<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：评论者 重新发现斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基》 玛丽亚-舍夫佐娃 Alisa Ballard Lin REDISCOVERING STANISLAVSKY.玛丽亚-舍夫佐娃著。剑桥：剑桥大学出版社，2020 年；第 304 页。自从一个世纪前莫斯科艺术剧院（MAT）在美国巡演以来，有关康斯坦丁-斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基作品的英文著作就层出不穷。但正如我们现在所认识到的那样，几十年来，斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基由于翻译不当、苏联的审查制度以及其美国继承者对其体系的歪曲而被误解。莎伦-玛丽-卡尼奇（Sharon Marie Carnicke）的《聚焦斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基》（Stanislavsky in Focus，1998 年；第二版，2009 年）等斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基学术著作中的里程碑式作品纠正了人们对斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基作品根深蒂固的误解，对他的关键术语（如 "体验"（perezhivanie））提供了更细致、更准确的理解。玛丽亚-舍夫佐娃（Maria Shevtsova）的新书《重新发现斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基》（Rediscovering Stanislavsky）有望成为斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基学术研究的又一里程碑。正如书名所承诺的那样，舍夫佐娃对斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的遗产进行了彻底的重新解读，从他在艺术与文学学会成立之前在该学会的创作，到他晚年在歌剧戏剧工作室卧病在床的工作。通过查阅包括档案资料在内的一系列第一手和第二手资料，舍夫佐娃对斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的体系及其起源，以及他的导演和教学工作、与苏联政治的关系和 MAT 工作室的管理等方面提出了许多新的见解。她将斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基描绘成一位敏锐、独创、极具灵性的思想家，知道如何在政治和社会现实中取得成功。Shevtsova 以当代戏剧学者的视角来看待斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基，因此，她不断关注斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基作品中那些能引起近期导演和演员共鸣的方面。总之，她在书中描绘了斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基丰富而全面的职业生涯，将其生平中经常被学术界割裂开来甚至被忽视的方面归纳为背景、演员、工作室、导演和遗产等构思广泛的章节。舍夫佐娃选择如此全面地论述斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基，从而将斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的个人生活和职业生涯与他的文化背景融为一体，虽然有时会出现游移不定的情况，但却令人受益匪浅。[从一开始，该书就将斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基塑造成了一位 "巨大的 "创新者（x），谢夫佐娃为斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基如何创新的传统概念增添了许多内容。她在第一章中强调，斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的合奏戏剧理念尤为激进。斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基相信，所有参与制作的戏剧艺术家都应在共同价值观的基础上进行创造性合作，包括所有演员之间的深层联系。他对合奏和群体重要性的强调贯穿全书。本章接着讨论了斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基塑造其合奏概念的一些最重要的背景。其中包括十九世纪末俄罗斯的乌托邦社区，如著名的阿布拉姆采沃艺术家聚居地，斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基在成长过程中曾在夏天去过那里。他还受到象征主义和世纪之交形而上学的影响，后者寻求进入神秘主义和灵性的境界。