{"title":"The Challenge of World Theatre History by Steve Tillis (review)","authors":"Jessica Nakamura","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927721","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>The Challenge of World Theatre History</em> by Steve Tillis <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Jessica Nakamura </li> </ul> <em>THE CHALLENGE OF WORLD THEATRE HISTORY</em>. By Steve Tillis. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2020. 320 pp. Hardcover, $119.99. <p>The title of <em>The Challenge of World Theatre History</em> reflects Steve Tillis’s dual approach that grounds his book: the challenge of producing world theatre history and the challenge it offers to our established conventions and understandings. Throughout, Tillis engages with conceptual issues at the center of theatre historiography to argue the urgent need for global inclusivity, making it critical reading for theatre educators. While the implicit emphasis in Tillis’s book is on teaching theatre history, his development of methodologies to produce world theatre history in later chapters may well be applied to the creation of scholarly texts.</p> <p>In its challenge, world theatre history is as much about what has existed as it is about developing new ways forward. The first half of the book is devoted to the former: Tillis’s introduction identifies the “Standard Western Approach,” what he describes as the prevalent approach to theatre history education, well ingrained in survey classes, textbooks, and anthologies. To explore why world theatre history has been slow to be implemented, Tillis’s second chapter identifies and “rebut[s]” arguments against world theatre history (p. 32). In his third chapter, Tillis identifies the “historiographical fallacies” of the Standard Western Approach (p. 61). In these two foundational chapters, Tillis undoes the thinking behind this existing approach to theatre history, pinpointing the false assumptions about space and time <strong>[End Page 218]</strong> that underlie its historiography. He uses scholars from the long-established school of world history to support his claims, while revealing that the nascent field of world theatre history is years behind historiographical work elsewhere.</p> <p>In the second half of the book, Tillis outlines new methodologies to producing world theatre history, methodologies that emphasize comparison and multiplicity. In his fourth chapter, Tillis identifies the basic units in world theatre history writing, theatrical events, and theatrical forms that lend themselves to comparative work. If the Standard Western Approach is based on assumptions about space and time, Tillis’s final four chapters develop ways of thinking about space and time that are conducive to considering the world. Chapter five reevaluates geography to move beyond the nation-state model. The final three chapters examine conceptions of time, with Tillis first offering a long-durée approach to theatre history (chapter six), exploring how we think of continuities and change (chapter seven), and reexamining how","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"changeABLE cohesion: Dance and Disability in Post-war Sri Lanka","authors":"Susan A. Reed","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927716","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927716","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p><i>Dancers with disabilities are increasingly participating in performances throughout Asia. In this article, based on long-term research, I provide an analysis of</i> changeABLE cohesion<i>, a mixed-abled, intercultural performance co-created by Sri Lankan dancers and Gerda König, choreographer of the renowned German DIN A13 dance company. The article focuses on the experiences and interpretations of the dancers, analyzing the creative process they employed as well as the long-term impacts that participation in</i> changeABLE cohesion <i>had on their lives and work. By providing the perspectives of multiple actors, the article seeks to demonstrate how an expansive ethnographic approach can enrich our understanding of disability and intercultural performances and provide the means to more accurately address the many thorny ethical questions they raise</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141060966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ugly Past/Insensitive Present: Blackface in Persian Popular Entertainment","authors":"Hesam Sharifian","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927717","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p><i>This article is a scholarly expansion of my previous public writing in</i> HowlRound <i>entitled “Iranian Blackface Clowns are Racist, No Matter How You Sugarcoat Them in Obscure Archaic Mythology.”</i> <i>In the essay, I argue</i> siāh-bāzi, <i>an Iranian form of popular entertainment that features a main character in blackface, is indeed a racialized mockery of the African slaves who were brought to Iran from the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries. In the present article, I delve deeper into the history of slavery in Iran as a context for</i> sāh-bāzi<i>. I also analyze the embodiment techniques in</i> siāh-bāzi <i>to demonstrate its racial connotations</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Temple to Theatre: The Making of Commercial Grassroots Performance Spaces in Republican China","authors":"Sisi Wang","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927712","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927712","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p><i>This article analyzes the transformation of</i> xiqu <i>(traditional Chinese theatre) performance space in Republican China (1912–1949), focusing on the performances in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. It investigates the institutional and habitus differences compared to larger urban areas, and changes in admission rules, particularly the implementation of ticketed admission, which transformed temples into commercial theatres. Disputes over ticketed admission, involving local officials, residents, and Japanese, emerged due to the new admission rules, which differentiated between audience and non-audience members and regulated entry into the performance