Group Dot BR

Brazilian Theater Company & Performing Arts | New York, NY

Group Dot BR is a Brazilian theater company and nonprofit arts organization based in New York City, dedicated to bringing the diversity of Brazilian culture to international audiences through contemporary performing arts. Founded in 2011 by Brazilian artists Andressa Furletti, Debora Balardini and Thiago Felix, the company has developed theater productions, immersive performances, readings, workshops and cultural events across New York.

The company describes itself as New York’s only Brazilian theater company. Its artistic work combines contemporary and experimental theater with physical movement, choreography, literature, music and Brazilian cultural references, creating a space where Brazilian stories can be presented beyond the country where they originated.

More than producing theater in Portuguese, Group Dot BR has developed a cultural bridge between Brazil and New York — introducing Brazilian writers, artists, traditions and perspectives to multicultural audiences while maintaining Portuguese as a heritage language.

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🇧🇷 BRAZILIAN THEATER FINDS A STAGE IN NEW YORK

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Group Dot BR began in 2011 with a question that would continue to shape the organization:

How could Brazilian dramaturgy become more visible in New York?

The company’s first initiative was a public reading of Cerimônia do Adeus, by Brazilian playwright Mauro Rasi.

That initial experience led founders Andressa Furletti, Debora Balardini and Thiago Felix to continue developing a theatrical space centered on their Brazilian roots.

A year later, Group Dot BR produced A Serpente (The Serpent) by Nelson Rodrigues, one of the most influential and controversial playwrights in Brazilian theater.

The production sold out performances and received a nomination at the 2012 Brazilian International Press Awards.

What had begun with a public reading was becoming a Brazilian theater company in one of the world’s most competitive performing arts cities.

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🎭 MORE THAN TRANSLATING BRAZILIAN THEATER

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Group Dot BR’s work is not simply about taking a Brazilian play and presenting it on an American stage.

The company works with contemporary, physical, choreographic, immersive and experimental forms of theater.

Movement can carry part of the narrative.

Music can become part of the theatrical language.

The audience may be positioned differently from a traditional auditorium.

Literature can be transformed rather than simply reproduced.

And Brazilian cultural references can be presented in ways that remain connected to their origins while communicating with people from different backgrounds.

This approach allows the company to explore Brazilian culture without reducing it to the images international audiences already know.

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🎼 VINICIUS DE MORAES — INFINITE WHILE IT LASTS

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In 2013, Group Dot BR created Infinite While It Lasts (Infinito Enquanto Dure), its first devised and site-specific production.

Inspired by the life and work of Brazilian poet and composer Vinicius de Moraes, the production was staged at Nublu in New York’s East Village.

Rather than placing the audience in a conventional theater, the show unfolded inside a bar.

Spectators sat at tables, listened to live music and encountered poetry, relationships and stories inspired by Vinicius in an environment designed to evoke the bohemian atmosphere associated with his life and work.

The production returned for another run at Studio 151 in 2014.

It received a nomination for Outstanding Choreography/Movement at the Innovative Theatre Awards and was also nominated for the Brazilian International Press Award.

Group Dot BR had found one of the signatures that would continue to distinguish its work: Brazilian culture experienced through performance rather than simply explained from a stage.

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📚 CLARICE LISPECTOR THROUGH PERFORMANCE

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Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector has become another important presence in Group Dot BR’s artistic history.

In 2016, the company presented Inside The Wild Heart, an immersive theatrical experience inspired by Lispector’s life and writings.

The production ran for five weeks at the Immersive Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and returned for another five-week season in 2018 at Aich Studio, a three-story house in Manhattan.

The setting allowed audiences to encounter the work outside the boundaries of a conventional theater.

The production received four nominations at the Brazilian International Press Awards, with Andressa Furletti receiving the Best Actress award in 2017.

But Group Dot BR’s relationship with Clarice Lispector did not end there.

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🎭 THE PASSION ACCORDING TO JANAIR

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In 2025, Group Dot BR returned to Clarice Lispector from a very different perspective with The Passion According to Janair.

