Now I want to address your activity as a playwright. How does one decide to write for the theater as a profession?
JP: I think there has to be two very strong interests which is the interest of writing and theater.
It's hard to be a playwright in Portugal?
JP: Yes, because there is not a strong framework for promoting the drama in Portugal, there is not much grip of the audience to the theater, or critical mass, and yet, there are a limited number of publications for theater in the Portuguese language.
However, in many of the interviews I conducted all the artists and directors are almost unanimous in stating that there is a lack of playwrights in the country.
JP: I do not personally have this perception. Just do a simple Google search to find names of many playwrights working. What happens is that the work of playwrights is quite restricted, impacts the area of the company where usually work and little else, i.e. , if authors work in Lisbon will have national impact if they are based in Porto, in Coimbra , Inner Beira, Tras -os- Montes , or even in the Azores and Madeira its recognition will be more regional . This contributes to the fact that there is not a sustained policy of publications of theater at least plays in Portuguese.
Also to the fact that theater companies are not sensitized to have a playwright to work with them?
JP: Yes, in fact does not exist. On one hand, in commercial terms turns out to be more effective working with established texts, because the authors already have notoriety, are known and it attracts audience from the outset. Meanwhile, start with a more or less unknown playwright to work for a company is a more long - term work, requires a higher investment and most theater groups in Portugal cannot afford to make that bet.
Even when a playwright is awarded as is your case?
JP: Yes
Addressing some of the plays you wrote , " the auto of reason " , of 2003 , was awarded the prize Miguel Rovisco , tell me some of this work .
JP: That was one of my first plays for theater, was brought to life by four different companies, one in Guimarães, Porto, Leiria and Lisbon. It is a nonsense play; a search for identity, since the protagonist commits a crime and tries to make sense in a world that no longer makes sense.
Then you wrote "before midnight", of 2007, awarded the prize Manuel Jacinto - Deniz, is a play with many characters.
JP : It's about a group of friends coming together to celebrate the New Year , and most of them are at the end of their university lives and are preparing to enter in the job market. The play portrays many of these anxieties of transition. Somehow will start individual paths to each of them and will lose contact with each other.
It is autobiographical in some way?
JP: It's autobiographical in the sense that I also went through the leave university and start a job hunting process. This implies a cut of relationships, loss of contact with friends and colleagues within the university, since some went to live with their families, others left to work for other cities or even abroad and lose touch between them.
It is a work that was seldom staged.
JP: Yes, he was on stage once. There are many characters and actors, which makes it very complicated to secure a large group on stage, obviously, in terms of costs.
Tell me some of your creative process in terms of drama. How to choose the themes for the plays, it is through observation of everyday life that surrounds you, or you think about a topic and write, or receive orders to that effect?
JP: There are all these formulas, i.e., many times companies are looking for certain texts, generally for two players and then ask me a text. Other times it's a theme, an episode of something that interests me and then writes about it. Then there are the ideas that come seemingly out of nowhere and will be forming and transforming in processes of writing.
There are moments, or something, which makes the process more difficult or unwritten?
JP: The most difficult processes may come in part of writing that seeks to try to find a way for the text, and then there's the ordering process in which there is a fit between what we want to write and the expectations of the company, which wish to enact.
In terms of drama, which is the preference of the Portuguese public?
JP: I do not think there is a Portuguese theater public, but there are different audiences. A lot depends on the geographical area, whether it is a more urban, or suburban or rural audience. If it is a place that has university and it also has much impact in terms of frequency. If they are going to the national or municipal theater, or more independent companies, or prefer musicals and plays with well-known television personality.
So what is the choice of urban audiences?
JP: Well, it's an audience that lives and works in the city center, which has a higher level of education and greater purchasing power. They look kind of more avant-garde plays, more established authors or companies with some prestige.
And the rural audience what are they looking for the theater?
JP: A searching lighter play that have to do with the Portuguese situation, comedies with music, or works that have a stronger component of melodrama.
And how the cities with university distinguished from others?
JP: Well, the cities have their own companies with university students doing theater. Typically, these people want a more literary theater, or closer to the performance.
These public give importance to the fact that the author is Portuguese, or not really?
JP: I think the importance does not exist, is given in situations that are portrayed, if they see episodes that are somehow close to them, it generally communicates with the public. Now if whoever wrote that play is Portuguese or not, I do not think it has great impact.
Another of your facets is the screenwriting.
JP: I have written more, is now rare.
But when you did what distinguished writing a play and a movie?
JP: In the movies almost everything is given through the picture, so the idea is to convey everything visually, using as few words as possible. In the theater there is the freedom of text, talk of things, describes them, something that the film is much more difficult to happen.
Also have published short stories and you are currently writing a novel is that?
JP: Yes, but still cannot disclosure anything.
Of all these facets in your life, what is your favorite?
JP: I cannot answer. I think what interests the writing itself, which has the power to transform the way people think.
How do you define?
JP: As an author.
But not only books?
JP: Also there are not many writers who are just writing books, see the example of Saramago also wrote plays.
How do you see the profession of play writer in the future in a country like Portugal?
JP: That's a very complicated question. I do not think that will be an easy activity because I do not think there is theater in Portugal. Had always subject to the ups and downs of the economy, so that will always be fitting but I hope I can always contribute to the cultural dynamism of the country. Currently, there is also a general trend at European level of being more visual plays use other media, new technologies and practices not as dependent on the text. The drama will be thought of as a whole, an experience that is necessary to articulate in a way that makes sense to the viewer.
