Laura Alves ( - ) was a Portuguese actor on stage, film and
radio.Laura Alves Magno was born in Lisbon, Portugal on September ,
the daughter of Mariana Alves and Celestino Magno. She attended the
Machado de Castro School (now the site of Lisbon’s Hotel and Tourism
School) and the National Conservatory School of Lisbon (Conservatório
Nacional de Lisboa [pt]). She first performed live at the age of five
in a play by a recreational group of which her father was a member. At
six she performed with the Lisbon Amateur Dramatics Group (Grupo
Dramático Lisbonense) and continued to perform at her school. Her
professional debut came in , days before her fourteenth birthday,
when she played opposite the well-known Portuguese actor Alves da
Cunha in “The two girls of Paris†(As duas garotas de Paris) at
Lisbon’s Teatro Politeama. She then spent two seasons at the D.
Maria II National Theatre in Lisbon. From the time she was , her
father, a shoemaker by profession and a victim of schizophrenia, was
unable to work and Alves became the family's financial provider.In
she performed her first operetta, at the Teatro Variedades in Lisbon.
In , she performed in a revue for the first time at the Teatro Maria
Vitória, alongside Amália Rodrigues, the actress and fado singer.
Throughout her career she performed about plays, musicals and other
shows. Several were taken on tour, both within Portugal and to Spain
and Brazil. When not acting she travelled to London, Paris and New
York to familiarise herself with the latest theatrical trends. A large
number of her performances were at the Teatro Monumental, which opened
in November and was leased by the actor and impresario Vasco Morgado,
who Alves had married in . This theatre had over one thousand seats
and for it to be commercially viable had to offer shows popular to the
general public. Alves' popularity and her commitment to her husband
meant that she performed frequently at the Monumental. Her presence on
the cast guaranteed that a play would be a success. As a result, she
had few chances to explore her range in less-popular plays. Critics
would often note that her talents were being wasted, although she did
occasionally venture into more demanding characters, such as in plays
by Shakespeare, as Margaret in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee
Williams and in plays by the Portuguese playwright Bernardo Santareno.
She also did radio theatre on the RCP station (Rádio Clube
Português).With the growth in the popularity of television, the size
of the Teatro Monumental meant that it gradually ceased to be viable
as a theatre. It was demolished in , to great controversy. The event
is said to have badly affected Laura Alves' health. Unhappy with the
destruction of the theatre where she had achieved success and,
suffering from memory lapses, she stopped performing in . In her last
performance Alves was visibly weak. Her popularity had also been
affected by her criticisms of the Carnation Revolution in , which had
seen the overthrow of the Estado Novo, the authoritarian government
that had controlled Portugal for half a century.
radio.Laura Alves Magno was born in Lisbon, Portugal on September ,
the daughter of Mariana Alves and Celestino Magno. She attended the
Machado de Castro School (now the site of Lisbon’s Hotel and Tourism
School) and the National Conservatory School of Lisbon (Conservatório
Nacional de Lisboa [pt]). She first performed live at the age of five
in a play by a recreational group of which her father was a member. At
six she performed with the Lisbon Amateur Dramatics Group (Grupo
Dramático Lisbonense) and continued to perform at her school. Her
professional debut came in , days before her fourteenth birthday,
when she played opposite the well-known Portuguese actor Alves da
Cunha in “The two girls of Paris†(As duas garotas de Paris) at
Lisbon’s Teatro Politeama. She then spent two seasons at the D.
Maria II National Theatre in Lisbon. From the time she was , her
father, a shoemaker by profession and a victim of schizophrenia, was
unable to work and Alves became the family's financial provider.In
she performed her first operetta, at the Teatro Variedades in Lisbon.
In , she performed in a revue for the first time at the Teatro Maria
Vitória, alongside Amália Rodrigues, the actress and fado singer.
Throughout her career she performed about plays, musicals and other
shows. Several were taken on tour, both within Portugal and to Spain
and Brazil. When not acting she travelled to London, Paris and New
York to familiarise herself with the latest theatrical trends. A large
number of her performances were at the Teatro Monumental, which opened
in November and was leased by the actor and impresario Vasco Morgado,
who Alves had married in . This theatre had over one thousand seats
and for it to be commercially viable had to offer shows popular to the
general public. Alves' popularity and her commitment to her husband
meant that she performed frequently at the Monumental. Her presence on
the cast guaranteed that a play would be a success. As a result, she
had few chances to explore her range in less-popular plays. Critics
would often note that her talents were being wasted, although she did
occasionally venture into more demanding characters, such as in plays
by Shakespeare, as Margaret in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee
Williams and in plays by the Portuguese playwright Bernardo Santareno.
She also did radio theatre on the RCP station (Rádio Clube
Português).With the growth in the popularity of television, the size
of the Teatro Monumental meant that it gradually ceased to be viable
as a theatre. It was demolished in , to great controversy. The event
is said to have badly affected Laura Alves' health. Unhappy with the
destruction of the theatre where she had achieved success and,
suffering from memory lapses, she stopped performing in . In her last
performance Alves was visibly weak. Her popularity had also been
affected by her criticisms of the Carnation Revolution in , which had
seen the overthrow of the Estado Novo, the authoritarian government
that had controlled Portugal for half a century.
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