Prof. José Afonso de Oliveira – OPINION
For several years now, promises have been made repeatedly to build a theater for our city, and nothing has been accomplished.
I believe that the time has come to seriously consider this much-needed proposal. The construction of a theater in the city certainly has the unanimous support of our entire society, as we all have sublime needs for cultural fulfillment.
The theater will represent a place for the development of our culture in its most significant aspects. Representing plays from the past or present is of utmost importance for cultural development and for understanding and experiencing the sense of group that theater carries.
Together with the theater, several different groups of young people, adults and children will be formed to study many different authors, and thus train and perfect the art of stage performance.
This fact would serve as a complement to the schooling of children and young people. And for adults, in some way, it would represent a return to the past of students, when analyzing and discussing texts to prepare training for plays.
Furthermore, since we are in a very important tourist city, theater festivals would be encouraged, as well as the holding of various improvement courses. Theater would be an important point for the further development of our tourism.
When everyone is thinking about new ways of generating employment and income, theater is very important in making this a reality. It generates many different types of employment, which results in a boost to the economic and social development of Foz.
This theater could be built in the square in front of the current city hall, being in the city center, a place with easy access for all residents and close to the Cultural Foundation, to which it could be administratively linked.
This is how the theater would stop being a dream, an idea, and would start to take shape for its implementation, as quickly as possible, in addition to which it could have multiple uses, as an appropriate space for the presentation of choirs, bands and other cultural activities that would start to be implemented, as they would have a specific place for the presentations.
José Afonso de Oliveira is a sociologist and university professor in Foz do Iguaçu.
This text is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of H2FOZ.
In 1994, I was in the cast of a show with the great and legendary Brazilian actress Tônia Carrero and, while traveling around the country, we did an internal tour of the state of Paraná. Due to a mistake by a local producer, he scheduled us for two performances in Foz. We had to cancel when we learned that the show would be held at a local nightclub. Even with all the good will in the world, this adaptation would be impossible, since it was a musical. Frustrated by the cancellation (since it was a charity night), the mayor's wife told us that it would be absurd to cancel the play because of "a simple set" (according to her). I immediately replied: "it's absurd that a city the size of Foz do Iguaçu doesn't have a decent theater". We returned to Cascavel, where we performed two more extra shows. From what I can see, nothing has changed. Unfortunately.