space. This monetization strategy contributed to the reorganization of the local entertainment market and was followed by the conversion of temples into commercial theatres during the 1930s. This article argues that an alternative “modernization” process and spatial politics rooted in the aspiration to build a modern state was nurtured by cultural interactions but also emerged from the local context, which profoundly influenced the local spatial understanding and local society. This process was closely linked to, yet distinct from, colonial modernization. The development of cities modernized by colonization had become one of the main driving forces behind the development of the cities within their radius</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"111 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141060953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ideological Crisis, Compliance, and Self-Censorship: Identifying the Symptoms of Sinhala-Speaking Theatre Through Its Responses to the Civil War","authors":"Chamila Priyanka","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927719","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927719","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p><i>Although many Sinhala-speaking plays created in Sri Lanka after the 1960s focused on contemporary political and social issues, there were surprisingly few theatre productions that addressed the civil war, a significant political crisis in Sri Lanka. Additionally, those few plays that addressed the Civil War failed to provide an opposing thought to the racist ideology that led to the Civil War. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to discuss the issues that caused Sinhala-speaking theatre to pay less attention to the civil war. French philosopher Louis Althusser claimed that “The Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression” (Althusser 1971: 145). Along with the argument by Althusser, I will also explore how ideology and repression weaken the significance of the war for the Sinhala-speaking theatre during wartime</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ema Vyroubalová, Shauna O'Brien, Mohammadreza Hassanzadeh Javanian
{"title":"\"This Is a Political Play\": Making Coriolanus Relevant in Contemporary Iran","authors":"Ema Vyroubalová, Shauna O'Brien, Mohammadreza Hassanzadeh Javanian","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927718","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p><i>This article traces the performance history of Shakespeare’s</i> Coriolanus <i>in Iran, focusing on the most recent production of the play directed by Mostafa Koushki (b. 1984), performed between 2019 and 2020 in Tehran, Iran, and Kerala, India. Based on an original in-person interview with Koushki conducted by one of the authors in Tehran in July 2020, the article discusses how the production reflected and responded to the country’s volatile political climate. The analysis considers how various elements, including the minimalist set and costumes as well as gender-neutral casting, work together to communicate the production’s criticism of the current state of affairs in the Islamic Republic while staying within the boundaries imposed on theatre performances by the Iranian censorship regime</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"''Made in Korea'': Tradition and Transculturality in Changgeuk Lear","authors":"Yeeyon Im","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927714","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927714","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Changgeuk Lear <i>of the National Changgeuk Company of Korea presents an intriguing case of interculturalism. Produced in 2022 by an elite creative team representative of Korean theatre</i>, Lear <i>is remarkable for its lack of traditional spectacles that have characterized many Korean Shakespeare performances. This essay analyzes the transcultural esthetics of</i> changgeuk Lear <i>in comparison to the Koreanized spectacle of</i> changgeuk Romeo and Juliet <i>(2009), placing both productions in the history of</i> changgeuk <i>and the efforts to popularize the genre in the global age. The ontology of</i> Lear <i>is underpinned by a new notion of living tradition promoted by Kim Sung-Nyeo, which I relate to the concept of transculturation. I propose to reclaim the term transculturality for intercultural performance discourses, thereby deconstructing the false dichotomy of Korea as tradition and the West as modernity. Through a dynamic fusion of traditional</i> chang <i>and global art forms</i>, changgeuk Lear <i>creates a transcultural “K-opera” that represents a renewed sense of Koreanness</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Imigure Kaidan (Immigrant Ghost Stories) (review)","authors":"Beri Juraic","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927720","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Imigure Kaidan (Immigrant Ghost Stories)</em> <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Beri Juraic </li> </ul> <em>IMIGURE KAIDAN</em> (IMMIGRANT GHOST STORIES). Directed by Kamisato Yudai. Produced by Okazaki Art Theatre. Co-produced by Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt, Naha, Japan, 28–30 October 2022. <p>The award-winning playwright and director Kamisato Yudai premiered his latest work <em>Imigure Kaidan</em> (Immigrant Ghost Stories) at the end of October 2022 in a small theatre space at the recently opened Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt. I had the privilege to see the premiere and observe the rehearsal process. Like many of Kamisato’s previous works, the piece features prominently themes of crossing borders and migration, multilingualism, history and geography, and life versus death. These themes are inspired both by his personal experiences traveling in South America, Asia, and Japan and by the stories and anecdotes he had heard from others. While <em>Immigrant Ghost Stories</em> might be infused by the same motifs as previous work, it is also evident that this piece re-thinks theatre and the theatre-making process from the perspective of a foreigner or immigrant by using the metaphor of ghosts and monsters (<em>yūrei and yōkai</em>) crossing borders.