The Beginning
The introduction of theatre into Brazil was the work of the Jesuits who were concerned with the conversion of the Indians to catholicism and wanted to restrain the deplorable habits of the Portuguese colonizers. The Jesuit missionary Father José de Anchieta (1534-1597), in nearly a dozen plays inspired by the medieval religious dramaturgy and especially by Gil Vicente, made a name for himself in this task, though from a religious more than an artistic standpoint. [more]