很多关于斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的学术研究都脱离了他在俄罗斯思想和文化中的背景；谢夫佐娃对他对合奏的理解所受影响的新颖描述丰富了我们对他的实践的认识。第 2 章和第 3 章重点探讨了理解斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基整个职业生涯的政治和宗教大背景。在第 2 章中，Shevtsova 根据书信和其他资料论证了斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的政治智慧，而非人们通常认为的天真。她论述了在斯大林主义审查制度下，艺术大师为寻找政治上可接受的剧目所做的努力，描绘了斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基在那些艰难岁月中经历的创伤和逆境中的勇气。他的书信证明了他对政治动机的准确判断，因为他在审查和镇压以及物质匮乏和艰难困苦的岁月中生存下来并保护了家人。在第三章中，舍夫佐娃论证了俄罗斯东正教对该体系的根本重要性，许多学者对这一主题有所提及，但未作详细探讨。她将斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的思想与东正教传教士费奥凡-扎特沃尔尼克的教义联系起来，费奥凡-扎特沃尔尼克写道："灵魂有思维、意愿和感觉三个方面......"。
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：评论者： 叙述剧场：朱丽叶-古泽塔 Stefano Boselli 著 《叙述的剧场：从历史的边缘到意大利的主要舞台》。作者：朱丽叶-古泽塔。伊利诺伊州埃文斯顿：西北大学出版社，2021 年；第 239 页，21 幅插图。尽管意大利叙事剧的舞台设置极简--主要由一名表演者在舞台上或坐或站组成，但它却展现出惊人的活力。从 1987 年最早的个人表演开始，到后来在全国范围内的崛起，尤其是十年后的首次电视表演以及 DVD 的广泛传播，这一流派在很大程度上反映了意大利人的经历和关注。朱丽叶-古泽塔（Juliet Guzzetta）在《叙述剧场》一书中指出：从历史的边缘到意大利的主要舞台》一书中指出，由于讲述者将个人生活事件与当地社区的国家级问题联系起来，将他们的故事与整个历史联系起来，这些表演者的活动--档案研究、访谈和创造性讲述--是一种 "历史实践"(6)。与卡洛-金兹伯格（Carlo Ginzburg）和乔瓦尼-列维（Giovanni Levi）等微观史学家的方法相似，这些表演有助于从多元视角重新评估历史，强调普通民众的视角。该书共五章，每一章都汇集了历史、文化和戏剧背景，同时参考了批评和表演理论，分析了这一流派的谱系、独特特征和特别出色的作品。Guzzetta 指出，Teatro Settimo 剧团是意大利叙事剧的开端（第 1、2 和 4 章）。该剧团由导演加布里埃莱-瓦奇斯（Gabriele Vacis）、表演者劳拉-库里诺（Laura Curino）、设计师卢西奥-迪亚纳（Lucio Diana）等人于 1974 年在都灵附近的 "工业废墟 "塞蒂莫-托里内塞（Settimo Torinese）成立（27），当时意大利正处于剧烈的社会和政治动荡之中。Guzzetta 强调了对该公司的三大影响：诺贝尔文学奖得主、剧作家兼表演艺术家达里奥-福（Dario Fo），尤其是他的妻子弗兰卡-拉梅（Franca Rame）的政治独白，他们的表演环境与观众近在咫尺；耶日-格罗托夫斯基（Jerzy Grotowski）的 "贫穷剧场"（Poor Theatre），它追求现场表演的真正本质；以及戏剧动画（animazione teatrale）的实践，它源于 1968 年的学生和工人抗议活动，将叙述者视为参与改善弱势群体生活的文化劳动者。事实上，该公司的首场即兴表演《Questa storia non ci piace：Buchiamola! (We Don't Like This Story: Let's Punch Holes in It!)--基于对 "19 世纪中叶都灵郊外农民与服装洗衣工之间的冲突"(42) 的访谈和历史研究--以小人物的视角讲故事，旨在激活当地社区。受米歇尔-福柯（Michel Foucault）异托邦概念的启发，塞蒂莫剧院的一些项目还与当地文化组织合作，重新创造城市地点的用途。Guzzetta 历史性地指出，这些特点后来影响了叙事戏剧。库里诺的杰作《卡米洛-奥利维蒂》（Camillo Olivetti：Alle radici di un sogno》（《梦想之根》，1996 年）讲述了这位富有远见的工程师创建了意大利第一家打字机工厂的故事，而其他独白后来也成为曾与公司成员共事或学习的两代叙述者（包括马尔科-保里尼和朱莉安娜-穆索）的重要参考，还有一些人则更间接地挖掘了这一体裁的潜力，例如马尔科-巴利亚尼（Marco Baliani），他在《国家之躯》（Corpo di Stato，1998 年）中动情地讲述了自己对 20 世纪 70 年代戏剧性政治事件的反应。除了历史与政治交织的主题路线，古泽塔还关注意大利研究中罕见的理论，将这一流派与其他表演方式进行了比较（导言），并阐明了其舞台语言的形式特征（第 3 章）。就唤起多重角色的姿态和手势而言，她将 "独角戏演员简洁的体态"（90）视为古典演说的当代版本。至于语言，有时受 20 世纪 70 年代反体制话语的影响，地区方言的使用使叙述者不仅能将其故事立足于可识别的地点和社区，还能将卑微的当地演员的能动性提升到说话者的水平......
