The presence of italian directors (Adolfo Celi, Ruggero Jacobbi, Luciano Salce, Flaminio Bollini, Gianni Ratto, Alberto d`Aversa) in the renewal of Brazilian theatre in the 50`s refers to studies in the field of culture modernization processes. The polemics between cosmopolitan estheticism and brasility has, since the beginning, pervaded the debate about cultural renovation. Motivaded by the pioneering mission of implementing the directed scene, the transit of people and ideas wich take place under the interference of that generation of Italian directors in the process of development in the Brazilian theatre, give us a special perspective when narrating facts about the modernization of art in Brazil. Its intuitions, its legacy, oportunities and lost inventions, investigated in a large collection of undisclosed documents, suggest only a parcial view of the modern dream.