramaturgy that was not made for us,” says Cleydson in an interview with arte!brasileiros.
Clariô, however, seeks not only to draw on their experiences, but to return them in art to those who experience them firsthand. They perform in the outskirts of the city and seek theatrical languages that communicate with a wide audience. Cleydson gives an example: “One of the things is this direct dramaturgy. I say: 'I don't want to work with a lot of words in a society that is starving'. With beautiful words, with difficult words that don't reach our bodies, right?”
The mission of making theater for and in the outskirts of the city went one step further with the construction of Espaço Clariô. The artists took their ideals from the rehearsal room to the public. The company's headquarters now houses permanent cultural activities. "It's been almost 20 years of many stories and dreams that have become reality together with the community. With a lot of work, stubbornness, partnerships and theater, we dream big!", says Naloana. Within those walls, they held theater seasons, black film and children's film screenings, cultural workshops, slams, the Mostra Teatro do Gueto, monthly meetings to form networks of artists from the outskirts (QUINTASOITO) and free concerts with the presence of big names in music.
The nightmare
“There were many, many dreams fulfilled, until the arrival of a single nightmare, closing the doors”, says Naruna Costa in video recently published by the company. About a year ago, the owner of the property that now houses Espaço Clariô expressed the need to sell it.
Despite the preference to buy, due to the almost 20 years of rent, the theater company does not have the necessary amount to negotiate. “Even though we are an independent theater group, our work at Clariô has never been commercial, but rather social. All activities have always been free and never expected to make a profit. Therefore, we do not have the cash flow to suddenly withdraw so much money to buy this house,” the artists explain on social media.
In view of this, they began a crowdfunding campaign in order to raise the 700 thousand reais needed to buy the space and keep this cultural center running. At the same time, they organize the Festêjo Clariô, a monthly event that brings together artists for shows at the space in Taboão, with tickets costing R$20 in order to raise funds.
Approaching the 20th anniversary since the founding of Grupo Clariô, the artists continue to perform their shows. They continue to pursue their goals on stage, while fighting to maintain the space. From 1o From November to December 15th, the company carries out an artistic occupation at Sesc Campo Limpo. They bring to the cultural center of São Paulo the presentation of all the shows in their repertoire, together with a wide-ranging program with a soiree and a series of chats on topics involving the collective's universe. They continue to dream big and make it happen.
