220 MISE-EN-SCÈNE I MISE-EN-SCENE
Satyrianas festival occupying Praça Roosevelt, 2009. The festival offers activities for both day and nigh, access is free and spectators collaborate with voluntary donations
The deficiency of state control during those decades transformed the plaza into a spot of ‘non-legitimized social practices’, a terrain vague that attracted the presence of graffiti artists and skaters who saw in its large surfaces of concrete a place to meet and practice their artistic and performing skills. The state of decadence on Roosevelt and adjacencies decreased the rental prices, hence made them accessible for alternative bars, clubs, massage houses and cabarets to establish themselves in this rather privileged area of the expanded city centre. Its ‘undergroundness’ became
a brand and attracted theatre companies, who profited from the conditions to start building up their theatre spaces at accessible costs. In 1997, the Studio Heleny Guariba occupied what once was the Cine Bijou and the theatre company Satyros started functioning in 2000, both on the ground floor of the residential towers on the east side of the square. Inspired by the ‘dodgy’ histories and personages roaming around the degraded Praça Roosevelt, Satyros Company was able to come up with burlesque and critical theatre performances, a remarkable work that attracted back many