Brazilian puppeteer, actor, playwright, teacher. Felisberto Sabino da Costa earned his Doctor of Arts from the Escola de Communicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo (ECA-USP, School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo). Active in the fields of contemporary dance, animation and masks, he began his professional theatre career in Vitória, Espírito Santo, participating in Grupo Ponto de Partida (GPP) theatre group as well as the drama company (Companhia Dramática) Capixaba as author and actor. During this period, he received the Cláudio Bueno Rocha and Pernambuco de Oliveira prizes for his work in drama for adults and children.

He is a teacher and researcher in the Graduate Programme in Performing Arts at ECA-USP and holds the position of Head of the Department of Performing Arts, where he is responsible for the disciplines Animation Theatre (Teatro de Animação) and Dramaturgy. He has served as a guest professor in Japan. His current research, conducted in Brazil, Italy, France, and Indonesia (Bali), is titled “Sob o Signo de Janus: Dramaturgia, Objeto e Corpo” (Under the Sign of Janus: Dramaturgy, Object and Body), which focuses on mask performance in these countries, including Bumba-meu-boi (and its variants), commedia dell’arte, the legacy of Jacques Lecoq, and topeng.

Felisberto Sabino da Costa is a member of the Associação Brasileira de Teatro de Bonecos (ABTB/UNIMA Brasil Union Internationale de la Marionnette), Sindicato dos Artistas e Técnicos em Espetáculos de Diversões (SATED), Cooperativa Paulista de Teatro, the Associação Brasileira de Autores Teatrais (ABTB), and the Associação Brasileira de Cultura e Educação (ABRACE).

(See Brazil, Bumba Meu Boi.)