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Gianfrancesco Guarnieri
(Milan,
Italy 1934 – San Paulo, Brazil 2006) Actor and playwright, he was born August 8, 1934 in
Milan. His family moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1936, where Guarnieri studied
until 1953, when he moved to San Paolo. In 1955 he founded the Paulista
Theater for Students, together with Oduvaldo Viana Filho. In the following
year, this troupe joined the Teatro de Arena of San Paulo, founded and
directed by José Renato. From this partnership sprang the Teatro de Arena,
renowned nationwide as “grand” by theater cognoscenti for its commitment to
human interests. Guarnieri started his playwrighting career in 1958 with
They Don’t Wear Black Tie, which not only had a successful run,
but garnered many awards (in 1981 a film adaptation won the Golden Lion in
the Venice Film Festival). Among his principal works are Arena Conta
Zumbi (1965), in collaboration with Augusto Boal and Edu Lobo,
Castro Alves Asks for Passage (1968), and A Scream Stopped
in the Air (1973) which won Governor of the State Award for best
Brazilian playwright. His last work was The Secret Struggle of Maria
of the Incarnation (2001). With such a successful career,
Guarnieri, one of the best actors in theater, film and television, took his
final onstage bow in 2005. |
