Maria Ruth dos Santos Escobar, known professionally as Ruth Escobar (March 31, 1935 – October 5, 2017) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

-born

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian film and television actress, businesswoman, and politician. A prominent icon in Brazilian theater, Escobar was one of the country's leading cultural producers and activists for the arts.

Biography

Escobar was born in

Porto, Portugal Porto or Oporto () is the List of cities in Portugal, second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire concelho, municipality of Port ...

, on March 31, 1935. She emigrated from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

to Brazil in 1951, settled in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, and married , a philosopher, poet and playwright. She then studied acting in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, and then returned to São Paulo, where she founded her own

theater company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

called Novo Teatro. She founded another theater, now known as the Teatro Ruth Escobar, in São Paulo in 1964. It became a center of avant-garde art throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Her productions included ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a " play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François Villon, with mu ...

'' and the ''

Entertaining Mr Sloane ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' is a three-act play written in 1963 by the English playwright Joe Orton. It was first produced in London at the New Arts Theatre on 6 May 1964 and transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre on 29 June 1964. Plo ...

''. In 1974, Escobar founded the first Festival Internacional de Teatro (''International Festival of Theater'') to bring world theater productions to Brazil. She successfully brought numerous international productions and actors to São Paulo for the festivals, including the productions of Bob Wilson's ''Time and Life of Joseph Stalin'' and Victor Garcia's ''Yerma''. Escobar also brought the Catalan group Els Joglars, the Hamada Zenia Gekijo company of Japan, City Players of Iran, and Grupo G.Belli of Italy to Brazil for the festivals. During the 1980s, Ruth Escobar left the theater to focus on politics and community affairs. She was twice elected to the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo for two terms in 1983 and 1987, where she focused on community and cultural projects. In 1987, Escobar released her autobiography, "Maria Ruth-Uma Autobiografia", and returned to the theater. She appeared in a film 'Romance' in 1988 and in ''Relações Perigosas'' in 1990. Escobar's film roles included the historical drama, '' The Jew'', in 1996. Ruth Escobar died in

, on October 5, 2017, at the age of 81. She had been hospitalized in the city's Hospital Nove de Julho at the time of her death. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Escobar, Ruth 1935 births 2017 deaths Brazilian film actresses Brazilian stage actresses Brazilian television actresses Members of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo Portuguese emigrants to Brazil People from Porto Actresses from São Paulo