Sami Siegwald Proposal

        In the past few months, I have been learning a great deal about the role of theatre during the Bosnian war in the early 1990's. I met a woman who played a great role in using theatre as a form of activism and as a way to keep hope alive among those who were repressed. Although the two situations are different, I am planning to research how, and if, art was used in a similar way in Czechoslovakia. I plan on doing research on major directors, producers, and playwrights of the time, and then examing their work more closely so as to see who used their art as a form of dissent. How effective was theatre as a tool of revoloution? What impacts did creating art in the time of war have on the overall development of Czech and Eastern European theatre? These are two major questions that I strive to answer.
As Havel was a playwright himself, I also want to investigate the work he created before he became president, and the subsuqent effect of being an artist, rather than a beaurocrat had on his presidency and influence. I'm hoping that I can find some translations of his plays, and then try to find parallels between them and the way that he acted as a politician. Being an artist, he had such a different view then so many who were governing at the time, and I want  find out how exactly this set him apart.
To create my work, I will write two seperate research essays. The first will focus on theatre during war in general, and the second will focus more on Havel's life as an artist. In a way, I will slightly differ from the conventions of a typical "research paper", because I want to include my own input as well, discussing possible stagings of certain plays and how I see that they relate to mdoern day American drama.
My work will be evaluated based on these two assignments. How well I collect information, the analysis, and the the creation of new questions and ideas are all things that I want to come across, and are things upon which I should be evaluated.
The first paper will be completed by spring break. Certain things may be added later as I am ordering texts from outside libraries. The second paper will be completed by the second tuesday after spring break, allowing time to conduct new research, and find the proper sources.