Ph.D. - Theatre

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/2166

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Digital Autoethnography and Reflexive Performance: Navigating Intercultural Aesthetics in Practice as Research
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) Felluss, Scott Elias; Miller, Kara Jhalak; Theatre
The dissertation analyzes the correlation that exists between digital fieldwork and artistic practice in Practice-as-Reseach (PaR) in performance studies. In this project, I gathered and compared evidence of digital methodologies against my own solo training and performance across a variety of artistic modalities. My results showed that there was an impactful correlation between the influencing practices of on-line platforms/parties and the performance of embodied interculturality in solo artistic creation by the researcher. The results also revealed that the deployment of web design as a viable form of situated ethnography can lead to enhanced impact on participants as well as ethical problems. The implications of this study could be used to promote performance researchers investigating the deployment of PaR artistic practices and digital mediums as a vital component to ethnographic methodology. The research is a critical examination of the complex dynamics between digital media, cultural representation in performance, and economic forces. It calls for a reevaluation of digital methodologies in academic research, particularly those involving culturally significant artforms.
The Living Newspaper 2.0: A New Hybrid of Traditional Living Newspaper Forms
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) Labagnara, Julie; Stirr, Anna; Theatre
My research focuses on the creation and implementation of the Living Newspaper 2.0, a template for political theatre creation. Drawing from Performance Studies, my research explores theatrical techniques, processes, and innovations of the historical Federal Theatre Project Living Newspaper tradition and the contemporary collaborative creation methods of The Crossroads: A Prison Cabaret. Based on this research and through the Performance as Research process, I developed the Living Newspaper 2.0, a step-by-step guide for developing a contemporary Living Newspaper production that addresses a specific socio-political issue. Through Performance as Research, the Living Newspaper 2.0 was put through a real-world trial that assessed the template’s efficiency. Implementing the Living Newspaper 2.0 yielded Always Present, Rarely Recognized, a Living Newspaper on Misogyny and its negative consequences. The process consisted of experimentations in theatre devising, script format, theatre methods, and the integration of technology and theatre. The entire process is thoroughly documented in seven appendices that accompany this dissertation. These are evidence of the impact of the play and who that the Living Newspaper 2.0 template is having the intended results. This dissertation draws from theatre history, documentary theatre, political theatre, and collaborative creation processes. It contributes to Canadian Theatre History by providing the first scholarly analysis of the collaborative creation practices utilized in The Crossroads: A Prison Cabaret. However, its main contribution lies in the conversations between these four fields. The development of the Living Newspaper 2.0 offers educators, theatre practitioners, and community activists an accessible template that addresses the issues affecting their communities. The template guides users from onset-to-completion in the creation of an educational, political theatre production that is rooted in the historical Living Newspaper traditions yet adapted to utilize present-day resources for production, with the goal of creating a more inclusive world.
STAGING CHINESE DANCING BODIES: BEIJING DANCE ACADEMY AND ITS CROSS-CENTURY PERFORMANCES, EXCHANGES, AND PRACTICES
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) An, Yi; Miller, Jhalak JKM; Theatre
This dissertation examines a century of Chinese dancers’ bodily citizenship from the 1920s to the 2020s with emphasis on accounts of dance instruction and artistic exchange at the Beijing Dance Academy through a review of historical dance photo and newspaper archives, data collection of lived experiences in artistic practice, and oral history interviews. Engaging with Dance and Performance theory and through an analysis of bodily movement practices, the research examines Chinese moving bodies in and across national borders through a process of shaping how these bodies are performed with new visibility in the People’s Republic of China. As a social group, Chinese dancers residing in urban cities in China disrupted socio-spatial structures of gender through choreography, performance, and interactions during the last century. By utilizing Performance Studies as an approach, this dissertation elevates unheard historical narratives and body performance to re-stage the socialist performing body as a national performance in itself. Highlighted are the observations and voices of ordinary dancing bodies and groups in city spaces where their voices and stories are given value in the research process. How do Chinese dancers participate in national projects and embody bio-diversified movements as props to dwell in urban city spaces? What does it mean for Chinese dancers and their dancing bodies to perform the in-between spaces as a whole? Each chapter presents diverse perspectives that analyze the Chinese body as a process of performance that complicates the conventional notion of a moving body. As the first doctoral dissertation to re-stage Chinese dancing bodies at the Beijing Dance Academy through a first-person account and experience, this dissertation challenges the historical archives, bodily memories, and socialist ideologies and uplifts embodied movement research on scholarship and artistic motion in China. Shifting in and out of this performative process, the research not only aims to understand the Chinese body in a mobile form of moving through different times, spaces, and historical experiences but also serves as a translation of emerging Chinese historical dance accounts and exchanges that occurred between China and the US in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Blurring the Color Line: Disrupting Race, Gender, and Historical Narratives Through Documentary Film
