Marco Nicolatto: 

The theater in favor of Spiritism 

 
The director of the plays Allan Kardec – The Scientist of the Invisible and Love Will Never Forget You talks about the difficulties and joys he has found taking to the theater plays which
focus on Spiritism 

Mineiro from Belo Horizonte, degree in Psychology and Performing Arts, Marco Nicolatto (picture), who currently resides in São Paulo (SP), is an actor, director, producer and dramaturge, with experience of having worked at Rede Globo de Televisão, a major TV network in Brazil. He has been Spiritist for 25 years, his answers on our interview bring a broadened view of his idealism and love for the Gospel and also show an enthusiasm for Spiritism through the theater, which first started reading the book Paulo & Estêvão, by Emmanuel.

Next, the interview that the confrere so graciously delivered:

O Consolador: Why did you move from Belo Horizonte to Rio de Janeiro and then, São Paulo?

I moved from Belo Horizonte to study theater in Rio de Janeiro, where I took Performing Arts and lived there for about ten years. There I worked at Rede Globo for five years, where I acted in TV shows like Engraçadinha (Naughty Girl), soap operas like Babel Tower and Evil Angel, among others, besides episodes in some weekly shows like You Decide, etc. I also worked in theater as an actor and producer. Around 1999, I had already made up my mind on an art compatible with the ideas I brought in my spirit, I moved to São Paulo, where I’ve been living for the last eight years.

O Consolador: What is your occupation in the Spiritist movement?

Inside the Spiritist movement I’ve always engaged in works towards the needy, like social areas, such as slums, on the street with beggars, or in the Spiritist Center in works in the area of psychophonic mediumship and lectures. As for formal roles I have never had the interest in them. Of course that if I needed to I would, but I confess I’ve always been a bit wary as to power in many places where I worked. These are some of them: Spiritist Center Celia Xavier, in Belo Horizonte; Spiritist Home Joanna de Angelis, in Rio de Janeiro, and Spiritist Center Batuíra, in Perdizes, with the late Mr. Ghilardi, here in São Paulo. 

O Consolador: When and how did you have your first contact with Spiritism?

My contact with Spiritism happened around 25 years ago. My interest in philosophy in general and great affinity with Western philosophy made that I had conviction in questions like immortality of the soul, reincarnation etc. More specifically, what led me to this search, I believe it was my annoyance at the work I had, in the field of Social Psychology, in projects aimed for the needy in very poor regions of Minas Gerais like Jequitinhonha’s Valley, coastal cities and the outskirts of big cities. Projects in which I engaged with idealism, once they were aimed for the poorest parts of the population and were funded by international entities like World Bank Group, Inter-American Development Bank - IDB, among others. But, realizing that the politicians would end up managing the money, I felt my idealism cooling down as I perceived that the interest in other peoples’ suffering was much more of a springboard for politicians rather than the fact of diminishing the suffering of a poor people. So I got deluded with Psychology, which led me to the artistic search and in search of a sense for my own life, since all of that led me to a severe depression, when I stayed in bed for more than one year. So I decided to look for answers that were not covered with rites or myths which made them incomprehensible or then dependant on any sort of guru, or religious chief and these things. The contact with Spiritism happened naturally, and a great reason for that is that Spiritism does not pay for people, has no clergy, no owner, and no dogmas.

Curious fact, in this period, was the opportunity of lengthy conversations with a Spirit friend, Dr. Joseph Kleber, who, through a medium, of primary instruction, provided me with countless talks about Philosophy, Physics, among others, impossible for the medium herself. This helped me a lot to make sure of the authenticity of spiritual communications.  

O Consolador: How many plays have you had as a director? Have you also acted in any of them?

As a director I set up five plays and I have also worked as an actor.  

O Consolador: When did you start enjoying theater and what led you to adapt Spiritist books onto the stage?

