Aida Jordão
Aida Jordão is a Lisbon-born Portuguese-Canadian playwright, theatre director, and stage actress based in Toronto, the city where her immigrant parents settled when she was 9 years old. She is the co-founder of the feminist theatre group Company of Sirens, and is the co-creator of the influential feminist play This is For You, Anna (1984). A self-avowed “red diaper baby,” Jordão first developed her radical left consciousness by frequenting the Portuguese Canadian Democratic Association and other progressive spaces in Toronto’s Portuguese community with her parents. She later returned to these spaces to direct popular theatre plays. Trained in London, England, Jordão has multiple credits as a theatre actress, playwright, director, and scholar in Portugal and Canada, where she has been involved in the creation of celebrated companies, collectives, and projects that combine her interests in Portuguese culture, feminism, and social justice.
Records and Oral History
The Working People’s Picture Show, Company of Sirens & Ground Zero Productions, 1980s. Jordão was actor and playwright.
Cultural Collisions, St. Christopher House, teen drama program, 1987.
Jordão was director and playwright.
Funeral in White (Funeral em Branco), Women & Live Words Festival, Company of Sirens, 1991. Jordão was playwright and co-director.
Scopophilia, Toronto Fringe Festival, 1998. Jordão was director and playwright.
Ser Independente e José, João e Joaquim: Segurança no Trabalho, Sociedade dos Deficientes Físicos do Ontario, 2000.
Jordão was director.
Yes, I Can! Society of Portuguese People with Disabilities of Ontario, 2002.
Jordão was director.
Yes, I Can! Society of Portuguese People with Disabilities of Ontario, 2002.
Jordão was director.
Las Pasionarias, (the life and death of Spanish Communist party leader
Dolores Ibárruri); first created for the Festival of Original Theatre (FOOT), Drama Centre, University of Toronto and Mayworks Festival, 2004; developed at Nightwood’s Groundswell Festival, 2005. Jordão was actor and playwright.
Camões, the One-Eyed Poet of Portugal, Clay and paper Theatre, Dufferin Grove Park, Toronto, 2006. Jordão was the dramaturg.
As Vizinhas da Minha Tia/ My Aunt’s Neighbours workshopped at Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell Festival, Toronto, in 1993; excerpts performed at “We’re Talking Romance Cabaret”, the Canadian Democratic Community-Centre and Harbourfront’s “Sabor Saudade Festival”; staged reading at The Voice and Choice of Portuguese Women in the Diaspora III International Conference, In Macau and Elsewhere, Portuguese Department, University of Macau, 2007.
Jordão was director, actor and playwright.
On the Death of Inês de Castro, stage adaptation of Garcia de Resende’s Trovas à Morte de Dona Inês de Castro, Festival of Original Theatre (FOOT), Drama Centre, University of Toronto; Consulate General of Portugal 2008. Jordão as The Poet; as Inês; and as The Knight.