Understanding Drama as Performance Texts: Teaching Gao Xingjian's Plays of the 1980s

Abstract

abstract:This essay offers strategies that can lead students to engage with Gao Xingjian and his plays of the 1980s through an analytical and creative learning experience. Student project design focuses on three plays that were publicly staged in China during the 1980s: Alarm Signal, The Bus Stop, and Wild Man. Reflecting on the challenges inherent in approaching Gao's plays, I argue that students in North America require a pedagogy that foregrounds Gao's conceptualization of theatre as an actor-centered, instead of script-centered, performing art. The essay concludes that leading students to a deeper understanding of how Gao composed "performance texts" – rather than "texts to be voiced" – is critical to their understanding of these plays as a key link in the chain of China's drama and theatre history.