Black skin, white characters

• Grant number: 21/13665-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Theatre
• Principal Investigator: Silvia Fernandes da Silva Telesi
• Grantee: Conrado de Sousa Santos
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/06296-3 - Body, Performance, and Identity: Notes on Black Presence in the Portuguese Theater Scene, BE.EP.DR 23/00214-2 - Black skin, white characters: a turn to Africa, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Considering the historical and social circumstances that determined the formation of Brazilian society and that culminated in the structural racism that blights the theater produced in Brazil today, this doctoral research proposes an investigation on the role that the skin color of a performer can play in the production of meanings in contemporary theater. Through a practical experiment, the research aims to develop analyses, procedures and reflections capable of contributing to the diminishing of a gaze that hinders the experience of the black actor on stage, also cooperating to the deconstruction of a certain imagery of whiteness that still surrounds certain characters and spaces of the contemporary Brazilian theater scene. (AU)