Born in Ponta Delgada, Carolina Bettencourt has an active and varied career in the performing arts. She has been a member of numerous theater companies, participated in film and television projects, and shown an immense passion for writing. “The fight against insularity is also done by allowing eclectic access to the theater, with the aim of creating different and active voices and audiences,” says the actress.

Like many islanders, Carolina Bettencourt left her homeland for a dream and a desired profession. She took a professional course in Acting at the Academia Contemporânea do Espectáculo, followed by a degree in Theater Dramaturgy and a master’s degree in Performing Arts Acting at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. She studied under illustrious national theater figures such as António Capelo and Rogério de Carvalho.

A stage actress and appearances in the seventh art

Asked about the impact of theater on her life, the Azorean actress says that, in addition to being her profession, this art follows her in her daily life and inevitably comes with her when she’s off stage. Carolina Bettencourt’s main inspiration is the other person, the human being, and her “inexhaustible source of inspiration, work, and development.”

“It’s no coincidence that a large part of the work of acting lies in understanding and appropriating someone other than myself,” says the actress

She has appeared in plays and shows by theater collectives such as Teatro O Bando, Propositário Azul, Grupo de Teatro de Letras, and O Dragoeiro Companhia Teatral. She works full-time at Teatro Actus – a company that aims to decentralize culture and make plays nationwide. It is currently on tour, with seven shows from the north to the south of the country.

Carolina has also been cast in film projects. She collaborated with Azorean director Rosa Coutinho Cabral on the films “Colheres de Prata” and “A Mulher Que Morreu de Pé,” which won an award at the New York Movie Awards.

“It’s great to be part of distinguished, recognized or awarded projects, but, above all, the credit goes to Rosa for making this film the way she did,” says Carolina Bettencourt.

She starred in the films Anthero, O Palácio da Ventura by Zeca Medeiros and Sete Pecados Rurais by Nicolau Breyner, the SIC soap operas Alma & Coração and Golpe de Sorte, and the web series Tremoços & Imperiais.

Writing is another passion.

In 2022, Carolina Bettencourt launched the book Quando a casa é escrita no mar with the Azorean publishing house Letras Lavadas. This opportunity and the book’s publication caused the writer to “awaken a repressed desire.”

“I’m pleased to know that now it’s no longer my book, it belongs to whoever wants to ‘appropriate’ it,” – the author stresses.

The book talks about home, the island, the Azores, and the feeling of always being there for us. Its synopsis states, “We will always be from the house that gives us the years to all the days that have passed here.”

Carolina is also a fortnightly columnist for a regional newspaper; she has already collaborated with the magazine Grotta and the “Mulher – Coração de Liberdade” issue of Letras Lavadas (commemorating International Women’s Day).

For the Ponta Delgada-born writer and actress, “writing is as much about pain as it is about pleasure.” She mentions that writing is a space of independence, freedom, and responsibility. She explains that writing itself is a solitary process, present in every comma of her day.

Theater in the Azores

Carolina comments that there have always been theater groups on the islands, led by people who love their shirts and share their desires. However, in recent years, “a brave generation decided to come back and roll up their sleeves in various artistic areas and projects.”

She strongly points out that the programmers of the various concert halls in the region lack” audacity.” Carolina Bettencourt mentions that the fight against insularity is also done by allowing “eclectic access to the theater, with the aim of creating different and active voices and audiences.”

“The Azores are not as well supported in terms of theater training as they are, for example, in areas such as music and dance,” says the actress.

May her taste for the performing arts and writing continue to take hold in Carolina Bettencourt’s career with due success. As she says, “Nature and art are the windows where man looks out.”

José Henrique Andrade is a journalist for Correio dos Açores, Natalino Viveira, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for their support.