THEATRE JOURNAL最新文献

{"title":"Mahabharata by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes (review)","authors":"Stephen Low","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929518","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>Mahabharata</em> by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Stephen Low </li> </ul> <em>MAHABHARATA</em>. Written and adapted by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes. Directed by Ravi Jain. Shaw Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. March 26, 2023. <p>The <em>Mahabharata</em> is an ancient Sanskrit epic poem that is rarely performed on contemporary stages. Toronto’s Why Not Theatre, in association with the Barbican in London and the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, have brought this Indian epic to life for contemporary audiences.</p> <p>Director Ravi Jain and associate director Miriam Fernandes adapted the <em>Mahabharata</em>—using poetry from Carole Satyamurti’s <em>Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling</em> (2015)—into a two-part, six-hour theatrical experience. Transforming the <em>Mahabharata</em>—which includes many sacred texts in the Hindu religious tradition, such as the <em>Bhagavad Gita</em> and an abbreviated version of the <em>Ramayana</em>—is a fraught task that involves making difficul choices, especially when it comes to cutting, abridging, and altering language, stories, and ideas that have deep spiritual meaning for many people around the world. As the playwrights’ note for this production contends, there are “as many <em>Mahabharatas</em> as there are storytellers.” This multiplicity is reflected in Jain and Fernandes’ adaption and in a production that was ancient and contemporary, secular and spiritual, earthly and divine.</p> <p>The first part of this two-part epic, <em>Karma: The Life We Inherit</em>, began with Fernandes, as the Storyteller, stepping into a circle of red sand sprinkled on the stage, with the other members of the cast sitting on stools outside of it. By simply stepping over the perimeter of red sand into the circle, she established the formal performance space. She then lit a flame in a wide-mouthed metal bowl that she placed outside the circle. Fernandes, as the Storyteller, explained to King Janamejaya why he should show mercy to the snakes of the world; he was about to sacrifice several to a holy flame to avenge his father’s death by venomous snakebite. This scenario acted as the framing narrative within which the Storyteller narrated the other tales that make up the <em>Mahabharata</em>. The flame Fernandes lit provided a sense of religious ritual to the proceedings but also stood in for the flame over which the snakes were held aloft as the King considered their fate. This initial framing was represented by a curtain of ropes, echoing the shape of snakes, hanging along the back of the stage. At first, this curtain of ropes appeared to be the sort of backstage mechanism present in any theatre—perhaps cords used to hoist scenery into the fly space above—which had been left exposed. But at a critical moment, they were rais","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264789","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":"Many Rammans in Uttarakhand: Jak and Bhumyal Renditions","authors":"Prateek","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929507","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> Many Rammans in Uttarakhand: <span>Jak and Bhumyal Renditions</span> <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Prateek (bio) </li> </ul> <p>This essay is meant to serve as a compendium to my documentary, <em>Many Rammans in Uttarakhand: Jak and Bhumyal Renditions</em>, which can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJ3Mnea0MU. The film highlights the diversity of the folk performance tradition of Ramman in the Indian hill state of Uttarakhand by analyzing two variants of the ritual, each dedicated to a village patron deity: one to Jak (alternatively known as Jakh) and the other to Bhumyal. Although the tradition is prevalent in many villages in the Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, the documentary focuses on the Ramman (dedicated to Jak) of Jaal Malla and Choumasa, two villages in the Rudraprayag district, and the Ramman (dedicated to Bhumyal) of Salud and Dungra, twin villages in the Chamoli district.</p> <br/> Click for larger view<br/> View full resolution Figure 1. <p>Map of the Jaal Malla, Choumasa, Salud, and Dungra villages in Uttarakhand, India. (Source: Prateek.)</p> <p></p> <p><strong>[End Page E-1]</strong></p> <p>Before filming, I sought permission to shoot footage in these four villages from the village council or elders. In most cases, I took this permission orally for two reasons: First, the participants felt more comfortable with oral permissions due to my position as a village outsider, as well as their local cultural norms and low literacy rates. Second, some participants insinuated that the written word intruded upon a terrain that venerates the oral traditions of the Himalayas. So, rather than seek written permission, I did what my grandmother, a native of Uttarakhand, taught me: seek the blessing of the village deity in front of those whom I filmed. The villagers also underlined their implicit permission by providing me with accommodation, as these hamlets are in peripheral locations that lack easy road access and hotels.