Born in the southernmost part of Brazil, a couple of hours drive to the border with Uruguay, I grew up in the 80’s in the countryside of a very small town called Cangucu, a forty-five minute bus drive to the actual town, which was devoid of any theaters. None for theater itself, none for movies. As a child I found exciting to participate in the local church’s enacting of nativity story every December, as well as in any other activity in school that required some sort of performance involving theatrical elements. I cherished watching soap operas on TV with my older sister. I cherished spending time with her so naturally her enthusiasm for soaps somehow got to me. Television was the medium that made me first dream of becoming an actor. It was only in my mid-teens in the early 90’s that through an excursion organized by my school at the time, I got to watch a movie on the big screen. The movie was Ghost. I was’t 13 but it didn’t seem to be a problem then. It was subtitled in Portuguese. My first experience with the original sounds. I had listened to music in English, of course, especially the ones that had been featured as soundtracks in the soaps I watched, but that was a whole different thing. I was so enraptured by the story taking place on this big faraway city called New York. I laughed and cried like never before. I guess was then that my dream of coming to New York began shaping up. It wasn’t until a few years later when I moved to metropolitan Sao Paulo at the age of twenty, that I finally got to attend a real theatrical performance. It was a small theater showcasing a production of one of our local authors. That was it. I would be on stage. Shortly I joined a theater company under the direction of Jose Ferro, someone who had worked with one of our most respected and internationally acclaimed directors in Brazil, Antunes Filho. I had previously worked as radio host of a nightly show for a year on an FM station, after that voiceovers have always been a part of my work. Now in Sao Paulo, recording jingles and occasional commercials for TV, working on stage with the theatrical company, I got to audition for a casting director who cast a series on Globo, the major TV network in Brazil. I was cast Sandy & Junior a weekly teen drama that aired every Sunday at noon throughout the country. I got to play Sandy’s love interest – an Arab prince, believe it or not. My my hair was dyed black to attempt to somehow make up for the lack of Middle-Easter features on my face. Today it wouldn’t happen, nevertheless, at the time it was a break for me. In 2005 the opportunity to come to New York presented itself. I didn’t hesitate. Yes of course it was a daunting prospect, but I felt I had much more to gain than to lose if I made the move. I’m glad I did. The city received me well. I got enrolled to study acting at the HB Studio, where I got to be taught by some of the greatest teachers in town: Among them, Austin Pendleton, Helen Gallagher and Aleksey Burago, with whom a long term partnership would unfold in the next decade and a half. In my first years in the city right after finishing the full-time acting program at the studio, I got to be part of the Society of the Educational Arts (SEA), the only Spanish-speaking children’s theater in New York. My Spanish speaking skills were still being developed but fortunately they were considered good enough to perform in their bilingual performances, half in Spanish and half in English. It was overwhelming sometimes going back and forth between these two languages that were relatively new to me. To act in your own language is challenging enough, let alone in languages that you didn’t grow up speaking. My love of languages might be my most cherished inclination. Being raised in a house where German was spoken among the adults so the children wouldn’t understand the conversation, sparked my curiosity. My curiosity led me to self-teaching, since at the time there were no means of attending a formal course. I’m passionate about many things beyond performing, like photography, painting, chemistry, cosmology, but linguistics would probably be my second choice of profession. Thank God for Professor Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady, a role I really like hope to play at some point in my career. Haha…
For the past few years at the Russian Arts Theater and Studio, under the direction of Mr. Burago, graduated from Moscow Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) and former student of world famous theater director Pyotr Fomenko, I also get to dab a little bit in Russian and sometimes French. I found fascinating to find new sounds and cultures through which to express in the hope of striking a chord which will cause the audience to take away something valuable. It’s all about value fulfillment – for all involved.
Namaste.
NY NY, September 16, 2023.