Hugo Possolo Appointed Artistic Director of Theatro Municipal de São Paulo

Hugo Possolo, a playwright, theater director, and clown who co-founded Grupo Parlapatões, has accepted the invitation from new Culture Secretary Alê Youssef to become the artistic director of Theatro Municipal de São Paulo. This appointment is part of a broader cultural leadership reshuffle under Mayor Bruno Covas, who called Youssef to replace André Sturm. The Municipal Culture Secretariat stated that Possolo's selection aims to reconnect the theater with its multicultural and popular character, exemplified by the 1922 Modern Art Week. His first initiative will be to fill vacant days and spaces at the Municipal Theater with the 'Novos Modernistas' project, without disrupting the established programming of its resident artistic companies. Possolo will also direct an occupation at Praça das Artes starting March 23. In a social media post, he expressed enthusiasm for the role, acknowledging the theater's symbolic value and its resident companies' artistic excellence, while aiming to stimulate diverse artistic expressions reflecting São Paulo's multiculturalism. The new cultural team assembled by Youssef also includes journalist Josélia Aguiar as director of Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, filmmaker Laís Bodanzky at Spcine, journalist and fashion consultant Erika Palomino at Centro Cultural São Paulo, actor and director Pedro Granato coordinating the Secretariat's theaters and cultural centers, and rapper Xis as a hip-hop advisor.