</p> <p>D. R. Purohit, former faculty member at Hemvati Bahaguna Garhwal University, Srinagar, and a historian of the Garhwal region, provided guidance on identifying the four filming sites, which would have been otherwise difficult to locate. He has remained a significant influence on my ethnographic research. Purohit is a well-regarded expert on Garhwal, with a strong desire to assist other scholars researching the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, the credit for the documentary and my ethnographic process goes to my grandmother, Parvati Pandey, who since childhood has enriched me with regional folklore from the hill state while sensitizing me to the nuances of Uttarakhand’s demigods and deities. Her pedagogy instilled in me a critical eye toward oral traditions without succumbing to the desire to sensationalize or exoticize certain rituals, such as the possession ceremony. No","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264794","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":"Rediscovering Stanislavsky by Maria Shevtsova (review)","authors":"Alisa Ballard Lin","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929533","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>Rediscovering Stanislavsky</em> by Maria Shevtsova <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Alisa Ballard Lin </li> </ul> <em>REDISCOVERING STANISLAVSKY</em>. By Maria Shevtsova. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020; pp. 304. <p>English-language writings on the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky have been abundant ever since the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) toured the United States a century ago. But as we now recognize, for decades Stanislavsky was misunderstood as a result of poor translations, Soviet censorship, and distortions of his System by his US continuators. Landmarks in Stan-islavsky scholarship like Sharon Marie Carnicke’s <em>Stanislavsky in Focus</em> (1998; 2nd ed., 2009) have corrected entrenched misbeliefs about Stanislavsky’s work by offering more nuanced and accurate understandings of crucial terms for him such as <em>perezhivanie</em> (experiencing). Maria Shevtsova’s new book, <em>Rediscovering Stanislavsky</em>, is poised to become another such landmark in Stanislavsky scholarship.</p> <p>As the book promises in its title, Shevtsova offers a thorough reinterpretation of Stanislavsky’s legacy, from his productions at the Society of Art and Literature prior to the MAT’s founding, through his housebound and bed-ridden work at the Opera-Dramatic Studio in the final years of his life. By consulting a range of primary and secondary sources, including archival materials, Shevtsova has uncovered numerous fresh insights into Stanislavsky’s System and its origins, as well as his directorial and pedagogical work, relationship to Soviet politics, and administration of the MAT studios. She portrays Stanislavsky as a sharp and original, highly spiritual thinker who knew how to succeed within his political and social reality.</p> <p>Shevtsova brings to Stanislavsky the perspective of a scholar of contemporary theatre, and accordingly, she gives continual attention to those aspects of his work that have resonated with more recent directors and actors indebted to him. Overall, her book paints a rich and full picture of Stanislavsky’s wide-ranging career, synthesizing aspects of his life often kept separate or even ignored in scholarship into broadly conceived chapters on contexts, actor, studio, director, and legacy. Shevtsova’s choice to discuss Stanislavsky so comprehensively leads to a rewarding, though sometimes wandering, narrative that integrates Stanislavsky’s personal and professional lives with his cultural context. <strong>[End Page 126]</strong></p> <p>From the beginning, the book establishes Stan-islavsky as a “colossal” innovator (x), and Shevtsova adds much to traditional conceptions of just how Stanislavsky innovated. Particularly radical, she underscores in chapter 1, was his notion of ensemble theatre. Stanislavsky believed in creative collaboration based in shared values among all th","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264796","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":"The Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy by Juliet Guzzetta (review)","authors":"Stefano Boselli","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929527","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 Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy</em> by Juliet Guzzetta <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Stefano Boselli </li> </ul> <em>THE THEATER OF NARRATION: FROM THE PERIPHERIES OF HISTORY TO THE MAIN STAGES OF ITALY</em>. By Juliet Guzzetta. