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Given the institutionalization of the Portuguese language ortographic agreement and the scarcity of good names for shows in the Brazilian contemporary scene, I thought it would a good opportunity to think about how the titles of our pieces are elaborated and spelled. With that in mind, I tried to outline some orientations that are simple, but I believe can help a lot when it comes to choosing a name. These tips are good not only for shows, but can also be adapted for performances, interventions, installations, besides congress, meetings, showcases and festivals. Check it out:

1. Avoid titles filled with dots, parenthesis, hyphens, brackets, or anything of the kind. Not good: (In)body, Ex.pe.ri.men.to, Corp[o]rea[l], etc. It´s not brilliant, it doesn´t please the audience, it doesn´t improve the work and it complicates the life of the poor journalist who edits the pitiful cultural guide. It´s also not recommended to mix small and capital letters at random (for example eXpeRiMenTO, iNcorpÓreO) or to use any graphic sign that is not a letter, punctuation sign or accents.

2. Do not use the word “corpo” (body in Portuguese), which used for a show titles is just like “nowadays” used in the beginning of an essay in exams for getting into a University. If you really cannot live without it, you should replace it with “porco” (pig in Portuguese), which will make your cultural product a lot more attractive to any audience you wish to reach.

3. Titles in English should also be avoided. If it´s really necessary, translate it or mix English with other languages. But Portuguese is really best. In case you want your pieced to have international reach, remember that Italian or Spanish are seen with a lot more sympathy. If there is any ethnical quality, try to use Ioruba or Bantu.

4. The title doesn´t have to explain or sum up what the person is going to watch. The title is already part of the play and most often it´s a lot more important. Everything depends on it. It´s the first thing the spectator sees and in many cases the last thing he´ll remember afterwards.

5. Avoid references to recent technological developments. Unless in very specific cases the following should not appear in the name (and not even in the piece): digital, virtual, media, holographic – especially if they are used in plural. By the way, plural should be used with parsimony.

6. Except in cases of irony, don´t use words that are recognized for their poetic use, such as: “tempest”, “ethereal”, “glance”, “sweet”, “translucent”, “bonfire”, “crepitate”, “winding”, “subtle”, etc.

7. Any joke may be welcome, as long as it´s a good one.

8. References to time and space are not advisable, neither is any relation between the two and anything else. Not good: Espaços expandidos, Tempos coe(x)istentes, (Não)-lugares ex(p)andidos, E(x)pa(ss)os-Temp(os) and so on. Nouns like territory, as well as others that refer to that idea (for example, map, trajectory, path), are still going be accepted within the next two or three years. However, if you don´t want to change your show’s name soon, you should already avoid them. You never know for how you´ll have to perform the same piece.

9. When using a long title, try to imagine how your work is going called daily. Let´s say you find a name you like after much effort, like, for instance, Corpo frito em berço de rúcula com pirão de baiacu. Take it as a given that your piece is actually going to be called Corpo – a term that should be avoided, as we´ve seen before.

10. If it´s not possible to find a name that pleases you by time you have to send out releases to the press, an interesting resource is to randomly choose some sentence out of some “Bukowski” book. Another thing that might work is to open archeology, electric engineering or automobile mechanic books at random. If you don´t know how to handle or don´t have access to books, it´s possible to use the terms “bukowski”, engineering, automobile in a Google[1] search.

Finally, it´s important to say that the title choice is as important as rehearsing, producing, performing. A good title doesn´t favor only your work, but also helps make our country´s cultural guides prettier. Therefore, choose responsibly.

[1] I did this experience myself, searching these terms together. I reached some excellent results right in the first pages. Some examples: “Clean and cheap technology”, “No more Charles”, “Bukowski was wrong: I do the dishes”, “Cocktail”, “The art of conning using technical terms”, “João Gilberto that son of a bitch”, “Many things I don´t know how to do in life”, “La maquina de follar (106 views)”