Making it Relevant: Reflections on the Teaching of Brazilian Theatre in the United States

Abstract

In the "Up Front" section of a recent issue of Theater dedicated to the Brazilian stage, editor Tom Sellar expresses his surprise at "how little of Brazil's contemporary theater is seen in North America. [...] Few of its writers, directors, and companies work or even tour here, despite the abundance of exciting voices and a new generation of artists. Perhaps language is the problem: the United States has many Spanish speakers and corresponding theaters, but Brazilian Portuguese remains an obstacle" (1). In her article in the same issue of the prestigious journal, theater director and scholar Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento references "a dynamic that has long configured Brazil as the other Latin America," for, despite the country's rich cultural production, "the study of Brazilian literature and visual and performing arts at Englishspeaking institutions appears as secondary." Tatinge Nascimento comments further that Brazil is frequently (and inexcusably) missing from Latin American programs, and syllabi for courses on Latin American theater seldom include Brazilian performance-at best they do so peripherally.[...] [P]ublications on theater in Latin America may include a single article on Brazilian modernism or playwrights active during the [military] dictatorship, but with the exception of a few reviews of performances featured at international festivals, these volumes insist on turning a blind eye on the country's contemporary theater production. Exceptions are few and far between. (5) An even more pessimistic view is presented by Margo Milleret in an article included in an issue the Luso-Brazilian Review dedicated to Brazilian theatre at two key moments in its history, the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Writing about Portuguese-language theatre in general and focusing her