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Kwok, Crystal Lee; Miller, Kara; Theatre
Disrupting the predominantly Black-and-White narrative of America’s racial history, I complicate this binary structure by examining the lives of Chinese families who ran grocery stores in the Black neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia during Jim Crow. I present my research in the form of a documentary film, using visual language as a privileged medium for critical analysis. Challenging conventional modes of knowledge production, Blurring the Color Line presents itself as a form of radical scholarship at the intersections of history, memory, and the politics of framing. I argue for using Blur as Method, to dwell in liminal spaces in search for deeper knowledge. This documentary presents a performative way of understanding how history is produced and what forms of power are at play. I question how race performs, how hidden voices speak, and what the women’s stories reveal. The Chinese complicated America’s racial history. Their invisibility marks the power systems which I address in the film. Through the women’s stories, I entangle the Chinese immigrant experience with African American history. Situating myself in the film with my partial perspective, I present a vulnerability that exposes both the power and fragility of voice. Blurring the Color Line not only privileges the silent spaces as a critical lens on racism, but interrogates the very system that perpetuates the unequal distribution of power. Through a critical analysis of my process in the making of the film, this dissertation illuminates the complex and political process of knowledge production while breaking boundaries in scholarship around racial and historical narratives.
Metanoia And Our Legacy: The Fostering Of Student Agency Through Devised Theatre Education
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Poblete, Mike; Wessendorf, Markus; Theatre
Education is in many ways a by-product of life. As global discourse continues to push towards reform that would allow populations around the world increased agency over their lives, one of the most critical conversations in education today concerns how to allow students greater agency over their own learning. Scholars like Paulo Freire argue that the capacity of students to be able to assert power over their own learning processes is critical for those of underserved backgrounds so that they might become masters of their own thinking and, by extension, potentially their lives. While research into this area continues to expand, little of it focuses on theatre education, and almost none explores the agentive potential of devised theatre. This collaborative performance methodology emphasizes multiple perspectives and encourages non-verbal artistic forms. In this dissertation, I present the results of an exploratory, multiple-case study designed to examine how two groups of public high school students on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu asserted agency during the spring and autumn of 2021 within two devised theatre classrooms: one online and one in-person. Working with established devised methodologies, creative writing, improvisation, various theatre games, and a new dramaturgical methodology, the participants created two digital performances exploring contemporary issues, largely in relation to the impact COVID-19 had on their community. Based on quantitative and qualitative analyses of survey results, group interviews, and field observations, I argue that a devised theatre educational methodology aimed at allowing students as much agency as possible has the potential to celebrate student cultural differences as assets, to validate student efforts outside of the classroom, and to foster collaborative learning over remote learning environments. Further, I believe that the collaborative nature of devised theatre allows for the cultivation of different forms of agency, including those that arise both individually and collectively. Finally, I make the case that the flexibility and adaptability of devising make it a formidable learning methodology in an increasingly shifting and unpredictable world; and as a result, it has the potential to play an essential role in the ongoing discourse on student agency and broad educational reform in the twenty-first century classroom.
Locale, Liminality, And Legitimacy In Contemporary Sagi Kyōgen: Conceptualizing Tradition Outside Kyōgen’s Professional World
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Rogals, Frederick Alex; Iezzi, Julie A.; Theatre
This dissertation looks at the history of the Sagi style of kyōgen, its transformation into a regionalized non-professional art form in the Meiji Period (1868-1912), and the contemporary practice of its current artists. An initial goal of this work is to correct a common misconception that Sagi kyōgen ceased in the Meiji period. It did not; it merely became something which operates outside the institutionalized model of professional kyōgen. That being said, activity outside the professional sphere is not a simple matter of either/or, and contemporary Sagi kyōgen’s in-between status is the source of many dilemmas within the practice of contemporary Sagi kyōgen itself. As such, a primary goal of this work is to examine the liminal space in which contemporary Sagi kyōgen practitioners operate. As they are not part of the professional world, one might be inclined to simply call them amateurs or enthusiasts. However, unlike amateurs, contemporary Sagi kyōgen performers have been tasked with preserving Sagi kyōgen’s traditions and, like the professionals, are responsible for passing on their knowledge to the next generation of actors. Moreover, as contemporary Sagi kyōgen has no headmaster (iemoto), this has created a host of conundrums regarding how issues of authenticity, legitimacy and overall preservation of traditions are approached. As such, another crucial objective of this thesis is to illustrate how regionalization, in particular, has served as a surrogate for the iemoto system, informing contemporary Sagi kyōgen practice, preservation and performance.
