Theater training in the interior of São Paulo, according to Humberto Sinibaldi Neto: a history of FIT, the São José do Rio Preto International Theater Festival (1969-2016)

Abstract

This interview was developed as an offshoot of historical studies on the growth of cultural life and printed matter in northwestern São Paulo throughout the 20th century. The character interviewed here is theater director and actor Humberto Sinibaldi Neto, born on November 10, 1939, who, together with fellow director and actor José Eduardo Vendramini and journalist and writer Dinorath do Valle, created the São José do Rio Preto Amateur Theater Festival in the late 1960s, which, from the 2000s onwards, took on an international format, consolidating itself as one of the most important events of its kind in Brazil. In his testimony, collected on the premises of the Humberto Sinibaldi Neto Municipal Theater in the city of São José do Rio Preto, the interviewee spoke in a calm and relaxed manner, following only the traces of memory, not only about the origins of the Festival, but also about the specifics of the formation of a theater director/ author in the interior of São Paulo, in the middle of the military regime.