PROJEÇÃO FÍLMICA EM SUPER-8 NO ESPETÁCULO MARÉ MEMÓRIA (1974)

EXPERIMENTAÇÃO E INCORPORAÇÃO À COMPOSIÇÃO CÊNICA NO TEATRO MARANHENSE

Abstract

This article investigates the experimentation with and incorporation of Super-8 film projection into the scenic composition of Maré Memória (1974), staged by Laborarte, in relation to filmmaker Murilo Santos’s earlier experience with photographic slide projection in Uma meia para um par de homens (1971), produced by the Teatro de Férias do Maranhão. The study aimed to analyze the continuities and transformations between these image-projection practices and to understand the factors that favored the inclusion of film in the 1974 production. A qualitative historical-documentary approach was adopted, based on oral, iconographic, and bibliographic sources. The materials examined include oral testimonies by Murilo Santos and Tácito Borralho, photographs published in newspapers, and studies on Laborarte, Super-8 filmmaking, and Maranhão theatre. The findings indicate that the slide experience constituted a technical and aesthetic antecedent to Super-8 projection. Its incorporation into Maré Memória was facilitated by Laborarte’s integrated arts approach, the acquisition of equipment, and the search for a poetic solution for a couple’s wedding-night scene. It is concluded that the film did not serve merely an illustrative function; rather, it integrated scenography, lighting, music, and stage action, expanding the spatial and dramaturgical dimensions of the performance. Although the term “intermedial effect” was not part of the group’s theoretical vocabulary, the articulation between theatre and moving images reveals a significant experience of renewal in the Maranhão theatre scene in the 1970s.