Biography
Rodrigo Batista is a Brazilian theatremaker and educator based in The Netherlands. Rodrigo graduated with a Master’s Degree at DAS Theatre Amsterdam in 2019 and also in Theater Directing at the University of São Paulo in 2015. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theater Directing from the University of São Paulo, since 2009.
At the core of his work is the importance of performing political statements, direct and explicit messages addressed to the current world politics. Latest, he developed a collection of pieces, in the frame of the Master Program of DAS Theatre, that has the ambition of bringing insurrection and vandalization within the performance space. The most relevant work is the double-sided performance “The Furious Rodrigo Batista (Side A)” + “The B-Side”. The piece was presented in Centrale Fies (Italy, 2018), Frascati Amsterdam (2019 and 2021), Spielart Festival (Munich, 2019), Berlin Performing Arts Festival (2019), Worm (Rotterdam, 2018 and 2019), Žižkovská Noc Festival (Cancelled, Prague, 2020), Santarcangelo Festival (Cancelled, Italy, 2020), Art of Performing Week (Rotterdam, 2020), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, 2020), Centro Cultural São Paulo (2021), Campo (Gent, 2021), ACT Festival (Sofia, 2022), and Murf/Murw Festival (Tilburg, NL, 2023).
In 2021, commissioned by Frascati Amsterdam, Rodrigo created the movie “Bonus Track: fires, stomach burns and the North-American Post-truth in the Tropics”. It was shown at Frascati Amsterdam (2021), Campo (Gent, 2021), and ACT Festival (Sofia, 2022).
As a teacher, Rodrigo directed the piece “Kill All Normies”, with bachelor students of KASK Gent (2022) and “Rabo de Toro” with bachelor students of Antwerp Drama Conservatorium (2022). Together with Tchelet Pear Weisstub, Rodrigo was invited to design and mentor a two-month Research Lab for the master students of DAS Theatre in 2022 titled “Forces: the line between transformation and perpetuation”.
Rodrigo directed “The Heroes Journey of Anastácia” by Carolina Maciel de França, presented at DeSingel (Antwerp, 2022), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, 2022), and Viernulvier (Gent, 2023).
As a guest performer, Rodrigo has collaborated with choreographer Flávia Pinheiro in the piece “The Magnificent Bacteria” (Amsterdam and São Paulo, 2022-2023), with Dood Paard in the piece “De Meiden” (The Netherlands, 2020-2022) and with Ehsan Fardjadniya in the piece “Dr. Strangerfolks” (Amsterdam, 2019).
As a dramaturg, Rodrigo collaborated with choreographer Bruno Freire in the piece “Matamatá” (Brussels, 2023) and with Paula Chaves in the piece “Omni Toxica” (Rotterdam, 2019). Rodrigo collaborated as an outside eye in the piece “Up your ass”, a text by Valerie Solanas, directed by Lieselot Siddik and Nona Demey Gallagher (Gent, 2023), and in the durational performance “Do we dream under the same sky?” by Tom Oliver Jacobson and Flávia Pinheiro (Amsterdam, 2023).
Rodrigo participated in several artist residencies, such as Workspacebrussels (2023), WPZimmer (2023), Studio Alta (Prague, 2023), International Forum Theatertreffen (Berlin, 2022), We Act – ACT Platform for European Performing Arts (Innsbruck, 2021), LIVE WORKS Performance Act vol. 6, Centrale Fies (Italy, 2018), he was an artist in residency at WOW Amsterdam between 2017-2019 and participated in the Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Watch and Talk (Zurich, 2017). Rodrigo was granted several prizes and scholarships, such as the International Grant Scheme of the Performing Arts Fund NL (2020), Trust Foundation DAS Graduate School (2018/2019), Jan Kassis Foundation (2018), Schuurman Schimmel Van Outeren Stichting (2018), Talent Grant (2017/2018) and Holland Scholarship (2017).
Previous to his development within the European field, he worked for over 10 years with his group “[pH2]: Estado de Teatro” in São Paulo. They presented theatrical investigations in dialogue with philosophy, cinema, and dance that were awarded several funds and prizes, such as Best Short Film in Mostra do Filme Livre (Brazil, 2017), Theatre Fomenting Law of São Paulo (Brazil, 2015 and 2011), Myriam Muniz Award (Brazil, 2015), Rumos Itaú Cultural (Brazil, 2014) and ProCultura Award from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture (Brazil, 2012).
In residentie KIDNAPPED
01.09.2025 – 01.09.2025
Departing from the idea of theater as a tool for depicting and influencing notions of reality, Rodrigo’s latest research reflects upon an assumed contemporary reality (or realism), born from the Post-Modern Era, which has evolved over the past six decades under the sway of the Neoliberal Regime and the misleading promises of free market, individual subjectivity, and privatization of life, leaving us with a landscape marked by collective hallucinations that challenge established understanding of truth, casting a pervasive shadow of doubt on our collective beliefs.
In this context, the project metaphorizes that in our illusory world of neoliberal “freedom,” we are all kidnapped. Kidnapped by ideologies, identities, technologies, political systems, predatory relationships, capital, structural inequalities… In other words, we are kidnapped by the rooted subconscious of colonialism and capitalism, caught between the concrete – and daily – absurdity of globalized macro-politics and the abstract – often elitist – desire for solutions in the micropolitical realm.