I started to like theater because of the philosophy itself, once that, as I use to say, where there’s no speech we need to get our point across through music, the imagery produced in a play, interpretation and emotion of the actors, the attempt to represent images which the word itself would not be able to, the possibility to touch people through emotion, plastic arts, unconscious associations, it means, the possibility to use up all the arts to build a spectacle. The will to adapt or write Spiritist books for the theater started as soon as I got in touch with Spiritism. As I read Paulo & Estêvão and the Spiritist Magazine from cover to cover, immediately I wanted to take them to stage, transforming them into plays, being this one of the reasons for me to keep on studying theater, so I could make them.  

O Consolador: What is the biggest difficulty of a theater director to set up a play based on a book?

Transforming the literary language of a text into the theatrical one. To follow an emotional and rational line which keep conflicts and tensions that draw the spectators’ attention during the play. And maybe the hardest is to discard some passages that, even though they are beautiful, they must be sacrificed for the sake of the spectacle, so that, it does not become too long and the excess of information may confuse the spectator. The costs to develop this work and count on a united and idealistic group are also considerable.  

O Consolador: What are the main repercussions of the play “Allan Kardec – The Scientist of the Invisible”?

Definitely the response from the audience, whether they were Spiritist or not, the responsibility and industry in which we developed our work, with a great respect to the doctrinal foundations and the study made for the thought and the work of the Compiler could be portrayed accurately, at the same time showing this doctrinal fidelity is and must be compatible with a theater of quality not beyond to other plays. "Allan Kardec – The Scientist of the Invisible" strengthened the ties of the art that we develop in the Spiritist movement as well as in general. 

O Consolador: And what did motivate you to set up the play “Love Will Never Forget You”?

To bring the audience the emotion to know Jesus as their fellow one, companion, who cares for us and knows us by the name. I believe that if people feel they are loved by this friend and master, this can provoke a turnaround in their lives, in the sense of a life full of faith, hope and capacity to overcome limitations. Also our perception that this was the desire of the Spirits, who are the real authors of our work. To them, in the name of the beloved Master, we try to serve faithfully, and try to work as well as we can, having as goal to please Jesus, try to show Him how much we love and are grateful. In our work the audience is the most important thing, not the artists. After all, they are Jesus’ guests, who we try to serve the best we can. Also for the campaigns developed by many who say they are Spiritist, wanting it to be only philosophical or scientific, which sounds like a great mistake to me, even because, if it were like this, there would be no use Kardec having published The Gospel According to Spiritism and Genesis, two books in which he talks about Jesus on Earth. And the fundamental part is not the philosophical and scientific part but that we learn how to love others, something that without the teachings of the Master would become much harder. 

O Consolador: The aforementioned play is the first of a trilogy composed of “The Force of Kindness” and “Under the Hands of Mercy”. Do you also intend to perform these other two?

Yes. We intend to perform them all, if God allows us to perform them at the same time. To do so, the Institute of Spiritist Diffusion (IDE) has conceded us the rights of these books. 

O Consolador: As for the group Operários do Palco, what would you say? What are the difficulties and joys? 

Difficulties are plenty, but I prefer to stick to the joys. Among them, without the shadow of a doubt is the improvement of ourselves, as a group, as we try to witness in the daily life the examples, the courage and faith that we cover in our plays. The making of a group of friends who are willing to help with our work is also a great reason for our joy, because when I started this I was by myself and the good Spirits who helped and trusted me, adding to this the recognition and love from the audience and very meaningful facts of people who looked for us after the plays saying they had courage to face their problems, people who came to see plays thinking about suicide and changed their minds. Besides, the testimonials of Catholics, Evangelic and brothers of other religions revealed a great interest in knowing more about the Spiritist Doctrine. The difficulties we face with faith, courage, sure that Jesus and the good Spirits follow ahead of us preparing the way and helping in our shortcomings, or even ignorance.   

O Consolador: During the presentations how do you feel the response from the audience? Of course that at the end the vibrations and applause show you that and even after, dealing with the audience. But... and during the play? 

