Aida Jordão is a Portuguese-Canadian playwright, theatre director, and academic. She is a co-founder of the feminist theatre group, Company of Sirens, and she co-created '' This is For You, Anna'', a germinal Canadian feminist theatre play.

Early life and education

Jordão was born in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. At age 9, she and her family moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. She has a PhD from the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Her dissertation was titled, " Ines de Castro in Theatre and Film: A Feminist Exhumation of the Dead Queen."

Career

Jordão is sometimes credited as a member of the Anna Collective, a group of women who co-created the play, '' This is For You, Anna'', for Nightwood Theatre. As Jordão left the collective before the play's completion to work as an actor in Portugal, the play is most consistently credited to Suzanne Odette Khuri, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Baņuta Rubess, and Maureen White. In 1986, Jordão co-founded the feminist theatre group Company of Sirens with Lina Chartrand, Catherine Glen,

Lib Spry Lib Spry is a Canadian director, playwright, and academic. She is a co-founder of Company of Sirens and Straight Stitching Productions and served as the artistic director of Passionate Balance. Career In 1986, Spry co-founded the feminist the ...

, Shawna Dempsey, and Cynthia Grant. As part of Company of Sirens, Jordão co-created the group's most popular play, ''The Working People's Picture Show''. In 1991, her bilingual Portuguese/English play, ''Funeral in White'', premiered with Company of Sirens. Twenty-two years later, it was published by Fidalgo Books. ''Mary The Slasher'', a play Jordão co-wrote with Rebecca Burton, premiered at the second Hysteria Festival, co-presented by Nightwood Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times. At Nightwood Theatre's 22nd Groundswell Festival in August 2005, Jordão's play about a woman who had been a communist leader in the

Spanish civil war The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, ''Las Pasionarias'', premiered. In 2006, Jordäo worked on the puppet play ''Camoes, the One-Eyed Poet of Portugal'' about the Portuguese poet,

Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; or 1525 – 10 June 1580), sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns ( ), is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of William Shakes ...

. The play was co-created with David Anderson, Nuno Cristo, Mark Keetch, and Larry Lewis. Jordão works as a sessional lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese departments of the

and

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Works

Plays: * ''This is For You, Anna'' (co-created with the Anna Collective, first staged 1983) * ''Funeral in White'' (first staged 1991, published 2013) * ''Mary The Slasher'' (co-written with Rebecca Burton, first staged 2004) * ''Las Pasionarias'' (first staged 2005) * '' Camoes, the One-Eyed Poet of Portugal'' (co-created with David Anderson, Nuno Cristo, Mark Keetch and Larry Lewis, first staged 2006)

References

{{Authority Control Portuguese emigrants to Canada Date of birth missing (living people) Canadian women dramatists and playwrights University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Academic staff of York University People from Lisbon Year of birth missing (living people) Living people