FROM SHANDE TO SCHTICK: INFLUENCES OF HISTORICAL QUEER AND JEWISH AESTHETICS ON THE AMERICAN THEATRE

Abstract What is now considered the “downtown theater scene” of New York City has a rich history of absorbing the conceits of the community and individuals around it to reflect the present back to the audience in some way. Theater in New York is demarcated along both geographic and aesthetic boundaries; with “downtown” touching on the specific location in Lower Manhattan as well as the more avant garde stylization of the works created. At the point in history being examined of the early 1900s, the art being made in Lower Manhattan was representative of the communities creating and consuming that media. This piece dives into the distinctive aesthetics provided by Jewish immigrants and those who existed outside the cisheteronormative standards of the 1900s. This was often explored through the use of what is often referred to as “cultural cross-dressing.” Individuals will dress and speak in a certain way in daily life, and allow themselves to adopt another persona when at home or in the company of others of the same marginalized group. Through the analysis of Queer and Jewish aesthetics in their own rite, there is an argument to be made about how these two groups could possibly have had more in common than their geographic placement in New York City and Lower Manhattan. This paper utilizes vocabulary that would be considered hate speech by modern standards. These words are included in this writing uncensored to honor the historical accuracy of the time.