Monstrous Wives, Murderous Lovers, and Dead Wet Girls: Examining the Feminine Vengeful Ghost in Japanese Traditional Theatre and Horror Cinema
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Yoo, Jennifer Mia; Iezzi, Julie A.; Theatre
As in many cultures, woman is often portrayed as monstrous or evil by the sheer fact of her being female. Today, no Japanese horror film is considered complete without its haunting woman specter, the female onryō, or “vengeful ghost” archetype. Barbara Creed’s writings on the “monstrous feminine” illustrates an innate connection of “affinity” between woman and monster as “potent threats to vulnerable male power.” Although when writing Creed was referring to Western horror cinema, the same theories can be extended to Japanese media. By analyzing elements of narrative style, visual representation, and enactment style of this archetype found in Japanese theatre forms nō and kabuki compared to Japanese horror films, it becomes apparent that the female onryō reflects views of the feminine identity in Japanese society. Contrary to the portrayal of the male, only after these women have become “monstrous” can they break free from sociocultural limitations and act on their vengeance. Their frightening and grotesque forms, however, invoke more terror and horror than sympathy, transforming the victims into the villains. Despite the change in norms of Japanese society over time, the way these female onryō are presented remains arguably consistent, positioning them as more “monsters” and “freaks” than women. More significant is the tendency to associate these characters with feminine traits or behavior, thereby transforming them into something grotesque, extending the association of horror to woman herself. In so doing, the female onryō may have helped serve as a means of patriarchal control prescribing women’s behavior, perhaps explaining the archetype’s continued prevalence in media.
Transforming Novice Learners into Experts through Performance, Reproduction, and Representation: A Performance Studies Analysis of High-Fidelity Simulation in Healthcare Education
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2021) Munro, Alexander; Wessendorf, Markus; Theatre
Simulation is a major component in healthcare education and utilizes many performance-based practices, especially when it includes trained actors to perform as patients receiving simulated care by healthcare learners. The literature that guides the processes of these “high-fidelity” simulations is mostly written from a healthcare perspective, even when the authors are discussing concepts related to performance and theater. This dissertation seeks to address this imbalance by identifying and exploring a wide array of themes that emerge when simulation in healthcare education is framed as a performance, including immersivity, liveness, perceptual multistability, improvisation, and performativity. These themes are grounded on the twin concepts of representation and reproduction to highlight the degree to which simulation shapes its participants and the world they inhabit. What is represented and reproduced – and how it is done through simulation – has a high potential to be replicated in healthcare practice with actual patients. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic, which took place in the final two years of writing this dissertation, disrupted the status quo and challenged many of the practices and theories that long informed simulation pedagogy and performance studies. This disruption, however, created the opportunity to reimagine our respective disciplines and thus improve our practices. Ultimately, this dissertation highlights the performative, interpretive, and performance aspects at play within simulation in healthcare education so that simulation producers can further enhance the intentionality of what they represent and reproduce at their facilities. This can only lead to better outcomes for their learners and for the healthcare community.
Examining International-Mindedness in the International Baccalaureate Theatre Program
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2021) Eleftherakis, Christa Francine; Pauka, Kirstin; Theatre
This dissertation seeks clear identification of how and where the concept of international-mindedness is measurably embedded in the IB Theatre course and assessments. This research will introduce the overall International Baccalaureate (IB) Program and its Diploma Program Theatre course, including the relevant histories and stated aims of each. It will 1) explain the significance of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), 2) establish the IBO as a major world leader as a generator of, and contributor to, international education (Hill), and 3) identify the relative underdevelopment of the international theatre education field. The IBO claims that studying Theatre, specifically through their Diploma Program course, promotes “international-mindedness” (IBO Guide 16). As such, the research critically analyzes the IBO’s Theatre Guide, the syllabus from which all IB Theatre courses are derived, to determine how the IB’s criteria for international-mindedness appear within the course. The research concentrates on revealing the impact the IB Theatre Guide’s structure and content has on implementing international-mindedness within the course, as opposed to a case study into particular institutional or learner interpretations of the concept. The research identifies both foundational strengths and incongruencies in the IB Theatre Guide’s application of international-mindedness, specifically misalignments between the IB Program’s coursework and assessments, and their objectives. Stakeholders of the program may only gain a partial (or limited or narrow) perception of international-mindedness that falls short of the IBO’s full definition. Consequently this constrains the full realization of the course content, student learning outcomes, and the concept's true potential. Given these findings, the analysis resulted in an investigation into how the IBO could preserve and strengthen these functional and beneficial aspects of the course, while improving specific underdeveloped aspects. Four appendices are provided. Appendix A is an IBO-generated image illustrating its “IB Learner Profile.” Appendix B is an IBO-generated image illustrating changing educational trends of the 1960s. Appendix C includes Zina O’Leary’s original checklist for textual analysis. Appendix D includes O’Leary’s original checklist pertaining to document analysis.
