he history of the Theatre at Pirenópolis begins with two citizens, both named Sebastião. Sebastião José de Siqueira owned land. Sebastião Pompeu de Pina wanted to build a theatre. The second Sebastião bought the land from the first, but had insufficient money to build his theatre from himself. He asked for, and got, the help of his fellow-citizens, who donated food, clothing, chickens, cattle, to be publicly auctioned. Auction by auction, the Theatre took twelve years - from 1889 to 1901 - to build. On opening day, spectators packed the hall to watch local actors present to play "O Judeu" ("The Jew"), by Antônio Manuel. This success was followed, early in the century, by performance of more then forty plays - the Theatre´s golden age.
In the 1916 the municipal Administration, which had also made donations for the auction sales, decided in its right to annex the Theatre as municipal property and took legal action against its owner. Justice recognized the rights of Sebastião Pompeu de Pina, moving spirit and builder; otherwise the Theatre of Pirenópolis, even in those early days, would have become a public asset. For many years the Theatre was a home-from-home for the people of Pirenópolis. When they went to see a play, families would take not just their tickets but also coffee, sweets, biscuits, water, wine, tea. During the intervals, each in their own box, families would calmly refresh themselves; scene changes took a long time, and were carried out with often unforeseeable results.
Indeed, the plays went on for so long that it was common to take not only tickets and food, but also mattresses for the younger children. Not infrequently, the occupants of an upper box would release a shower of urine on the unfortunates below.
The Theatre´s repertoire included a number of comedies - "Trinta Botões", "Juiz de Paz da Roça", and melodramas, rather like operettas, in archaic Portuguese: "Demofontes", "Aspasia", "Ezio em Roma", "Artaxerxes", "Graças de Deus" and "Alecrim and Mangerona".
After 1945 the Pirenópolis Theatre become a cinema, a sawmill, a furniture factory and a shop.
The boxes were turned into residences for the shopkeepers and the hall into a deposit for merchandise. Then came a bar, a garage and a haberdashery; though these concealed the true function of the theatre, in a way they also guaranteed its stability and conservation.
In 1979, conscious of the importance of the Theatre to the local community, the Cultural Foundation of the State of Goiás bought the building from its private owners. In January of that year, the Meia Ponte Group for Social and Cultural Research and Evaluation had proposed the purchase and restoration of the building, thus making a space for theatres groups in Pirenópolis.
The reopening of the Theatre was of the greatest importance. It revived one of the oldest cultural addresses in a town which, during the gold rush in Goiás, has occupied an outstanding place in Brazil´s artistic past.