Although she doesn't like to act in front of a live audience, Rita Blanco performed in several theater plays, such as Perversions by David Mamet, directed by Miguel Guilherme and José Pedro Gomes; Before the Night Comes by Eduarda Dionísio, featuring Adriano Luz; Blood on the Cat's Neck by Fassbinder, starring Luís Miguel Cintra. In 1989, she participated in How Different Love Is in Portugal, an adaptation of Júlio Dantas' work, directed by Fernando Gomes. Nothing from Nobody by Luísa Costa Gomes, staged by Ana Tamen, earned her a nomination for the Garrett Award for Best Female Performance (1991). In 1997, she took part in Peter Pan by James Barrie, directed by António Pires at the São Luiz Theatre. Moonlight Confessions by Eugene O'Neill (1994), Seven Lives by Rosa Lobato de Faria (2002), Seven Years - written particularly for her - (2003), Miserere by Luis Miguel Cintra (2010), Pais & Filhos by Pedro Penim (2021), A Farsa de Inês Pereira by Pedro Penim (2023).

What I like to see in an actor, beyond the characters he play, is to know what he eats, what books he reads and what his lifestyle is like. Of course, we don't really know, but we somehow sense it in the way they work, in the choices they make. The more an actor thinks about life, the more films he watches, the more art he sees, the more music he listens to, the more he has to give to people, even in suffering.