The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance explores ground-breaking new directions and critical discourse in the field of intercultural theatre and performance while surveying key debates concerning interculturalism as an aesthetic and ethical series of encounters in theatre and performance from the 1960s onwards. The handbook’s global coverage challenges understandings of intercultural theatre and performance that continue to prioritise case studies emerging primarily from the West and executed by elite artists.
By building on a growing field of scholarship on intercultural theatre and performance that examines minoritarian and grassroots work, the volume offers an alternative and multi-vocal view of what interculturalism might offer as a theoretical keyword to the future of theatre and performance studies, while also contributing an energized reassessment of the vociferous debates that have long accompanied its critical and practical usage in a performance context.
By exploring anew what happens when interculturalism and performance intersect as embodied practice, The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance offers new perspectives on a seminal theoretical concept still as useful as it is controversial.
Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including a fully annotated bibliography, this is the essential scholarly handbook for anyone working in intercultural theatre and performance, and performance studies.
Keywords List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Daphne P. Lei (University of California, USA), ‘Chapter One: Introduction’ Section I: HIT (Hegemonic Intercultural Theatre)’s Counter-Currents Marcus Cheng Chye Tan (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), ‘Chapter Two: (Re)Sounding Universals: The Politics of Listening to Peter Brook’s Battlefield’ Emily Sahakian (University of Georgia, USA), ‘Chapter Three: The Intercultural Politics of Performing Revolution: Maryse Condé’s Inter-theatre with Ariane Mnouchkine’ Arnab Banerji (Muhlenberg College, USA) ‘Chapter Four: What lies beyond Hattamala?: Badal Sircar and his Third Theatre as an Alternative Trajectory for Intercultural Theatre’ Section II: Networking New Interculturalisms Bi-qi Beatrice Lei (National Taiwan University, Taiwan), ‘Chapter Five: Decentering Asian Shakespeare: Approaching Intercultural Theatre as a Living Organism’ Diana Looser (Stanford University, USA), ‘Chapter Six: Connecting the Dots: Performances, Island Worlds, and Oceanic Interculturalisms’ Roaa Ali (University of Manchester, UK) ‘Chapter Seven: Subversive Immigrant Narratives in the In/visible Margin: Performing Interculturalism on Online Stages’ Section III: Interculturalism as Practice Jennifer Goodlander (Indiana University, USA), ‘Chapter Eight: Beyond HIT: Towards Regional Interculturalism through Puppetry in Southeast Asia’ SanSan Kwan (University of California, Berkeley, USA), ‘Chapter Nine: Acts of Loving: Emmanuelle Huynh, Akira Kasai, and Eiko Otake’ Angeline Young (Arizona State University, USA), ‘Chapter Ten: reORIENTing interculturalism in the academy: An Asianist Approach to teaching Afro-Haitian dance’ Section IV: Testing the Limits of New Interculturalism Ketu H. Katrak (University of California, USA), ‘Chapter Eleven: Mamela Nyamza and Dada Masilo: South African Black Women Dancer-Choreographers Dancing ‘New Interculturalism’’ Min Tian (University of Illinois, USA), ‘Chapter Twelve: The ‘Dis/De-’ in the Hyphen: The Matrix and Dynamics of Displacement in Intercultural Performance’ Lisa Jackson-Schebetta (Skidmore College, USA), ‘Chapter Thirteen: Interculturalidad: (How) Can Performance Analysis Decolonize?’ Section V: Interculturalism(s): Mapping the Past, Reflecting on the Future Charlotte McIvor National (University of Ireland, Ireland) with Justine Nakase (National University of Ireland, Ireland), ‘Chapter Fourteen: Annotated Bibliography’ Charlotte McIvor (National University of Ireland, Ireland), ‘Chapter Fifteen: Conclusion’ Bibliography Index
Daphne P. Lei is Professor of Drama at the University of California, Irvine, USA. She is internationally known for her work on Chinese opera, Asian American theatre, intercultural theatre, and diasporic and transnational performance. She is the author of many scholarly articles, both in English and Chinese. She has published two books: Operatic China: Staging Chinese Identity across the Pacific (2006) and Alternative Chinese Opera in the Age of Globalization: Performing Zero (2011), and her articles can be seen in many scholarly journals. She is the president of American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR, 2015-2018). Charlotte McIvor is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway, Ireland. She is the author of Migration and Performance in Contemporary Ireland: Towards A New Interculturalism (2016), and the co-editor of Staging Intercultural Ireland: Plays and Practitioner Perspectives (with Matthew Spangler, 2014) and Devised Performance in Irish Theatre: Histories and Contemporary Practice (with Siobhán O’Gorman, 2015).