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：评论者： 罗伯特-勒帕吉的原创舞台剧：罗伯特-勒帕吉的原创舞台剧：让戏剧全球化》，作者：凯伦-弗里克 Aleksandar Dundjerovic ROBERT LEPAGE'S ORIGINAL STAGE PRODUCTIONS：让戏剧全球化。作者：凯伦-弗里克。曼彻斯特：曼彻斯特大学出版社，2020 年；第 272 页。雷米-沙雷斯特（Remy Charest）与罗伯特-勒帕吉（Robert Lepage）的访谈录《连接航班》（Connecting Flights，1997 年）的英译本问世至今已有二十七年。这本书标志着对勒帕吉创作实践的有序探索的开始，为我们了解他独特的戏剧创作方法提供了宝贵的视角。作为加拿大戏剧和电影导演、演员和剧作家，勒帕吉一直以其强调演员和观众之间合作的、具有美学和文化内涵的作品而闻名。Connecting Flights》还探讨了全球戏剧的兴起，全球戏剧在 20 世纪 80 年代末和 90 年代势头强劲，这主要归功于节日戏剧文化。在过去的十年中，以勒帕奇的作品为中心，探讨媒体、空间和全球文化等主题的批评性学术研究再度兴起。这些英文书籍围绕的主题包括跨文化交汇（Carson，2021 年）、戏剧空间创造（Reynolds，2019 年）、场景戏剧学（Poll，2018 年）、身份与民族探索（Koustas，2016 年）以及视觉实验室语言（Fouquet，2014 年）。卡伦-弗里克（Karen Fricker）的《罗伯特-勒帕吉的原创舞台作品》（Robert Lepage's Original Stage Productions：使戏剧全球化》（2020 年）是对这位艺术家作品重新产生兴趣的一部分。她的重点是勒帕吉与全球文化和戏剧观众的关系。弗里克借鉴电影、情感和同性恋研究的理论和方法，研究了戏剧和表演实践的全球化。她认为，在勒帕吉发展的早期和中期阶段，制作戏剧是为了参加大型国际艺术节--是与艺术节观众建立全球联系的戏剧--全球化对塑造勒帕吉的戏剧性产生了至关重要的影响。基于这一论点，她将勒帕吉的作品置于全球化文化视角的背景下，探讨了新技术的全球戏剧语言的使用以及电影和媒体的戏剧性。全书共分七章，跨越了勒帕吉的职业生涯，涵盖了他在上世纪八九十年代的早期著名作品，如《龙的三部曲》、《文奇》、《构造板》、《针与鸦片》、《太田川的七条溪流》，以及《安徒生计划》、《蓝龙》、《利普辛奇》和《887》等近期作品。其中许多作品已在国际上巡演数年，吸引了世界各地的观众。然而，我们必须认识到，如果这本书早在十年前或更早的时候出版，其现实意义可能会有所不同。全球主义已经从对美学交流和文化互联的跨文化迷恋，演变为西方文化对本土传统的统治和同质化。它不再被视为全球戏剧多元独特声音的偏爱表达，而是 "达沃斯 "艺术节观众的调侃用语，他们坚持类似的生活模式和品牌产品，而勒帕格在他的表演中经常以自嘲式幽默讽刺这些概念。此外，近年来，勒帕吉在国际艺术节上的表现相对平淡，他的作品与早期的《龙的三部曲》和《太田川的七条溪流》等作品相比，现在的作品规模更加宏大。正如书名所示，本书的重点是勒帕吉的原创作品，但也需要提供一个充分的视角，在历史背景下对他的早期职业生涯进行梳理。例如，勒帕吉笔下的人物往往代表着西方对其他国家，尤其是亚洲国家的注视，而这种注视仍未得到审视。在没有历史框架的情况下，弗里克对其作品进行了全球主义的诠释，将勒帕吉的角色置于一种非常迪斯尼化和浪漫化的他人视角中，因此她错过了更深入的批判，而这种批判将反思多样性、非殖民化以及勒帕吉作品中非西方角色身份的表现。尽管如此，该书仍不乏对这位艺术家作品的清晰而及时的批评。最后两章对勒帕吉在新自由主义和作者身份（第 6 章）背景下的立场提出了宝贵的见解，并将其成功的个人表演视为一种迎合全球观众的戏剧形式。