</p> <p>When Kamisato won the Kishida Kunio Prize for Drama in 2018 for <em>The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso</em>, it initiated a debate about whether the piece could be considered a theatre play. This prompted him to write a blog post entitled “Gikyoku ni tsuite kangaeru koto” (Thinking about Plays), in which he wrote: “I always write words with people speaking them in mind. What I care about is how the words are uttered, the kind of rhythm, the lingering memories the text <strong>[End Page 211]</strong> produces, and how the speaker’s body changes” (Kamisato 2018).<sup>1</sup> Kamisato’s new work exposes this approach effectively to the audience. The unusual rehearsal process for this piece contributes to its success. To illustrate, the rehearsals took place in Tokyo and Naha (Okinawa), with only Kamisato traveling back and forth to rehearse with each performer individually. The performers therefore did not meet to rehearse collectively until the final week before the premiere. The production team was also not allowed in the rehearsals, but they could watch over Zoom, in real-time or via recordings. The rehearsals consisted principally of discussions, listening, and only a minimal amount of staging until the performers came together toward the end of the process. As a result, during the performance the audience has to listen attentively to fully comprehend the visual aspects. Kamisato nevertheless facilitates this task through his text which consistently throws at us both simplistic explanations and poetic complexities.</p> <br/","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ran's Diary: Sexually Suggestive Protest and Counterpublic Discourse Staged by Asian Others in South Korea","authors":"Bomi Choi","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927715","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p><i>This article examines how theatres of migration in the professional sphere intervene in contemporary social issues around Asian immigrants in multicultural South Korea. Of those from other Asian countries</i>, Ranui ilgi <i>(Ran’s Diary, 2011) concerns female marriage migrants, confronting its non-migrant South Korean spectators with an uncomfortable and neglected reality of the migrant women’s cross-border marriages with ethnic South Korean men. Along with a specific focus on the group of marginalized Asian</i> others <i>in the country, the sexually suggestive mise-en-scène particularly calls the attention of the audience. In this article, I first offer a brief overview of the societal backgrounds and effects of an unprecedented influx of Asian brides into South Korea, a country with a long-held fetish for ethnic homogeneity. Then, I analyze</i> Ran’s Diary <i>in terms of the play’s critical perspective on inter-Asian marriages, its strategic focus on and staging of a sexually victimized female Asian migrant character, and the authentic as well as culturally conscious representation of lived experiences of those immigrants in the host country. In my conclusion, I argue that this sexually-charged performance functions as a protest against the dominant public, generating a counterpublic discourse</i>.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments ed. by Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha (review)","authors":"Amanda Culp","doi":"10.1353/atj.2024.a927724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/atj.2024.a927724","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments</em> ed. by Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Amanda Culp </li> </ul> <em>PERFORMING THE RAMAYANA TRADITION: ENACTMENTS, INTERPRETATIONS, AND ARGUMENTS</em>. Edited by Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. 376 pp. Paper, $48.99. <p><em>Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments</em> is a volume that positions itself at the intersection of impossibilities. To start, the Ramayana is not a single text but a rich tradition of iterations of a story—a collection so vast that it defies summary, synthesis, or simplification. As Richman notes in her introductory essay, the body of work that we call the Ramayana does not even have a clearly defined beginning or end. To further complicate things, this volume focuses on the Ramayana as it is reimagined—over and over and over—in India’s impossibly extensive catalog of performance styles. After this we must confront one final layer of impossibility. It is one that seems to be inherent in our field, namely, that the study of performance challenges us to engage in scholarship with an evanescent primary event that never translates fully into writing. In spite of these innate challenges, <em>Performing the Ramayana Tradition</em> is a remarkable volume, successful in large part because of the way it frames these impossibilities as strengths. Here they become immensely productive sites for discourse.</p> <p>Richman and Bharucha have divided the volume into six parts, each containing two to three essays. In “Part I, Orientations and Beginnings,” Bharucha and Richman each contribute an opening essay that situates the project’s goals as they pertain to the fields of both Ramayana and Theatre and Performance Studies. In these opening chapters, Richman and Bharucha complicate the relationships between narrative, text, and performance by approaching them from different vantage points. In Richman’s chapter, “The Ramayana Narrative Tradition as Resource for Performance,” she looks to the “textual lineages” of the story’s many iterations to illuminate how “playwrights and performers interpret, enact, and innovate within the Ramayana <strong>[End Page 228]</strong> tradition” (pp. 9–10). Bharucha’s chapter follows but takes the reverse perspective. It considers the process of performance as a site of invention and creation wherein the process of making Ramayana narratives emerges from enactment itself. The section culminates with Rizio Yohannan’s essay “Where Narrative and Performance Meet: Nepathya’s <em>Rāmāyaṇa Sa kṣepam</em>.” This essay does double duty: it demonstrates how the categories of text and performance collapse into one another in the case study of the South Indian performance trad","PeriodicalId":42841,"journal":{"name":"ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141061037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}