Manuel Henriques

Artist statement

My name is Manuel Henriques, and I am a Portuguese actor, theatre and performance maker currently living and working in Lisbon, Portugal.

I own a BA in Acting at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (2008) and a Master’s in International Performance Research, University of Warwick and University of Amsterdam, with an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship (2011).

As a theatre and performance maker I am interested in developing ideas taken from all parts of imagination provoked by a text, an image, a movement, or a concept. I am also interested in developing a work socially and politically engaged, that invites the audience to critical thinking and to a reflection on the present moment.
As an actor and performer, I have been working professionally in the fields of theatre, dance, performance, cinema and television since 2007. I am also a performing arts educator and facilitator, developing workshops and projects towards diverse audiences and social contexts.

My motivations for theatre and performance making usually come from non-theatrical materials, such as: the observation of a painting; a non-dramatic text; a devising process about a specific theme; a site-specific approach; a work developed with a certain community, among others. Although I do not refuse the influence of dramatists and theatre plays, I feel attracted by dramaturgical processes that set as a starting point non-theatrical material. I find it very enjoyable the process of recreation and translation of those materials into a theatre or performance work. In this sense, my practice as a performer in dance and other theatre forms has also enriched this desire of developing works that are not just textual-based or follow the structure of a theatre play.

Besides Portugal I have presented my work in Spain, in Basque Country.
I have also been involved in different workshops and theatre encounters in Spain, Italy, and Macedonia since 2009. During 2010 and 2011 I lived and studied in England and in the Netherlands. In 2011 I did an internship in Tropentheater, in Amsterdam, where I developed research on storytelling based on the “Anansi stories”, a transnational oral tradition that connects African countries to Suriname and the Netherlands.
I am fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English.