Cast and creative team | Marionetas do Porto

Isabel Barros

Choreographer, stage director, and artistic director of the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto since 2010. She is a co-founder of Balleteatro. Her extensive artistic career is characterized by the intersection of different disciplines, notably dance, theater, and puppetry. She began collaborating with João Seara Cardoso in 1994, co-creating the production *3ª Estação*. Since then, she has collaborated on the majority of João Paulo Seara Cardoso’s productions, focusing on movement and choreography. She received the Almada Prize (1999)—awarded to Balleteatro—in recognition of the work accomplished in programming. She is a guest lecturer at the Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa, teaching in the postgraduate program on Puppetry and Animated Forms, and has taught at various other national and international institutions. She is a member of the Associação Festival de Marionetas do Porto. In 2013, together with her team, she inaugurated the Museu das marionetas do Porto. In 2018, she was awarded the Municipal Medal of Merit (Gold Grade). Porto is her hometown and the place where she carries out much of her work, driven by a sense of urgency and a strong social dimension.

Micaela Soares

Micaela Soares was born in Porto in 1993. She is an actress, director, playwright, and educator. She holds a Master’s degree in Acting and Artistic Direction from ESMAE and has been a member of the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto since 2012, where she works as a performer, director, and playwright, contributing to the creation of various productions for the company.

Alongside her artistic work, she has collaborated with the Balleteatro Educational Service as an educator since 2018. She also works as a voice actress on various dubbing projects.

In 2025, she published the children’s book *O Bicho que Picou a Mãe* (The Bug That Bit Mom), reinforcing her interest in writing and creative work for children. Her career spans acting, directing, playwriting, writing, education, and cultural mediation, as she explores the potential of both puppet theater and theater in general.

Vitor Gomes

He began his journey in urban dance as a self-taught dancer in 2007; since then, he has collaborated with dance studios and participated in competitions within the genre. He earned a degree in Theater from the Escola Superior Artística do Porto in 2013 and has since been involved in projects spanning various disciplines, including dance, performance art, puppetry and animated forms, physical theater, voice-over work, and dubbing.

Since 2016, he has been a permanent member of the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto company, working as an actor and puppeteer.

Filipe Azevedo

Filipe Azevedo was born in Santa Maria da Feira in 1996. He studied Lighting, Sound, and Stage Effects at the Academia Contemporânea do Espetáculo (ACE) in Porto.

He began his professional career in stage lighting, collaborating with various companies and cultural organizations. In 2014, he designed the lighting for *Agapornis* for the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto; since 2015, he has been part of the company’s artistic and technical team, where he designs show lighting, oversees technical direction for productions, and participates in set design and construction.

Alongside this work, he operates as a freelancer for theaters and festivals across the country, building a career that bridges artistic creation and technical execution by integrating lighting, set design, and construction solutions in service of the dramaturgy.

João Pedro Trindade

João Pedro Trindade (Aveiro, 1990) is a visual artist and a permanent staff member at the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, where he works on the construction of puppets, props, and sets. His work encompasses various media, including painting, sculpture, installation, and photography.

He has collaborated on cultural development and promotion projects in Porto since 2012, such as Painel e Nartece; and is currently part of the team at Sismógrafo.

He has regularly exhibited his work in both group and solo exhibitions since 2012.

Catarina Falcão

Catarina Falcão holds a degree in Visual Arts from the Escola Superior Artística do Porto. She exhibits work spanning drawing, painting, and photography. Active in theater since 2002, she continues to practice in the field while developing research into the poetics of the object-puppet and its relationship with the body.

She collaborates with various national and international companies and artists.

She co-organized the “Marionetas Vadias” gatherings. Since 2011, she has collaborated with the Teatro das Marionetas do Porto, initially as part of the Museum team and, since 2020, as a construction technician. She is a guest artist for the University of Granada’s International Congress “En el último reducto olvidado de nuestra memoria…” (Tadeusz Kantor Cycle – 50th Anniversary of “The Dead Class”), scheduled for May 2025. She participated in the group exhibition “Because we were right here” with the installation “Erma” at Fossekleiva Kultursenter — a project that encompasses an object and puppet performance premiering in June 2026 — and is involved in Teatro de Ferro’s “Serviço de Emergências” (Emergency Service) initiative with the ERMA project.

In 2026, she is collaborating as a puppeteer on Sara Driver’s film “The Odd Enchantment of Madame Pi” and assisting with construction and manipulation for Saguenail’s film “Fiat Nox”.

Paula Anabela Silva

Paula Anabela Silva was born in Guimarães but considers Porto her true home, having moved there at the age of four. She attended the Soares dos Reis Artistic School, where she began the “Course of Introducing the Visual Arts, Design, and Architecture”, and pursued training in technical drawing, working primarily in the field of architecture.

Between 1999 and 2002, she collaborated with Marionetas do Porto as a production assistant to Mário Moutinho and Sofia Carvalho. She later left the company and Porto to explore new areas such as interior and product design, graphic arts, photography, and fine arts. In 2014, she participated in the “12×12” group exhibition in Lisbon, and in 2020, she contributed illustrations to the book *O Senhor Silêncio*.

Twenty years later, she returned to her roots and to Marionetas do Porto. She is currently responsible for the Educational Service at the Museu das Marionetas do Porto.

Collaborators