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2021; pp. 239, 21 illustrations. <p>Despite its minimalist setup—consisting mostly of a single performer on stage, sitting on a chair or standing—the Italian theatre of narration exhibits a surprising vitality. Beginning with its earliest solo shows in 1987 and following its rise to national prominence, especially with the first televised performances a decade later and their wide distribution on DVD, the genre importantly speaks to Italians’ experiences and concerns. Juliet Guzzetta argues in <em>The Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy</em> that because narrators bridge personal life events with those of their local communities in relation to national-level issues, connecting their stories with history at large, these performers’ activities—archival research, interviews, and creative storytelling—are a form of “historical praxis” (6). Akin to the methods of microhistorians such as Carlo Ginzburg and Giovanni Levi, these performances contribute to the reevaluation of history from a plurality of perspectives, emphasizing those of the common folk. Each of the volume’s five chapters brings together the historical, cultural, and theatrical context while referencing critical and performance theory to analyze the genre’s genealogies, unique traits, and particularly remarkable productions.</p> <p>Guzzetta points out that the Teatro Settimo theatre company was central to the beginnings of the Italian theatre of narration (chapters 1, 2, and 4). It was founded in 1974 by director Gabriele Vacis, performer Laura Curino, designer Lucio Diana, and others in Settimo Torinese, an “industrial wasteland” near Turin (27), at a time of violent social and political upheaval in Italy. Guzzetta underscores three major influences on the company: the politically engaged monologues of Nobel Prize-winning playwright-cum-performer Dario Fo and especially his wife Franca Rame, with their performance setting in close proximity to the audience; Jerzy Grotowski’s Poor Theatre, in its quest for what is truly essential for live performance; and the practice of <em>animazione teatrale</em> (theatrical animation), which, stemming from the 1968 student and workers’ protests, viewed the narrator as a cultural laborer didactically engaged in improving the lives of the underprivileged. Indeed, the company’s first improvised performance, <em>Questa storia non ci piace: Buchiamola!</em> (<em>We Don’t Like This Story: Let’s Punch Holes in It!</em>)—based on interviews","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"177 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264792","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":"Robert Lepage's Original Stage Productions: Making Theatre Global by Karen Fricker (review)","authors":"Aleksandar Dundjerovic","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929529","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>Robert Lepage’s Original Stage Productions: Making Theatre Global</em> by Karen Fricker <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Aleksandar Dundjerovic </li> </ul> <em>ROBERT LEPAGE’S ORIGINAL STAGE PRODUCTIONS: MAKING THEATRE GLOBAL</em>. By Karen Fricker. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020; pp. 272. <p>It has been twenty-seven years since Remy Charest’s book of interviews with Robert Lepage, <em>Connecting Flights</em> (1997), appeared in English translation. It marked the beginning of an organized exploration of Lepage’s creative practices, offering valuable insights into his unique approach to theatre. Lepage, a Canadian theatre and film director, actor, and playwright, has long been known for his aesthetically and culturally intriguing productions that emphasize collaboration between actors and audiences. <em>Connecting Flights</em> also addressed the emergence of global theatre, which gained momentum in the late 1980s and ’90s, largely due to the festival theatre culture.</p> <p>In the past decade, there has been a resurgence of critical scholarship focusing on Lepage’s body of work, exploring topics like media, space, and global culture. These English-language books have centered on themes such as intercultural encounters (Carson, 2021), theatrical space creation (Reynolds, 2019), scenographic dramaturgy (Poll, 2018), identity and nation exploration (Koustas, 2016), and the language of a visual laboratory (Fouquet, 2014). Karen Fricker’s <em>Robert Lepage’s Original Stage Productions: Making Theatre Global</em> (2020) is part of this renewed interest in the artist’s work. Her focus is Lepage’s relationship with global culture and theatre audiences. Fricker examines the globalization of theatre and performance practice, drawing on theoretical and methodological approaches from cinema, affect, and queer studies. She argues that in the early and middle stages of Lepage’s development, making theatre was for a big international festival—it was theatre that related globally to the festival audience—and that globalization had a crucial impact on shaping Lepage’s theatricality. On the grounds of such contention, she places Lepage’s work within the context of a globalized cultural perspective, exploring the use of global theatre language of new technology and the dramaturgy of cinema and media.</p> <p>The book is divided into seven chapters, spanning Lepage’s career and encompassing his earlier famous works from the 1980s and ’90s, such as <em>The Dragons’ Trilogy</em>, <em>Vinci</em>, <em>Tectonic Plates</em>, <em>Needles and Opium</em>, <em>The Seven Streams of the River Ota</em>, as well as more recent productions such as <em>The Andersen Project</em>, <em>The Blue Dragon</em>, <em>Lipsynch</em>, and <em>887</em>. Many of these productions have been on international tours for several years, cap","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264777","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":"Black Theater, City Life: African American Art Institutions and Urban Cultural Ecologies by Macelle Mahala (review)","authors":"Sandra M. Mayo","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929534","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929534","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>Black Theater, City Life: African American Art Institutions and Urban Cultural Ecologies</em> by Macelle Mahala <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Sandra M. Mayo </li> </ul> <em>BLACK THEATER, CITY LIFE: AFRICAN AMERICAN ART INSTITUTIONS AND URBAN CULTURAL ECOLOGIES</em>. By Macelle Mahala. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2022; pp. 270. <p>Theatre historian and educator Macelle Mahala sharpens our understanding of cultural ecology as she documents the relationship between race, historical moment, and milieu in the perseverance and survival of African American theatres. In <em>Black Theater, City Life: African American Art Institutions and</em> <strong>[End Page 127]</strong> <em>Urban Cultural Ecologies</em>, Mahala focuses on theatres in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Atlanta, chronicling their missions, development, challenges, and memorable productions. She juxtaposes this overview with an analysis of the interrelationship between these arts organizations and the communities they serve.</p> <p>Mahala’s work addresses the scarcity of scholarship on regional theatres. African American theatre historical narratives have often concentrated on the New York area (e.g., Loften Mitchell’s <em>Black Drama</em>, 1967), have given only a brief review of theatre in the regions outside of New York in larger narratives (e.g., Errol Hill and James Hatch’s <em>A History of African American Theatre</em>, 2003), or have developed the history through the work of major writers (e.g., Leslie Catherine Sanders’s <em>The Development of Black Theater in America</em>, 1988). In this regional focus, Mahala’s book joins Jonathan Shandell’s <em>The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era</em> (2019), Sandra M. Mayo and Elvin Holt’s <em>Stages of Struggle and Celebration: A Production History of Black Theatre in Texas</em> (2016), and Harvey Young and Queen Meccasia Zabriskie’s <em>Black Theatre Is Black Life: An Oral History of Chicago Theater and Dance, 1970–2010</em> (2014). An in-depth study of regional theatres, as achieved by Mahala, complements and broadens our understanding of theatre in America. For example, Hill and Hatch’s laudable study of African American theatre has only a few paragraphs on the arts in the Atlanta area. Mahala addresses this paucity with a chapter that addresses production histories, notable artists, and community partnerships in enlightening detail.</p> <p>Chapter 1 begins the narrative with Karamu House in Cleveland, founded in 1915 as part of the settlement house program designed to help new immigrants acclimate to the city. This summary of over one hundred years surveys the evolution of the institution from a recreation program to a nationally acclaimed theatre, starting with a children’s theatre initiative. Inspired by actor Charles Gilpin of Eugene O’Ne","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264772","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":"At The Edges of Sleep: Moving Images and Somnolent Spectators by Jean Ma (review)","authors":"Xueli Wang","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929538","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>At The Edges of Sleep: Moving Images and Somnolent Spectators</em> by Jean Ma <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Xueli Wang </li> </ul> <em>AT THE EDGES OF SLEEP: MOVING IMAGES AND SOMNOLENT SPECTATORS</em>. By Jean Ma. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022; pp. 209. <p>Watching a film together is a ritual of intimacy, especially if we fall asleep. In her book <em>At the Edges of Sleep: Moving Images and Somnolent Spectators</em>, Jean Ma takes the familiar act of sleeping at the movies as an entry point into a wide-ranging exploration of attention, sociality, and embodiment in moving-image culture from the early twentieth century to the present. Tying this ambitious study together is the Thai artist-filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose distinctly soporific œuvre Ma returns to throughout the book as a touchstone for rethinking longstanding theories of the somnolent spectator and for engaging with related works according to an alternative, sleep-woven logic. At stake in this reconceptualization is a fresh receptivity to the kinds of relations sleep can open up: between individuals, past and present, humans and nonhumans, the living and the dead. Whether in the spiritual “possession, transmutation, and reincarnation” that occupy Apichatpong’s visions of sleep (56), or the staging of collective slumber as a ritual of healing in the art installation <em>Black Womxn Dreaming/Divine the Darkness</em> (2019), Ma reads sleep as a social and relational process through which borders soften and energies circulate between self and others. “To sleep in the presence of others is to willingly abandon the fiction of self-sufficiency and autonomy,” Ma writes, “in acknowledgment of vulnerability and interdependence” (36).