Gendering Male Dan: Jingju Male Cross-gender Performers And Performance In The Post-cultural Revolution Era
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) Ma, Yan; Wichmann-Walczak, Elizabeth A.; Theatre
The term male dan in this dissertation refers to the male actors who specialize in dan roles or female roles in jingju (Beijing/Peking “opera”). Female actors who act female roles are called female dan in this study. Male dan were instrumental in the development of jingju, beginning with the origin of this art form in the late eighteenth century. The socialist government that established the People’s Republic of China in 1949 had a negative attitude toward cross-gender performances, viewing them as the products of a feudal society; female dan artists who inherited the male dan legacy therefore became predominant in dan role performance after 1949. Public xiqu (Chinese “opera”/traditional Chinese theatre) training schools established in the 1950s did not accept male dan students. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), male dan who trained before 1949 almost disappeared from the stage. In the post-Cultural Revolution era (1976 to the present), the official attitude toward male dan has not been explicitly conveyed or implicitly suggested by the Party: this ambiguous attitude neither actively supports nor restricts the development of male dan. Starting in the late 1970s, male dan who had been trained before 1949 gradually returned to the stage. However, xiqu training schools remained closed to male dan. In addition to the lingering political sensitivity of male dan development, the social prejudice toward gender and sexual minorities was also a critical obstacle hindering the development of male dan, who were therefore stigmatized both morally and politically. After the 2000s, an increasingly open political and social environment allowed for the emergence of new male dan who explored various training and performance opportunities. Through the combined efforts of male dan and male dan advocates, a few of the new male dan were accepted by jingju training schools and state-run jingju troupes. Successfully established new male dan pursued the male dan identity by negotiating with various institutional and social obstacles and enhanced their male dan identity by cautiously adhering to the male dan tradition created by male dan masters both onstage and offstage. One of the crucial factors in the success of these new male dan is the belief shared among male dan and male dan advocates that male dan performance has its unique values and characteristics which cannot be replicated by female dan. Unlike female dan, who may have to make a fair amount of adjustment to adapt the stylized vocal and physical performance skills and techniques created by male dan to their own circumstances, in the process of imitative learning, male dan may imitate much more directly. In dan role performance, male dan are believed to have more potential for approaching the ideal, refined and stylized beauty established by the male dan tradition. Though the 2010s ushered in an era of a firmer recognition of the unique value of male dan art, and a comparatively more relaxed political and social environment for male dan, xiqu schools were still, in general, not open to accepting male dan students.
Return of the Soul: Inheritance and Innovation in the Process of Artistic Creation in Major Kunqu Productions in the People’s Republic of China, 2001-2015
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Yang, Ming; Wichmann-Walczak, Elizabeth A.; Theatre
As a significant form of Xiqu (Chinese indigenous theatre), Kunqu (昆曲, lit. ―Kun song‖) dominated Chinese stages nationwide for nearly two hundred years, remains a national theatre form, and is a representative art form of China‘s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), as designated by UNESCO in 2001. In this dissertation, I examine ten major Kunqu productions staged in mainland China between 2001 and 2015, as case studies of contemporary Kunqu development. Compared to Kunqu plays created prior to the 21st century, these ten productions display both similarities and differences. The similarities evidence the literary and performance traditions of Kunqu that have been preserved through inheritance and transmission, whereas the differences exemplify innovations in the literary, performance, and design aspects, including scenic and costume design. At the same time, similarities and differences also exist among those productions. The differences are primarily the result of distinctive choices made by the artists involved, as well as specific conditions for artistic creation. The commonalities consist of shared departures from tradition in literary, performance, and design aspects, innovations that may eventually transform into elements of the Kunqu tradition, and be inherited and transmitted in the future.