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：评论者： 黑人剧院，城市生活：作者：Macelle Mahala Sandra M. Mayo 《黑人剧院，城市生活：非裔美国人艺术机构与城市文化生态》。作者：Macelle Mahala。伊利诺伊州埃文斯顿：西北大学出版社，2022 年；第 270 页。戏剧史学家和教育家马凯尔-马哈拉（Macelle Mahala）通过记录非裔美国人剧院在坚持和生存过程中种族、历史时刻和环境之间的关系，加深了我们对文化生态学的理解。在《黑人剧院，城市生活：在《黑人剧院，城市生活：非裔美国人艺术机构与 [完 127 页] 城市文化生态》一书中，Mahala 重点介绍了克利夫兰、匹兹堡、旧金山和亚特兰大的剧院，记录了它们的使命、发展、挑战和令人难忘的作品。她在概述的同时，还分析了这些艺术机构与其服务的社区之间的相互关系。玛哈拉的作品探讨了有关地区剧院的学术研究稀缺的问题。非裔美国人戏剧史的叙述通常集中在纽约地区（如洛夫滕-米切尔的《黑人戏剧》，1967 年），在较大的叙述中仅对纽约以外地区的戏剧进行简要回顾（如埃罗尔-希尔和詹姆斯-哈奇的《非裔美国人戏剧史》，2003 年），或通过主要作家的作品发展历史（如莱斯利-凯瑟琳-桑德斯的《美国黑人戏剧的发展》，1988 年）。在这一地区重点方面，Mahala 的著作与 Jonathan Shandell 的《美国黑人剧院和漫长的民权时代》（2019 年）、Sandra M. Mayo 和 Elvin Holt 的《斗争和庆祝的阶段》（Stages of Struggle and Celebration：德克萨斯州黑人戏剧制作史》（2016 年），以及哈维-扬和梅卡西亚-扎布里斯基女王的《黑人戏剧即黑人生活》：芝加哥戏剧和舞蹈口述史，1970-2010 年》（2014 年）。马哈拉》对地区剧院的深入研究补充并拓宽了我们对美国剧院的了解。例如，希尔和哈奇（Hill and Hatch）关于非裔美国人戏剧的研究值得称赞，但其中只有几段介绍了亚特兰大地区的艺术。马哈拉》用一章的篇幅解决了这一不足，该章详细介绍了制作历史、著名艺术家和社区合作关系，很有启发性。第 1 章从克利夫兰的卡拉穆之家开始叙述，该之家成立于 1915 年，是旨在帮助新移民适应城市的安置之家计划的一部分。本章总结了该机构一百多年来的发展历程，从一个娱乐项目发展成为一个全国知名的剧院，并从儿童剧开始。受尤金-奥尼尔（Eugene O'Neill）的《琼斯大帝》（Emperor Jones）中演员查尔斯-吉尔平（Charles Gilpin）的启发，卡拉穆组织了吉尔平剧团（Gilpin Players），该剧团的前身是大仲马戏剧俱乐部。在整个章节中，马哈拉记录了剧院的无色盲和非传统选角政策，认为这些政策反映了他们所服务的多元化社区。本章展示了卡拉姆在 20 世纪 20 年代制作民间戏剧（农村生活故事）、在 20 世纪 30 年代培养和激励兰斯顿-休斯以及在 20 世纪 30 年代作为联邦剧院制作单位的传奇历史。正如马哈拉所叙述的那样，尽管剧团在早期遇到了一系列挑战（经济大萧条、剧团大楼被大火烧毁、第二次世界大战造成混乱），但剧团还是参与了 20 世纪 60 年代的民权运动和 70 年代的黑人力量运动，并见证了奥古斯特-威尔逊在 20 世纪 80 年代和 90 年代的崛起。在第 2 章中，马哈拉介绍了匹兹堡具有代表性的非裔美国人剧院，这些剧院都受益于他们自己人奥古斯特-威尔逊的惊人成功。她重点关注的剧院包括黑人地平线剧院（成立于 1868 年）、昆图剧团（1974 年）、匹兹堡剧作家剧团（2003 年）和奥古斯特-威尔逊非裔美国人文化中心（2009 年）。这些组织的范围更加广泛，使她能够揭示剧院通过艺术参与黑人力量运动、匹兹堡大学、街头节日、社区提升计划、青年和当地剧作家的情况。第 3 章将读者带向西部，介绍湾区的情况，首先关注的是黑人剧团剧院（Black Repertory Group Theater，成立于 1964 年）。该剧团最初设在唐斯卫理公会纪念教堂并得到其支持，1987 年由市政府和其他社区合作伙伴出资搬迁到加利福尼亚州伯克利的新址。玛哈拉继续在洛林-汉斯贝里剧院（1981 年...
