Re-gendering Roles: Theater Production in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1890-1915

Around the turn of the twentieth century, employment opportunities were increasing for most women across the globe.  In the city of São Paulo, Brazil, rapid population growth and industrialization meant women could be found behind looms as well as at the front of factory floors, waiting tables as well as running restaurants.  With spare change in their pockets, many of these women flocked to São Paulo’s theaters, where they were entertained by female performers onstage and onscreen.  Ironically, as the number of female theater consumers expanded, women’s roles as producers became more limited.

This paper explains the re-gendering of one of the most successful global enterprises, entertainment, from the industry’s fringes.  Specifically, I examine three sets of entertainment producers in São Paulo: touring actors-impresarios, local contractors, and local film exhibitors.  While it was common in the late nineteenth century for women to fill the shoes of the first, archival evidence of Paulistana contractors and film exhibitors has yet to be found.  As cinemas began to dominate São Paulo’s leisure economy in the early 1910s, the actress-impresario became a rarer breed.  This paper argues that changes in the technologies and complexity of both global and local entertainment sectors—in the latter case encompassing casting agencies, film studios and distribution networks, and theater chains—meant that women were increasingly shut out from decision-making capacities.  Without the connections, capital, or business experience of the male producers who entered entertainment from other industries, not to mention serious consideration by the latter, women were confined to the spotlight.