O Breve Compêndio da Arte Scenica ou Arte de Declamar e a vulgarização de uma ciência de palco

Abstract

In the absence of a tradition of technical‑artistic literature in Portugal in the nineteenth century, the writing of a booklet on acting and staging by Francisco Ângelo da Silva Veloso, a stage manager at the Teatro de D. Fernando and Rua dos Condes, represents an important moment in the History of Theatre. Not only it gives an inside view of backstage, but it also brings forward the importance of acting technique, to develop the quality of performance and the social status of actors. This article reviews the Breve Compêndio da Arte Cénica, seeking to fit it in its time, as the first technical work aimed at a wide audience of professionals and theater spectators and, ultimately, amateurs in the private drama groups of the societies that the politics of Regeneration promoted.