The production reimagined The Passion According to G.H. by shifting attention toward Janair, the Black domestic worker whose departure becomes a catalyst in Lispector’s novel.

Instead of remaining at the margins of someone else’s story, Janair becomes its center.

Conceived and performed by Brazilian actress and playwright Ana Carbatti, co-written with Andressa Furletti and directed by Furletti, the production explored questions involving race, gender, class, invisible labor, identity and social exclusion.

The play was presented at HERE Arts Center in New York City from November 6–23, 2025, following a preview and discussion at the CUNY Graduate Center.

The project represents an important evolution in Group Dot BR’s work.

Brazilian literature remains the starting point, but the company uses theater to revisit whose perspective is seen, heard and placed at the center of the narrative.

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💃 CULTURE THAT MOVES BEYOND THE THEATER

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Group Dot BR’s work does not remain confined to theatrical productions.

The organization also develops readings, acting and dance workshops and cultural events designed to bring Brazilian culture into different New York spaces.

Among its signature projects is Opa!, a theatrical Brazilian dance party that combines performance with music, dance and cultural celebration.

Other initiatives have included Pão de Queijo Brunch, readings and programs centered on Brazilian literature, and events dedicated to Clarice Lispector.

These formats give the organization another way to connect with audiences.

Someone does not necessarily need to begin with Brazilian dramaturgy to encounter Brazilian culture through Group Dot BR.

They may arrive through music.

Through dance.

Through literature.

Through food.

Or simply through a celebration.

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🎉 OPA! — BRAZILIAN CULTURE AS A LIVING EXPERIENCE

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The Opa! series demonstrates particularly well how Group Dot BR extends performing arts into cultural experience.

Over different editions, the project has explored Brazilian celebrations and cultural references including Carnaval, Tropicália and Festa Junina.

In June 2026, Opa! Festa Junina transformed House of Yes in Brooklyn into an eight-hour celebration of one of Brazil’s most distinctive popular traditions.

The program brought together live forró, quadrilha, performers, DJs, Brazilian food, traditional games, visual art and elements associated with São João celebrations.

For an international audience, this matters.

Brazilian culture abroad is frequently concentrated around a small group of globally recognizable symbols.

Festa Junina tells another story.

It introduces traditions shaped over centuries by Indigenous, African and Portuguese influences and celebrated in communities throughout Brazil.

Through projects such as Opa!, Group Dot BR helps expand what Brazilian culture can mean to a New York audience.

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🗣️ PORTUGUESE AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE

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Language is also part of Group Dot BR’s mission.

The organization explicitly supports Portuguese as a heritage language while engaging multicultural audiences.

That creates an interesting balance.

Portuguese remains connected to identity, memory and cultural origin, while productions and programs are structured so that Brazilian culture can travel beyond a Portuguese-speaking audience.

Some works have been presented in Portuguese with English subtitles.

Others, including The Passion According to Janair, have been performed in English.

The objective is not to remove the Brazilian language from the work in order to become international.

It is to create different ways for the work to cross linguistic boundaries.

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🌉 A CULTURAL BRIDGE BETWEEN BRAZIL & NEW YORK

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Group Dot BR describes part of its mission as creating a bridge for artistic exchange beyond borders.

That idea is visible throughout its history.

Brazilian playwrights have reached New York stages.

Brazilian literature has become immersive and experimental theater.

Artists from different backgrounds have collaborated on productions.

Brazilian traditions have entered cultural venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

And audiences who may know little about Brazilian theater have been invited into stories that extend well beyond the country’s most internationally familiar images.

This type of cultural exchange works in both directions.

Brazilian artists gain a platform within New York’s performing arts environment.

At the same time, New York audiences gain access to voices and cultural references they might otherwise rarely encounter.

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👩‍🎨 WOMEN IN ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP

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Women currently hold the organization’s principal artistic and executive leadership roles.

Andressa Furletti, co-founder and Artistic Director, is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist whose work includes acting, performance, visual arts and filmmaking.

