João Branco

He received the Theatrical Merit Award in 2010 as well as the Lusophony Theatrical Merit Award, given by the Luso-Brazilian Foundation on the development of the Portuguese language in Recife in 1996. In 1999, he received the Micadinaia Cultural Prize for the Comparative Academic Studies of S. Vicente. He was decorated in 2010 by the president of the Republic of Cape Verde with First Class of the Order of Vulcan medal for his contribution to the Cape Verdean culture as well as in general scientific arts. In June 2014, he received the Sabino Évora Award of Excellence at the SalEncena International Festival in the island of Sal.

Branco is the author of an edited work on Cape Verdean theater called, Theatre Nation - History of Theatre in Cape Verde, published in 2004 by the National Library of Cape Verde. This book was recognized by the Capeverdean Association of Writers for pioneering investigative literature in Cape Verde. Since 2013, he has been at the Academy of Letters of Cape Verde. He was also the author of the Capeverdean book “O teatro dos Sete Povos Lusófonos (The Book of Seven Lusophony Peoples), written with the São Paulo Cultural Center in Brazil. In 2003, he edited the book 10 Years in Theater (10 anos de teatro), referencing the history of the GTCCPM. He founded a review in 1997 titled "Mindelact - Theatre in Review.". He published several articles in journals such as A Nação, Horizonte and Cidadão and contributed in newspapers such as A Semana and the Portuguese Expresso.

He was invited in 1994 to manage all of the Camões Institute Artistic activities at the Portuguese Cultural Center and Mindelo (Porto Grande) Polo. In 2003, he became director of the same cultural center. He was one of the founders of the Mindelo International Theatrical Festival in 1995, which became one of the most important events for African theater. From 1996 to 2013, he was the first president of Mindelact, another theatrical organization in Cape Verde.

From 1993, he began his theatrical course and was invited to the Portuguese Cultural Centre (CCP - Centro Cultural Português) and appeared in fourteen productions.

He founded the CCP Theatrical Group of Mindelo in 1993 and became its playwright and artistic director. The group has made over fifty theatrical productions performing the works of Cape Verdean authors such as Arménio Vieira, Germano Almeida, Caplan Neves, and Mário Lúcio Soura, as well as the works of Camus, Oscar Wilde, Garcia Lorca, William Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Molière, Beckett, Muller and Alfonso Castelão.

He moved to Mindelo on the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde in 1991.

He started his artistic activities in 1984 with the playwright João Paulo Seara Cardoso. In 1987, he was invited by the Students' Association to perform in a stage play with Liceu Camões. In 1990, he performed his first play Quem me dera ser onda, written by Angolan Mário Rui at D. Maria II Secondary School in Lisbon.

João Guedes Branco (b. 1 July 1968) is a French-born Portuguese theatrical actor and reviewer, professor, and programmer. He had a theatrical career for over 30 years and appeared in more than 50 plays, most of them in Mindelo, Cape Verde.