Maria Clara Machado

Maria Clara Machado was a Brazilian writer and playwright, one of the most important and influential authors of the 20th century in Brazil. She was born in Belo Horizonte, in 1921, and moved to Rio de Janeiro when she was four years old. She studied theater in Paris and returned to Brazil in 1951. She founded the acting school O Tablado, in Rio de Janeiro, where she directed her own plays and taught many Brazilian actors. She specialized in plays for children, such as Pluft, o Fantasminha, A Bruxinha que Era Boa, O Rapto das Cebolinhas, A Menina e o Vento, O Cavalinho Azul, and many others. She also wrote plays for adults, such as O Embarque de Noé, O Dragão Verde, and A Mulher de Todos Nós. She was a journalist, a translator, a teacher, and a public servant. She was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and received several awards and honors for her literary work. She died in 2001, at the age of 80, in Rio de Janeiro. She is regarded as one of the greatest masters of Brazilian literature and theater, and one of the main representatives of the Brazilian culture.