Fernanda Lapa - PORTO FEMME

By Luísa Pinto

Fernanda Lapa (1943 – 2020)

Fernanda Lapa, one Greater Woman who impressed us throughout her life by her undeniable example of courage, by the struggle for equal rights between men and women, her great love of theatre, the struggle for better working conditions in the field of arts, the appreciation of culture, her creativity, her intelligence, her imagination, staging what few would dare to do about what seduces and grabs us.

Fernanda Lapa was an actress, director, theatre teacher, woman of artistic, political and social struggles, revolutionary, anti-fascist, determined. She never kept her voice quiet. Full present!
She dedicated her life to theatre, her great passion. She received a scholarship from the Polish State Secretariat for Culture, an internship at the Grotowski Laboratory Theatre, the Contemporary Theatre in Wroclaw and the Stary Theatre in Krakow.

She founded A Casa da Comédia, then the Escola de Mulheres-Oficina de Teatro, a structure to which she dedicated the last 25 years of her life. She made cinema, television, was awarded with the Golden Seven for Best Staging with the play Medeia é Bom Rapaz and the Golden Globe for Best Play for A Mais Velha Profissão, was also awarded with the Medal of Cultural Merit of the Ministry of Culture and coordinated the celebrations of the Centenary of the Dramaturg Bernardo Santareno.

I met Fernanda Lapa in 1995, the year the Escola de Mulheres was born, empathy was immediate and since then a beautiful and strong friendship grew which lasted until her death. This empathy immediately announced a mutual willingness to enter into possible partnerships. We performed co-productions like Maria Callas – O Mito Absoluto for Expo-98, and the following year we brought to the scene the show Coco Chanel, both staged by Fernanda.
I had the great honour of having Fernanda Lapa as an actress in shows I staged: Mil Olhos de Vidro, Chavela, and O Filho Pródigo (which gathered in the cast inmates of the two prisons of Santa Cruz do Bispo), and finally, in 2019, in the feature film O Filho Pródigo-Filme Concerto, directed by myself and Carlos Coelho Costa and, with the same cast; inmates who joined professional actors on screen.

I remember the day I invited Fernanda to these two projects with artistic/social objectives: she accepted without blinking, with all her generosity, professionalism, creativity, sensitivity and affection, alongside people who carry with them a stigma that prevents them from a social reinsertion in the future. Fernanda, once again supportive, generous, contributing to this desire for a possible personal transformation in the inmates participating and social transformation in the assisting public. Regarding her participation in this film, O Filho Pródigo-Filme concerto, Fernanda told the journalist from Público, Mariana Correia Pinto, that she had learned a lot from these non-actors. And Mariana commented: “I know she didn’t say it just for saying: her greatness was also in her ability to always learn and with everyone. If we were all like her, the world would certainly be a better place”.
In the struggle for a better place, Fernanda opened doors, bet on texts that no one risked, promoted and disseminated new dramaturgies in women’s writing, stirred consciences, encouraged the creation of networks for debate and reflection and, through creativity and intelligence, contributed to a “theatrical making” based on equal opportunities for women.
Dear Fernanda: all those who were dear to you, who loved you (there are many of them and I include myself in that number) had the good fortune to be able to cross our lives with yours. This is a privilege that I will never forget.
Thank you!

Luísa Pinto

TRIBUTE SESSION TO FERNANDA LAPA

EXHIBIT OF THE FILM WOMEN ON STAGE BY LUÍSA SEQUEIRA & LUÍSA PINTO AT CINEMA TRINDADE, ON OCTOBER 8TH AT 9.30PM, WITH PRESENCE OF LUÍSA SEQUEIRA AND LUÍSA PINTO.

MULHERES NO PALCO| WOMEN ON STAGEMULHERES NO PALCO.

Portugal | 46’44’’ | 2006
Director: Luísa Sequeira
Author: Luísa Pinto
Cast: Fernanda Lapa, Lia Gama, Maria José, Glória de Matos, Fernanda Montenegro, Lurdes Norberto
Producer: RTP – Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

This documentary follows the staging of the play “The Oldest Profession” by American playwright Paula Vogel, staged by Fernanda Lapa for the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. The play brought together for the first time on stage five great Portuguese actresses: Lia Gama, Maria José, Glória de Matos, Fernanda Montenegro and Lurdes Norberto. In 2005, Fernanda Lapa won the Golden Globe for best show with “A Mais Velha Profissão”. In Women on Stage, we hear the opinion of the director and the actresses about life, theatre and the theme that brought them together on stage.

Biofilmography

Fernanda Lapa was born in 1943, Lisbon. She started working in theatre in 1962, at the Teatro dos Alunos da Universitários de Lisboa. After founding the Casa da Comédia, she made her professional debut as an actress in the play Deseja-se Mulher by Almada Negreiros, directed by Fernando Amado. It is with the same play that she makes her debut, ten years later, as a theatre director. With a degree in Social Services by Instituto Superior de Serviço Social de Lisboa, in 1979 she obtained a scholarship from the Secretary of State for Culture and attended the Warsaw School of Staging, where she specialised in Staging. An actress with multiple faces, she collaborated in several operas, plays and theatre-dance plays, performing in works by authors such as Jean Cocteau, Copi, August Strindberg, Arthur Miller, among many others. She taught theatre at several universities and institutes in Portugal. In 1995 she founded the Escola de Mulheres – Oficina de Teatro, which purpose was to highlight theatrical productions by and with women. On the big screen her best known performances include Recompensa (1979) by Arthur Duarte, Solo de Violino (1992) by Monique Rutler, Rosa Negra (1992) by Margarida Gil. In 2005 she received the Golden Globe for the production of the play A Mais Velha Profissão by Paula Vogel, and in the same year was awarded the Medal of Cultural Merit by the Ministry of Culture. Fernanda Lapa passed away on August 6th 2020, leaving behind a strong legacy in the fights for culture and women’s rights.