Leilah Assunção

Leilah Assunção, or Leilah Assumpção (born Maria de Lourdes Torres de Assunção), is a Brazilian dramatist, actress and writer. She was born June 18, 1943, in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. She graduated from the University of São Paulo in 1964 with a degree in English and also completed extra courses in theater and literary criticism in Brazil and England. Although she is known as a playwright, she began her career working as an actress and a model, performing in Vereda de Salvacao by Jorge de Enrade in 1963 and The Three-penny opera by Bertolt Brecht in 1964. From there, she transitioned into writing stories for magazines and soap operas, eventually leading into her work as a playwright.Assunção has been classed as among the two major women playwrights of Brazil, the other being Maria Adelaide Amaral. Her first play, Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito (Speak Quietly or I'll Scream), won the Molière Award from the theatre critics of São Paulo when it was staged in 1969. She aimed to shock the audience by her choice of topic: depicting a middle-aged woman meeting an intruder. She was one of the leaders of New Theatre in the 1960s and several of her early plays were banned by censors.