Performing—Feeling, Auto-Transformation, and Expression: Tang Shu-wing and His Theatre Studio in Hong Kong

Abstract

This article presents the multifaceted persona of Tang Shu-wing, an acclaimed director, actor, and drama teacher, and examines his profound connections with the Polish theater tradition, particularly Jerzy Grotowski. The text also discusses Tang Shu-wing’s Shakespearean productions staged in Warsaw and Gdańsk. Marzenna Wiśniewska’s introduction contextualizes the appendix, which contains the edited transcript of a lecture delivered by Tang Shu-wing during the international online conference Contemporary Acting Techniques in Eurasian Theatre, Performance and Audiovisual Art: Intercultural and Intermedia Perspective (2021). In this lecture, the director characterizes the main ideas underlying his actor training and work on performances at the Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio in Hong Kong. An essential part of the presentation is the characterization of Tang Shu-wing’s philosophy of art, including the four stages of an artist’s development and the methodology of authorial performance grounded in pre-verbal expression and body-based minimalist aesthetics.