Wanda Fernandes was born in 1954 in Brumadinho, near Belo Horizonte, into a traditional catholic family where everyone sang and played music at the mass. She was still a psychology major undergraduate at UFMG when she participated in theater workshops with Priscila Freire in Teatro Marília and appeared in “Dona Beja” in Palácio das Artes. While the family of Eduardo Moreira, with whom Wanda would get married, allowed him the freedom to choose any career he wanted, the same did not happen with Wanda Fernandes. They shared the stage for the first time in “Me aperta, te aperta, te espeta.” To her father’s great annoyance Wanda would always get home late at night after performing, and he finally told his daughter that she had to choose between living with her family or pursuing a “disputable” career such as being an actress. On a Saturday afternoon Javert Monteiro, her boyfriend at the time and also an actor, helped her move out of her parents’ house. Wanda Fernandes could fit everything she owned in two suitcases: in a smaller one she had all her clothes and in a much bigger, her doll collection. One of these dolls would feature prominently as a prop in “De olhos fechados,” one of Grupo Galpão’s first productions. Thrown out of her parents’ house, Wandinha had to share a small apartment with fellow actors on Juiz da Costa Val Street. The reconciliation with her father would only happen several years later, when Wanda had her only child, João, with Eduardo. In Grupo Galpão, Wanda Fernandes was always a source of determination to fight against all adversities and heartfelt passion for the art of theater. Besides her acting career, Wanda quickly became one of the main figures in the defense of the acting profession and the theater in Belo Horizonte, organizing and leading the actor’s union and other professional associations, especially during her most intense period as an activist in 1982. Because of her exuberating vitality, her unflagging tenderness, and her constant strive to improve, Wanda Fernandes was always the rallying point for the other members of Grupo Galpão, even after her untimely death in a car accident in 1994. |
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