THE OVERLOOKED DRAMATURGY OF LORRAINE HANSBERRY: Debating and Remedying an Absence of Modern U.S. Theater in Brazil.

• Grant number: 25/08280-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Theatre
• Principal Investigator: Larissa de Oliveira Neves Catalão
• Grantee: Fernanda Sales Rocha Santos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), a seminal playwright in modern U.S. theater and a key figure in Black writing, remains largely absent from academic studies within Brazilian scholarship. This is likely due to the fact that her work has never been translated into Brazilian Portuguese and her plays have never been professionally staged in Brazil. In 1962, three years after A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway with a predominantly Black and female cast, a partnership was announced between TENSP - Teatro Experimental do Negro de São Paulo - and Teatro Oficina to adapt the play under the direction of José Celso Martinez Corrêa. However, the project was never realized, and almost nothing is known about any other attempts to stage Hansberry's work in Brazil. In light of this gap, the present research aims to shed light on Hansberry's dramaturgy through three main approaches: (1) an investigation of the failed TENSP adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun; (2) a critical analysis of two of Hansberry's plays; and (3) a proposal for the first Brazilian Portuguese translation of A Raisin in the Sun. To this end, we engage with the theoretical framework of Leda Maria Martins (2023) on Black theatricality, applying her tools - influenced by thinkers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon - to build a transnational approach to this theater. Inspired by Grada Kilomba's (2020) notion of the "principle of absence," this project seeks to make Hansberry's work present in Brazil. (AU)