Teresa Jardim Gedge was born on the island of Madeira, but began her acting career in England in three amateur companies. Returning to her origins in 1982, she worked on films, series and decided to organize a group of amateur theater initially designated as ABDM (Association of British drama of Madeira), but quickly becomes best known as MADS (Madeira Dramatic Society) of which she is still the president and also an actress. A route with 20-year-old who took the stage with several plays and musicals that delighted thousands of spectators from various nationalities.

In that context arises MADS?

Teresa Gedge: My husband was appointed consul of England here in Madeira and I remembered to bring together a group of people who lived on the island of British origin or who spook English in order to create a group of amateur theater. We started by having a meeting at the Anglican Church, me in partnership with Carol Gouveia, David Valant and especially my daughters who gave me strength and said let's see how many people come to the meeting and started form that. It was amazing lots of people came in September of 1993, more than 30 were enthusiastic and in late October, early November we staged a text of Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of being Ernest" on a small makeshift stage in the churchyard and it was a success.

What was the first play that marked the route of MADS?

TG: From the moment we decided to continue idealizing another show in the former premises of RTP and we had a full house, the name of the play was "the mayor of Torontal." I was very excited with that warm welcome, meanwhile others appeared to participate on MADS and then we were awarded a government grant, because at the time there was almost nothing, except the Experimental Theater of Funchal. The first piece of music we bring to the scene was a pantomime, the "Cinderella", with 40 people on stage. It's a show that normally is only presented before Christmas, traditionally the prince is represented by a woman and the two ugly sisters are men. "Candid" of Voltaire was another of the most remarkable performances, had the participation of Madeira classical orchestra and was fantastic; we were over 50 people on stage.

Then begins the partnership with the Municipal Theater of Funchal?

TG: Yes, it was a natural evolution after the cine casino. We wanted to do a play in the theater now and then we received a grant per year. We began by staging three shows per year, but it is important to underline that the actors do not earn a salary for participating in the plays, what we have to pay is the professional directors, especially those who come from outside, so that is why our artistic level was so high. Then we started doing shows in Portuguese, "the last of Marialvas" and the "Adams Family", for example. Other musicals that we presented on the stage was "the fiddler on the roof", "my dear lady" and "the sound of music" and even had to bring a few pieces of scenery from England, because here were very difficult to do. Now we have to do everything with the silver of the house, and less means, the monetary aid ceased to exist, the entries began to be paid, but that happens to everybody in this area of ​​culture.

Since the early days of the group you notice that only the audience of Anglo-Saxon appeared in shows?

TG: No, the people of Madeira too. That's why we started doing plays in Portuguese. Only people here on the island, the general public was not used to pay to watch the shows and it was worth it, because the greatest performances took place at a time when there was more money. Now, even with little funds we can present in the stage three musical shows, where we had the Jeffrey Ray as director. Currently we staged plays in English only because now there are other theater groups that are in Portuguese and in addition these shows have only Portuguese in the audience. Being in English we have the foreigners in the hotels, people who live on the island and speak the language and Portuguese following our route, because they recognize our quality and our high standards.