Travessias (Dec 2009)
“IN THE HIDE-OUT OF A FOREIGN WORLD” - THE CREATION AND TRAJECTORY OF THE EXPERIMENTAL THEATER OF THE BLACK
Abstract
Until the nineteen forties decade, the Negroes in the Brazilian drama were represented, even when taking up major parts, throughout some stereotyped characters and caricatures inherited from the slavery period. Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, the feminine negro character so many times appears in dramatic parts like the mulata beautiful and sexy (with good dancing skills and body performance), the bab (wet-nurses regularly black, thick lips and fat, confidant, tearful and helpful), the bahiana macumbeira (normally in voodoo style, seller of grocers shops, dressing wide skirts, sewed smock, turban, necklaces and local baubles), the black old lady (old African having knowledge of ancient secrets), and the masculine characters like the smart young black (a lodger of the Brazilian greathouse), the fool (lacking intelligence, lout, ignorant and idiot), the father John (mostly old black, docile submissive and conformist). Around nineteen forty-four, there is within Rio de Janeiro the foundation of a new drama group, created by black actors intended to revise the stage tradition for representation of race, bringing to stage different works related to African-Brazilian culture subjects, to the racism conflicts and the Negroes stigma. It was the Negroes Workshop Theater (Teatro Experimental do Negro, TEN). The present article intends at to describe the creation process and a summary of the trajectory of the group.