Debora Balardini, co-founder and Executive Director, brings decades of experience as a performer, educator, director and producer, with artistic work extending across different countries and performance disciplines.

Together with the organization’s artists, staff, board members and collaborators, their leadership has helped Group Dot BR maintain an independent Brazilian performing arts presence in New York for more than a decade.

The organization itself is structured as a nonprofit, allowing its mission to extend beyond individual commercial productions toward artistic development, cultural programming and community engagement.

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🎨 THEATER, MOVEMENT & EXPERIMENTATION

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Group Dot BR occupies an interesting position between cultural organization and experimental theater company.

Its work includes:

• contemporary theater;
• physical and movement-based theater;
• immersive performance;
• devised theater;
• solo performance;
• new work development;
• readings;
• acting and dance workshops;
• arts education;
• cultural events;
• Brazilian literature in performance;
• multidisciplinary collaborations.

This range helps explain why the company’s work can appear in a traditional performance space during one project and in a bar, house, gallery or cultural venue during another.

The location is not merely where the audience sits.

It can become part of the work itself.

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🏙️ BRAZILIAN PERFORMING ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY

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New York is central to Group Dot BR’s identity.

The company does not simply tour through the city.

It was created there.

Its productions and programs have occupied spaces across Manhattan and Brooklyn, placing Brazilian work inside the broader New York performing arts environment.

Over the years, Group Dot BR projects have appeared in venues and cultural spaces including the East Village, Williamsburg, Manhattan performance spaces, The Tank, HERE Arts Center and House of Yes.

That history makes the organization particularly relevant within the Brazilian presence in New York.

Restaurants, businesses and professional services are important parts of an immigrant community.

So are its artists.

Group Dot BR represents the part of that presence that tells stories, preserves language, questions identity and introduces Brazilian culture to people who may never have experienced it before.

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🌎 STRATEGIC CULTURAL LOCATIONS

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🇺🇸 New York, NY — Organizational Base

234 5th Avenue, Second Floor
New York, NY 10001
United States

New York City is the home of Group Dot BR and the center of its artistic and cultural activity.

🇺🇸 Manhattan — Theater, Literature & Performance

Across its history, the company has presented productions and cultural programs at different Manhattan venues, from the East Village to contemporary performing arts spaces.

Its 2025 production The Passion According to Janair was presented at HERE Arts Center, with an associated performance and discussion at the CUNY Graduate Center.

🇺🇸 Brooklyn — Immersive Art & Brazilian Cultural Events

Brooklyn has also become an important part of Group Dot BR’s work.

Inside The Wild Heart had a five-week run in Williamsburg, while editions of Opa! have brought Brazilian celebrations into Brooklyn’s cultural and nightlife environment.

In 2026, Opa! Festa Junina was presented at House of Yes.

🇧🇷 Brazil — Cultural Origin & Artistic Connection

Brazil is not listed as an artificial second office.

It is the cultural origin of the organization.

Brazilian dramaturgy, literature, music, language, popular celebrations and artists form the material from which much of Group Dot BR’s work develops, creating an active cultural connection between Brazil and New York.

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⭐ WHY GROUP DOT BR?

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• Brazilian theater company based in New York City.
• Founded in 2011 by Andressa Furletti, Debora Balardini and Thiago Felix.
• Describes itself as New York’s only Brazilian theater company.
• Nonprofit performing arts organization.
• Led by Brazilian immigrant women.
• More than a decade presenting Brazilian culture in New York.
• Contemporary, physical, choreographic and experimental theater.
• Productions inspired by major Brazilian writers and artists.
• Work connected to Nelson Rodrigues, Vinicius de Moraes and Clarice Lispector.
• Theater productions in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• Immersive and site-specific performance experience.
• Acting and dance workshops.
• Readings and new work development.
• Cultural events including the Opa! series.
• Portuguese supported as a heritage language.
• Programming designed for Brazilian and multicultural audiences.
• A cultural bridge connecting Brazilian artists, stories and traditions with New York.