Success story: Jorge Takla

This article is part of an in depth special report on the Lebanese in Brazil. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up July’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. Jorge Takla is perhaps Brazil’s most prominent theater director. In recent years he has brought numerous Western musicals to the country, with the performances drawing praise for their unique staging and minimalist lighting. Takla is far from the average Lebanese–Brazilian. Unlike most, he was born in Lebanon and lived in Beirut until his late teens when he travelled to France to study. He comes from Lebanese aristocratic stock — his father Philippe was seven times Lebanon’s foreign minister, the first head of the central bank, and Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations.  Despite this commitment to Lebanon, Philippe wanted his children to get out, especially as they had Brazilian citizenship through their Lebanese–Brazilian mother. “He always said when we