Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 2003. / Online publiziert: 2008.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo a análise do sonho americano em Pins and Needles. Criada na cidade de Nova Iorque em 1937 por dramaturgos ligados ao teatro de esquerda, a peça espalhou-se pelos Estados Unidos, angariou trabalhadores para os sindicatos, influenciou grupos amadores de teatro, parodiou shows populares e satirizou eventos da Grande Depressão, mostrando um humor incomparável. Nos quesitos histórico e cultural, a peça mais popular da década de 1930 é única, por ser representante do apogeu do Movimento Teatral dos Trabalhadores Americanos e da Frente Popular durante o Novo Acordo. Através do que denominamos de os quatro eixos ideológicos do sonho americano, estudamos como o texto dramatúrgico de Pins and Needles, na sua mistura de agitprop e revista musical, questiona se haveria de fato para os trabalhadores igualdade de oportunidades, direito à vida, liberdade e busca da felicidade, (possibilidade de) atuação e mobilidade social como recompensa do trabalho árduo, ajudando-nos a reconceptualizar a ideologia da nação norte-americana. / This dissertation aims at analyzing the American dream in Pins and Needles. Originated in the city of New York in 1937 by playwrights connected to the theater of the left, the play spread throughout the United States, attracted workers to the labor unions, influenced amateur theater groups, parodied popular shows and satirized Great Depression events, by using an incomparable humor. In the historical and cultural requisites, the most popular play in the 1930s is unique, by being the representative of the apogee of the American Workers Theater Movement and of the Popular Front during the New Deal. By observing what we call the four ideological axes of the American dream, we study how the dramaturgical text of Pins and Needles, in its blend of agitprop and musical revue, questions if really there were equality of opportunities, right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, agency and social mobility as a result of hard work to the workers, helping us to reconceptualize the ideology of the American nation.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo a análise do sonho americano em Pins and Needles. Criada na cidade de Nova Iorque em 1937 por dramaturgos ligados ao teatro de esquerda, a peça espalhou-se pelos Estados Unidos, angariou trabalhadores para os sindicatos, influenciou grupos amadores de teatro, parodiou shows populares e satirizou eventos da Grande Depressão, mostrando um humor incomparável. Nos quesitos histórico e cultural, a peça mais popular da década de 1930 é única, por ser representante do apogeu do Movimento Teatral dos Trabalhadores Americanos e da Frente Popular durante o Novo Acordo. Através do que denominamos de os quatro eixos ideológicos do sonho americano, estudamos como o texto dramatúrgico de Pins and Needles, na sua mistura de agitprop e revista musical, questiona se haveria de fato para os trabalhadores igualdade de oportunidades, direito à vida, liberdade e busca da felicidade, (possibilidade de) atuação e mobilidade social como recompensa do trabalho árduo, ajudando-nos a reconceptualizar a ideologia da nação norte-americana. / This dissertation aims at analyzing the American dream in Pins and Needles. Originated in the city of New York in 1937 by playwrights connected to the theater of the left, the play spread throughout the United States, attracted workers to the labor unions, influenced amateur theater groups, parodied popular shows and satirized Great Depression events, by using an incomparable humor. In the historical and cultural requisites, the most popular play in the 1930s is unique, by being the representative of the apogee of the American Workers Theater Movement and of the Popular Front during the New Deal. By observing what we call the four ideological axes of the American dream, we study how the dramaturgical text of Pins and Needles, in its blend of agitprop and musical revue, questions if really there were equality of opportunities, right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, agency and social mobility as a result of hard work to the workers, helping us to reconceptualize the ideology of the American nation.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo propor um comentário acerca do complexo Fatzer de Bertolt Brecht. Trata-se, por um lado, da leitura do conjunto de fragmentos trabalhados por Brecht entre 1926 e 1930, divididos em documento e comentário, que não foram publicados durante a vida do autor. Entendemos que neste conjunto podemos encontrar, em primeiro lugar, um registro do processo de formação artística e política do autor, sua passagem para o marxismo ocorrida na república de Weimar nos anos vinte. Em segundo lugar, identificamos no material o método dialético de configuração artística de Brecht em ação, ao qual ele uma vez referiu-se como o mais alto padrão técnico. Por outro lado, propomos uma leitura do fragmento Fatzer publicado no primeiro dos seus Versuche em 1930. A nossa hipótese é que este pode ser entendido como uma obra de agitprop brechtiana em defesa da Frente Única. / The goal of this work is to propose a commentary about Brecht\'s Fatzer complex. On one hand, it is the reading of the entirety of fragments worked by Bertolt Brecht between 1926 and 1930, divided in document and commentary, unpublished during the author\'s life. We understand that in the complex we can find, in the first place, a register of Brechts artistical and political formation process, the \"way\" into Marxism that occurred in the Weimar Republic in the twenties. In the second place, we identify on this material Brecht\'s dialectical method of artistic configuration in action, which he has once referred to as \"the highest technical standard\". On the other hand, we propose a reading of the Fatzer fragment that was published in the first of his Versuche in 1930. Our hypothesis is that it can be understood as a brechtian agitprop work in defense of the United Front.

This dissertation for the M.A. in Creative Writing consists of a full-length play, titled Last Laugh and a mini-dissertation. The mini-dissertation explores the phenomenon of Theatre-for-Development, which differs significantly from the performance tradition of classical African drama. The study identifies ways in which Theatre-for-Development practitioners, animators or catalysts, (interchangeable names given to agents who teach target community members theatre-for-development skills) abandon the conventions of classical African drama performances, in terms of the form of plays, stage management and costumes. They find different and less formal ways to tackle the social problems which the target communities experience. The origins of Classical African drama are traced from the western tradition, from which it borrows heavily, and there is some discussion of the socio-historical conditions that prevailed during the time when African playwrights performed those plays, and the rise of nationalism in colonised African states, which in part influenced their production. This study then examines how the socio-political dynamics in the Zimbabwean post-farm-invasions era gave rise to Theatre-for-Development projects in the newly resettled farming communities that faced social development challenges. Despite the land gains peasants enjoyed, the resettled communities found themselves in places far away from schools, hospitals, shops and social service centres. That was the source of their problems. It will be shown how government sponsored Theatre-for-Development groups to mobilise the people, through theatre, to initiate home-groomed solutions to their social and economic problems during a time when the government was bankrupt and the country’s economy was shattered by the destruction of the agricultural and mining sectors, triggered by the invasions of the white commercial farms. The Ziya Community Theatre’s production of Sunrise is analysed in the light of these considerations. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / English / unrestricted