</p> <p>At the outset, Ma situates her project within a recent “turn to sleep” in critical and popular discourse, in which “[t]he traditionally suspicious view of sleep—as a thief of time, an obstacle to progress . . . gives way to an attitude of solicitousness and respect” (10). This encompasses the emergence of overnight installations in contemporary art; the rise of “critical sleep studies” in academia; and the proliferation of sleep-aid marketing in the wellness <strong>[End Page 133]</strong> industry. Ma challenges the prevailing tendency to posit sleep as a universal condition, found in texts as divergent as Jonathan Crary’s <em>24/7</em> and Arianna Huffington’s <em>The Sleep Revolution</em>. She points to how the uneven distribution of power across race and gender determines “whose sleep must be protected and who must stay awake in order that others may rest” and views the history of modern sleeplessness as intertwined with that of racial capitalism, beginning not in the factory and coffeehouse but the plantation and colony (34–35). Ma’s own inquiry aims at a more nuanced view o","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264774","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":"Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability by Vivian L. Huang (review)","authors":"Takeo Rivera","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929536","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929536","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>Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability</em> by Vivian L. Huang <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Takeo Rivera </li> </ul> <em>Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability</em>. By Vivian L. Huang. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022; pp. 240. <p>From the foundations laid by scholars like Josephine Lee, Karen Shimakawa, Esther Kim Lee, Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson, Sean Metzger, and more, Asian American performance studies has become an indispensable subfield within theatre and performance studies. While it is difficult to claim any Asian American subjective “exceptionalism” to performance, the performance of affect—or the perceived lack thereof—is a key facet of ongoing racialized and racist apparatuses of orientalism and yellow peril. After all, the unfeeling, inscrutable Asiatic is the figure upon which the anxieties of deindividuation, and the corresponding abject expulsion, are deposited. Building on the more theatre-driven scholarly predecessors listed above, Vivian L. Huang’s <em>Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability</em> takes this theoretical concern head on, advancing Asian American performance studies to new heights in its study of <strong>[End Page 130]</strong> queer Asian American performance art and theorizations of gender.</p> <p>At this point, this review is unlikely to spark more excitement for Huang’s monograph debut than has already been generated—<em>Surface Relations</em> was a nominee for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Studies—but, to put it bluntly, the hype is deserved. Contrary to its name, <em>Surface Relations</em> is itself less a surface than it is a cord, woven from the most vital threads of performance, ethnic, and queer studies to date. The book provides a vital contribution well beyond the Venn diagram sliver between performance studies and Asian American studies. Huang states their intentions clearly in the introduction, stating that the book “considers minoritarian aesthetic and affective modes of inscrutability that negotiate formal legibility with sociopolitical viability” that are in turn “vital acts of world-making in a cultural landscape that has normalized the non-appearance of Asian American culture” (2). Rather than simply condemning Asiaticized inscrutability as a kind of harmful stereotype to be disavowed, Huang explores inscrutability as queer performative strategy for Asian American subjects. Huang’s examples offer a number of diverse strategic effects that vary chapter to chapter, from the production of tenderly queer social relationalities, or the subversion of patriarchal epistemologies, to the disruption of model minority labor relations. Inscrutability rarely inspires political militancy, but rather a subtler, almost clandestine reconfiguration of subjective and p","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264778","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":"Shane by Karen Zacarías (review)","authors":"Robert Hubbard","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929516","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>Shane</em> by Karen Zacarías <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Robert Hubbard </li> </ul> <em>SHANE</em>. By Karen Zacarías. Adapted from the novel by Jack Schaefer. Directed by Blake Robison. Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. July 29, 2023. <p>Revising beloved classics to adjust for changing cultural mores may inspire antipathy from audience members nostalgically invested in the original. But what if the revisions come from a place of affection rather than derision?</p> <p>Jack Schaefer published his young adult novel <em>Shane</em> in 1949. By 1953, Hollywood had turned Schaefer’s novel about a wandering gunslinger in search of redemption into a film that defined the US western for generations. While <em>Shane</em> maintains its status as a touchstone of rugged US individualism and white frontier mythology, no serious historian would stand by the historicity of Schaefer’s allegory. Indeed, Schaefer’s popular, pulpy novel with its homogeneous cast of characters and naive attitudes toward western expansion probably reveals more about the 1950s than the 1880s.