Teatro ídish y expectación

Memorias de infancia

Abstract

In this project, we contribute a new approach to the study of Yiddish theatre in Buenos Aires by foregrounding the perspectives and memories of men and women, who, in childhood, were frequent attentive spectators of Yiddish theatre performances primarily geared toward adult audiences. In so doing, we seek to restore the historical potentiality of their memories, with the purpose of challenging the current approaches to Yiddish theatre studies and introducing an “expectatory poíesis” turn. Ultimately, we are interested in the function of expectation as an action that can tie an individual spectator to a collective dynamic in the zone of shared experience of conviviality as well as the creation of memories that can be both ephemeral and unforgettable. We place emphasis on the analysis and categorization of the expectatory sub- event based on the singularity of its praxis as real or historical spectators. We believe that the originality of this contribution lies not only in the particular approach we have developed towards yiddish theater studies, but also in the fact that we present in this article excerpts from selected interviews conducted by the team with some of our initial findings and commentaries.