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：评论者 在睡眠的边缘：在睡眠的边缘：移动的图像与沉睡的旁观者》，作者：Jean Ma 王学丽。马瑾著。奥克兰：奥克兰：加州大学出版社，2022 年；第 209 页。一起看电影是一种亲密的仪式，尤其是当我们睡着的时候。在她的著作《在睡眠的边缘》（At the Edges of Sleep：一书中，Jean Ma 以人们熟悉的看电影时睡觉这一行为为切入点，对 20 世纪初至今的电影文化中的注意力、社会性和体现进行了广泛的探讨。泰国艺术家兼电影制作人阿彼察邦-韦拉斯哈古（Apichatpong Weerasethakul）的作品将这一雄心勃勃的研究联系在一起，马氏在全书中多次提到他那令人昏昏欲睡的作品，并以此为试金石，重新思考长期以来关于昏睡观众的理论，并根据另一种睡眠编织的逻辑来理解相关作品。这种概念重构的关键在于对睡眠所能开启的各种关系的全新接受：个人之间、过去与现在之间、人类与非人类之间、生者与死者之间的关系。无论是阿彼察邦对睡眠的灵性 "附身、嬗变和转世"（56），还是艺术装置《黑衣女梦/黑暗中的神灵》（2019）中作为治愈仪式的集体沉睡，马氏都将睡眠解读为一种社会和关系过程，通过这一过程，边界得以软化，能量在自我与他人之间循环。马氏写道："在他人面前入睡，就是心甘情愿地放弃自足和自主的虚构，""承认脆弱和相互依存"（36）。一开始，Ma 就将自己的项目置于近期批评界和流行言论 "转向睡眠 "的背景下，在这一背景下，"传统上对睡眠的怀疑--将其视为时间的小偷、进步的障碍......让位于一种关爱和尊重的态度"（10）。这包括当代艺术中出现的通宵装置；学术界兴起的 "批判性睡眠研究"；以及保健 [完 133 页] 行业中睡眠辅助营销的扩散。乔纳森-克拉里（Jonathan Crary）的《24/7》和阿丽安娜-赫芬顿（Arianna Huffington）的《睡眠革命》（The Sleep Revolution）等不同著作都将睡眠视为一种普遍状况，马女士对这种普遍倾向提出了质疑。她指出，不同种族和性别的权力分配不均如何决定了 "谁的睡眠必须得到保护，谁必须保持清醒才能让其他人休息"，并认为现代失眠的历史与种族资本主义的历史交织在一起，不是从工厂和咖啡馆开始，而是从种植园和殖民地开始（34-35）。马氏的研究旨在从更细微的角度看待睡眠--睡眠在历史上是偶然的，与清醒的生活相互渗透，而非隔绝。在这一过程中，马氏的著作为我们提供了一本关于活动影像观赏史的入门读物；一个在电影与视觉艺术、世界电影与媒体考古学之间进行流畅写作的方法论模型；以及一个如何利用非西方活动影像实践来拷问西方电影与媒体理论前提的范例。本书第一部分追溯了银幕上睡眠和睡眠者的历史，第二部分则对睡眠和观众身份进行了反思。各个章节相互重叠，有时又相互回环，这种结构反映了睡眠本身的多孔性和循环性。这些章节涵盖了重要的历史和概念领域，包括乔治-梅里爱（Georges Méliès）的早期电影、维吉（Weegee）的摄影作品、弗洛伊德关于睡眠的倒退理论，以及西格弗里德-克拉考尔（Siegfried Kracauer）、让-路易-鲍德里（Jean-Louis Baudry）、克里斯蒂安-梅兹（Christian Metz）和其他西方电影理论界有影响力的人物关于麻醉接收的概念。书中穿插了对阿彼察邦等人作品的细读，这些细读打破了人们对睡眠和电影的固有认识，为马氏创造了机会，使既有观点复杂化--例如，电影与梦境的类比、电影的镇静作用--并使辩论的范围超越了根深蒂固的主动与被动、专注与分心的二元对立。事实上，马英九的这本书正是在其细读中大放异彩，它以持续的敏感性带我们深入移动影像作品和观影体验的歧途，了解它们如何打开新的概念视野。追溯梦境的螺旋式上升......