The response from the audience, as we said before, has been of love and spontaneous vibration. People pray for us to keep on going places, many of them we don’t know personally, but they recognize the importance of our continuity of an art that is the expression of the beauty producing good. During the plays and also in rehearsals the spiritual sustenance is so big and we get touched with the love the Spirit friends treat us. In some moments, there is no exaggeration to say we live moments of great happiness, mainly after intense struggles to set up a play. We get so happy and so do the Spirits. But we need to keep humble, keep on praying, because the Law of attraction still exists and we need to strive to keep a mental standard compatible with the task we do, because we are also attacked. Thanks God that the responsibility will be always ours in leading with dignity or get lost in the expressions of pride, responsible for the destruction of many projects to the good.  

O Consolador: What about the spiritual involvement to set up the play, how do you feel that? 

I believe I have kind of answered this question already, but I can add that we work mainly with intuition to get to perceive the orientations from the many artists in the invisible world who work with us. In "Love Will Never Forget You", for example, sceneries are being mediunically prepared by the master painters, coordinated by Pierre Auguste Renoir, and I can state that a great many artists work on this, as well as writers in the elaboration of the text, the actors and directors, all of us together as a team gathering the invisible world and the visible one. We feel the presence of these dear friends and everything unfolds with harmony.   

O Consolador:  Tell us anything remarkable you have lived with the Spiritist theater. 

It is common the perception of spirits during the plays, related by seeing mediums and felt by ourselves. There are also those who want to disturb, but the responsibility comes from our thoughts. There are many curious facts. For example, the play "Allan Kardec – The Scientist of the Invisible' was written "at once" in 48 hours. After I made some adjustments during rehearsals but the original text was the same. When writing "Love Will Never Forget You" I could feel many times Lúcius’ help in the development of the work, to keep it to the book, which is a great novel with some very beautiful passages, what made, sometimes, a bit hard and anguishing the adaptation, because I had to "let go of some scenes" to make it shorter. I could also feel Lúcius’ help to transform the literary language into the theatrical one. I believe that this play is a moment of maturity for our group and also for the audience. The help from the High has arrived in so many ways that our work, undoubtedly, is an evidence of the spirits in our world, since the results we got are, in my opinion, beyond our possibilities. 

O Consolador: And the resources of the group, what’s up with that? How can someone help, if they want to? 

One of the most difficult aspects refers to financial backing. Many Spiritist entrepreneurs are still a bit shy and afraid of having their names or companies associated with a religion. But our theater is not religious, proselitistic or Spiritist-driven. We set up plays for all audiences. We don’t want to stay only in the Spiritist movement, but, as Paul the Apostle would say, take this idea to the Gentile, it means to everybody. That’s why we try to prime our work in the search of the theatrical quality, get our point across so that everyone can take their own conclusions. Basically we have come thus far with own resources and with unexpected helps that ended up allowing the plays and their maintenance. We need to invest in propaganda to reach out for other parts of the audience so that we can make ends meet with rent, light, technicians, actors etc. At the same time we have already won faithful backers such as Boa Nova Radio and the Mundial Radio, which announce us, as well as many others who take part with printed material, propaganda etc. We also would like to say that it is very important for us to find one or more sponsors so that we can take our plays to other states and even out of the country. 

O Consolador: Where have you been working at the moment? Do you need to make any reservations? What is the phone and e-mail to get in touch with the group? 

The play "Love Will Never Forget You" is being shown at Teatro União Cultural, a theater with modern and comfortable facilities, and also of a great location, because it is next to Paulista Avenue and the Brigadeiro Station, which makes it easier to get there. The address is 209 Mário Amaral. Our presentations are always on Saturdays and Sundays at 1730. We ask all to make reservations. Groups with 10 people or more have a discount of 57% in the ticket. It is a way to keep the theater for the people, because our objective is not profit. Of course we need to make ends meet, but we also need to care for those who have never been to the theater, besides stimulating in the Spiritist movement the culture and arts, aware that the culture produced by people is the reflection of their evolution state. The telephone numbers are +55 (11) 5641-4491 and 9694-3684 and the e-mail is operariosdopalco@yahoo.com.br.