</p> <p>As a sixth grader in a Boston public school, Karen Zacarías read <em>Shane</em> and fell in love. The story about an insecure family making their way in an inhospitable new land spoke to young Zacarías’s life experience as an immigrant from Mexico. After becoming an accomplished playwright decades later, Zacarías revisited her childhood crush. The result is an alluring melodramatic hybrid. Zacarías infuses the original story with diversity and accountability while simultaneously enriching the theatricality of the western genre and enhancing the essential themes of Schaefer’s novel.</p> <p>Zacarías’s adjustments lend the source text both historical authenticity and needed character development. In a note printed in the program, dramaturg Tatiana Godfrey observes that “[b]y the end of the 1800s, about a quarter of all cowboys were Black and an even larger percentage were of Mexican descent.” Fittingly, Zacarías makes the mysterious title character (William DeMeritt) a Black cowboy. Flashes of added exposition reveal Shane to be the son of a plantation owner who raped his enslaved mother. Ambiguous, oblique references that suggest his biological father suffe ed an unexplained and horrible death add depth and intrigue to Shane’s mysterious past.</p> <p>The Starrett family also receives a racial makeover. In Zacarías’s reimagining, patriarch Joe Starrett (Ricardo Chavira) has a Mexican mother but inherits his Anglo surname from his white father. As an adult, Joe experiences racial discrimination while working in a mine in New Mexico. It is there, we learn, that he falls in love and marries Marian (Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey). Marian had recently become “American” and homeless when her Mexican family’s land was ceded to the United States after the ","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264779","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":"The Headlands by Christopher Chen (review)","authors":"Janine Sun Rogers","doi":"10.1353/tj.2024.a929514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2024.a929514","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 Headlands</em> by Christopher Chen <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Janine Sun Rogers </li> </ul> <em>THE HEADLANDS</em>. By Christopher Chen. Directed by Pam MacKinnon. American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco. March 4, 2023. <p>Set between fog-shrouded locales on either end of the Golden Gate Bridge, Christopher Chen’s <em>The Headlands</em> contends with how the precarities of memory, family structures, and atomized geographies render the familiar unfamiliar and the known mysterious. The story follows Henry Wong, a Chinese American Silicon Valley techie and true crime enthusiast, as he works to solve the decades-old cold case of his father George’s mysterious death. Along the way, he ends up discovering a great deal about the dark recesses of his family history—and the fallibility of his own mind. The case of George’s death is ostensibly closed, presumed to be a burglary gone wrong. Henry does not buy it, however; the alleged burglary does not match the pattern of others in the neighborhood at the time, and a vague deathbed comment made by his mother Leena further incites his scrutiny of the case. Henry, a professed film noir buff, plays detective, following hunches—depression, money troubles, an affair—until he uncovers Tom, a brother he didn’t know he had, hidden in the fogs of the Marin Headlands. Throughout the process, Henry peers into many sites and perspectives on San Francisco, popping into various domestic scenes, and visiting and revisiting his evolving memories, which build and morph as he gleans new pieces of information. The play, as a result, destabilizes the concept of fixed or truthful memory as Henry revises and restages scenes from his past in ways that, we discover, refle t more about his mental state at the time of remembering than the truth of the remembered situation. The play’s engagement with San Francisco, the Marin Headlands, and the communities that live there as affec ive sites reflec s social and psychological entanglements with place.</p> <p>The particularities of Bay Area geographies and temporality took on special resonance in this production, played to a hometown audience in its West Coast premiere at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. In a metatheatrical nod at the start of the play, Henry wandered onto the stage and engaged in some direct-address crowdwork, peering at the audience with the house lights still up. He introduced himself as “that rare bird known as the San Francisco native” and gestured to various sites around the city with a sense of immediacy and intimacy. He pointed stage right, to the northeast, to self-deprecatingly confess to “‘work’ at Google, over by the Ferry Building,” drawing attention to the proximity of the Google campus to the historic trade terminal in a move that signaled the specific - ties of a San Francis","PeriodicalId":46247,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE JOURNAL","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141264795","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}