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
以下是内容的简要摘录，以代替摘要：评论者： 表面关系：Vivian L. Huang Takeo Rivera 著 Surface Relations：亚裔美国人不明确性的同性恋形式》。作者：Vivian L. Huang。北卡罗来纳州达勒姆：杜克大学出版社，2022 年；第 240 页。从李约瑟、凯伦-岛川、埃斯特-金-李、约书亚-高野-钱伯斯-莱森、肖恩-梅茨格等学者奠定的基础开始，亚裔美国人表演研究已经成为戏剧和表演研究中不可或缺的子领域。虽然很难说亚裔美国人的表演主观上有什么 "特殊性"，但情感的表演--或被认为缺乏情感的表演--是东方主义和黄色危险的持续种族化和种族主义机制的一个关键方面。毕竟，无情无义、高深莫测的亚洲人是去个性化的焦虑以及相应的卑劣驱逐所寄托的形象。黄薇薇（Vivian L. Huang）的《表面关系》（Surface Relations：黄薇薇的《表面关系：亚裔美国人的同性恋形式》（Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability）直面这一理论问题，将亚裔美国人的表演研究推向了新的高度，对亚裔美国人的同性恋表演艺术和性别理论进行了研究。在这一点上，这篇评论不太可能为黄的专著处女作带来更多的兴奋--《表面关系》是 2023 年兰姆达文学奖 LGBTQ+ 研究奖的提名作品，但直截了当地说，这种兴奋是实至名归的。与书名相反，《表面关系》本身与其说是 "表面"，不如说是 "线"，是由表演、种族和同性恋研究领域迄今为止最重要的线索编织而成的。该书的重要贡献远远超出了表演研究和亚裔美国人研究之间的维恩图解。黄在序言中明确阐述了他们的意图，指出该书 "考虑了少数派美学和情感的不可捉摸性模式，这些模式将形式上的可辨认性与社会政治上的可行性进行了协商"，反过来，这些模式又是 "在将亚裔美国人文化不露面正常化的文化景观中创造世界的重要行为"(2)。黄氏并没有简单地将亚裔化的不可捉摸性谴责为一种应予摒弃的有害刻板印象，而是探讨了不可捉摸性作为亚裔美国人的同性恋表演策略。黄的例子提供了许多不同的策略效果，这些效果因章节而异，有的产生了温柔的同性恋社会关系，有的颠覆了父权制认识论，有的破坏了模范少数族裔的劳资关系。不可破坏性很少激发政治上的战斗性，而是一种更微妙的、近乎秘密的主观和表演逻辑的重新配置。在这方面，《表面关系》与 Sunny Xiang 的《音调的智慧》（Tonal Intelligence：在这方面，《表面关系》与 Sunny Xiang 的《音调的智慧：漫长冷战时期亚洲的不可捉摸性美学》（2020 年）和 Xine Yao 的《心怀不满：尽管档案完全不同，但《表面现象》和姚锡恩的《心怀不满：十九世纪美国无情的文化政治》（2021 年）是近期另一部思考情感平淡的种族化及其救赎性重读的文本。文化研究的政治想象力在很大程度上要归功于何塞-埃斯特万-穆尼奥斯（José Esteban Muñoz）的《异化》（Disidentifications）和《乌托邦巡游》（Cruising Utopia）。事实上，这样的开篇框架可能会诱使读者从表面上理解黄宗智的论点，并在引言处停止阅读，以最有利于自己写作的方式引用最直接的段落，这也是时间紧迫的当代学术界的惯常做法。然而，我想说的是，黄氏的正文章节在很大程度上超越了其开篇论点--厚颜无耻地说，我坚持要深入阅读《表面关系》。不可否认，《表面关系》围绕 "不可捉摸性 "这一主题展开，但黄氏在《表面关系》中的许多精彩内容主要是关于其相关主题的。表面关系》的第二章和第三章就是很好的例子，这两章对亚裔美国人的性别问题进行了多年来最有说服力的理论阐述。第二章--其早期形式曾作为一篇有影响力的论文发表在2018年的《女性与印记》（Women & Performance）上--以行为艺术家小野洋子（Yoko Ono）、中馆劳雷尔（Laurel Nakadate）和艾玛-苏尔科维奇（Emma Sulkowicz）为中心，对亚裔美国女性的 "寄生好客 "进行了深思熟虑、内容丰富的理论阐述。黄巧妙地借鉴雅克-德里达（Jacques Derrida）和米歇尔-塞雷斯（Michel Serres）的观点，为美国亚裔女性提供了一个引人入胜的框架，该框架与过度确定的顺从叙事相互影响，并考虑到同性恋过度行为和对同意的表演性干预所产生的颠覆和破坏......
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
{"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}
<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span> <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
{"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}
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