Foto © João Reixa, montagem do cenário do espetáculo Esquecimento, na sala do Teatro Viriato, em Viseu
Ângela Rocha
Ângela studied at the António Arroio Art School, where she completed the General Professional Arts course, and later graduated in Theatre Design from the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. She was a Leonardo Da Vinci fellow in Rome, where she worked with the Matéria Viva Company.
She collaborated with Artistas Unidos as assistant scenographer and costume designer, and has since developed set and costume designs for directors such as Cláudia Gaiolas, Guilherme Gomes, Gonçalo Waddington, João Pedro Mamede, Madalena Marques, Maria João Luís, Raquel Castro, Ricardo Neves-Neves, Silvio Vieira, Teresa Coutinho, Tiago Guedes, and Tiago Rodrigues, among others.
Her work has been presented at several national and international festivals, including the Festival d’Avignon with Tiago Rodrigues’ play António e Cleópatra. She is co-founder of Condomínio – a festival of local culture hosted in residential spaces, which has had eight editions. In 2019, she received the SPA Award for Best Set Design for Sweet Home Europa, a production by Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. She represented Portugal at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial, one of the world’s most prestigious performing arts exhibitions, where she received the PQ Kids Prize.
Her practice explores the expressive potential of materials, repetition, and the evocative rather than realistic dimension of design — fostering a dialogue open to the audience’s individual perspective. She is also known for constructing many of her own pieces, embracing this as a space of continuous learning in both method and form.
In the Press
Articles
“Set designer Ângela Rocha to represent Portugal at Prague Quadrennial 2023” in Jornal Público, 2023.
Interviews
“Episode #126 from the podcast TEATRA” by Teatro D. Maria II, 2025.