Rui Pina Coelho / Teatro Experimental do Porto

Rui Pina Coelho (Évora, 1975) is a playwright, dramaturg and lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, University of Lisbon. His artistic and academic work centres on art as a form of resistance, the representation of violence in the performing arts, and the relationships between performance, politics and utopia. Since 2010, he has collaborated regularly with TEP – Teatro Experimental do Porto, as a playwright and dramaturg  

The Teatro Experimental do Porto (TEP) is the oldest of Portugal’s professional theatre companies and the one that has enjoyed the longest-running history in the country. It premiered its first production in 1953 and has continued its history, with ups and downs, but with steadfastness. Under António Pedro (1953–1961), its first artistic director, it transformed the way theatre was made in Portugal, bringing about an aesthetic revolution through the introduction of modern staging. António Pedro was succeeded by leading figures from the worlds of theatre, the visual arts, music, literature, cinema and philosophy, who shaped the TEP and the association that runs it, the Círculo de Cultura Teatral. Over the course of these 70 years, some of the most charismatic figures in Portuguese culture have passed through the TEP, and works by leading national and international authors have been staged. Since 2012, Gonçalo Amorim has held the post of artistic director, following a two-year period as resident director.