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Ema Paul

One news item referred to 16 episodes of Ressurreição, by Machado de Assis, half-caste and with only primary education, as one of Emissora Nacional's serials in 1970, with adaptation by Ema Paul and directed by José Gamboa.


Ema Paul, artistic name of Ema Purificação Dias do Canto e Castro (1932-2006), was part of the casts of the Apolo, Variedades, Trindade, Nacional and Avenida theatres, between 1955 and 1957. She began working in television theatre, in 1957. She joined the cast of the Rafael de Oliveira Company in 1975, and, after it was wound up, she participated with her husband, actor Henrique Canto e Castro (1930-2005), in the Rafael de Oliveira Comedians' Cooperative project, in 1976. But her career was closely linked to Emissora Nacional, where she did radio drama. She devoted most of her time from 1953-1954 to writing and adaptations for radio drama. She was part of a vast list of Emissora Nacional radio writers and adaptors, such as Alice Ogando, Miguel Trigueiros, Odete de Saint-Maurice, Emília Duque, Francisco Mata, Judite Navarro, Adolfo Simões Müller, Carmen Dolores and Eduardo Street.


In the process of the Avieiros series, by Alves Redol, worked on in 1982 but only produced three years later by RDP, with 29 episodes, Ema Paul wrote two letters to Fernando Curado Ribeiro in which she relates the production process of the adaptation. In one letter, dated 21 March 1982, Ema Paul said that only the last two chapters were missing, to be delivered the following week after typing them. In the following letter, dated 14 April 1982, the adaption writer states: "I enclose the last two episodes of Avieiros. Finally, you will say! I promise to be more punctual in keeping my promises, in the future. The problem is to manage to reconcile my work here, which sometimes has no timetable, with the rest". In the script, the writer gave the actors directions, such as frightened, confused, grumpy, distant, furious and tearful, and indications for the sound system, such as the sound of moving water, footsteps on the gravel, and the beating of oars on the water.


Author: Rogério Santos, 2022


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