Kūnqǔ In Practice: A Case Study
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Wei, Ju-Hua; Wichmann-Walczak, Elizabeth A.; Theatre
Kūnqǔ 崑曲, a scholar-oriented elite musical theatre, is enjoying a renaissance which began after its recognition on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2001. This dissertation is a case study of a 2015 kūnqǔ production based on a newly-created dramatic text, The Sage of Kūnqǔ: Wèi Liángfǔ (Qǔ shèng Wèi Liángfǔ 曲聖魏良輔). The process of mounting the new kūnqǔ play from initial script to fully-staged production is detailed, and the ways in which essential traditional dramatic principles of kūnqǔ were referenced, understood, and applied by the artists involved are analyzed. My argument is then pursued through a comparison of the essential principles with the creative process for The Sage of Kūnqǔ: Wèi Liángfǔ, in which elements of the classic dramatic principles were changed due to creative decisions made by directors, composer, and lead actors. The criticism of hidden causes and results behind the production such as interpersonal and intergenerational conflicts and an overview of the initial purpose for which this production was envisioned—to serve a ceremonial role for kūnqǔ festivals—are examined, five years after its premiere. This case study, as an in-depth chronicle, has resulted in a critical review of the current challenges facing kūnqǔ innovation.
The Intercultural Process of Creating Jingju Adaptations of Western Literature in the 21st Century
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Lin, Yining; Wichmann-Walczak, Elizabeth A.; Wessendorf, Markus; Theatre
This dissertation examines the methods and process of creating jingju adaptations of Western Literature highlighted through five case studies: Zhuli Xiaojie (《朱丽小姐》Miss Julie), Xiaoli zhisi (《小吏之死》The Little Servant Who Died), Woyicaike (《沃伊采克》Woyzeck), Fushide (《浮士德》Faust), and Shengmuyuan/Qingshang zhonglou (《圣母院》/《情殇钟楼》Notre Dame de Paris). These case studies presented unique and different challenges, which were solved with a variety of adaptation methods in pursuit of two unofficial but pervasive goals: 1) to creatively challenge and inspire jingju artists and 2) to bring in younger and new audiences in order to revitalize jingju. In order to face the specific challenges for each production, the creative teams, made up of actors, playwrights, composers, directors, and set, costume, and lighting designers, utilized different methods of adaptation ranging from changing the cultural context from the West to China, to mixing Western and jingju conventions, to bending jingju’s Four Main Skills and role categories. The methods, utilized by the National China Jingju Company and the Shanghai Jingju Company, and the dynamics of their respective creative teams are analyzed via Marvin Carlson’s Seven Intercultural Relationships, which highlights the varying relationships of intercultural theatre. In the 21st century, jingju practitioners are choosing to remain in the Chinese cultural context, creating jingju performances that revitalize jingju as a form of Cultural Nationalism, while also adhering to traditional jingju traditions and practices.
The Bhāva Process: An Approach to Understanding the Process of Characterization in the Nāṭyaśāstra
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Leukhardt, Joshua M.; Pauka, Kirstin; Theatre
This dissertation analyzes and applies the characterization process found in the Nāṭyaśāstra to introduce and promote accessibility to Sanskrit play production, or theatre performance connected with the terminology and characterization concepts in the Nāṭyaśāstra. The aim of this work is to provide an accessible guide for theatre practitioners unfamiliar or unacquainted with this genre of theatre. This study first lays out a context and theoretical foundation of rasa and bhāva, specifying their roles as theatrical elements and systemizing their procedural objectives in a production. This analysis presents Rasa Theory to practitioners or theatre scholars not accustomed with Sanskrit poetics, or philosophy. Then the “Bhāva Process” of characterization, developed from chapters 6 and 7 of the Nāṭyaśāstra, is correlated with terms and concepts from the Stanislavski System in order to relate the Natyasastra terminology to Western acting terms and concepts. Based on those concepts and prescriptions, two application models, the “Generic Temperament Chart” and an “Individualized Temperament Chart,” provide specific attributes, traits, and action choices the performer employs in developing characterization. These models are put into practice using examples primarily from the classical Sanskrit play, Śākuntala. The findings reveal similarities of the “Bhāva Process” to contemporary Western characterization approaches. The findings also show the usefulness of the Temperament Charts in deciphering the codification found in the Nāṭyaśāstra and reveal that the creation of an archetypal character has more flexibility than the restrictiveness suggested in the Nāṭyaśāstra. The dissertation prompts a re-thinking of using this ancient process, moving forward to application and production.
Carving Out a New Future: Waying Kulit Craftsmanship in Central Java, Indonesia
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2018-05) Tannenbaum, Kristina; Theatre
Wayang kulit puppets hold an intriguing position as not only a principle element or ‘actor’ in a major theatrical form but also as a marketable handicraft in Indonesia. This dissertation focuses on creating a cohesive history of wayang kulit craftsmanship in Central Java and analyzing how growing tourism in Central Java is shifting the creation process, aesthetics, and use of wayang kulit puppets in the region. Using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines influences from theatre, material culture, and oral history the project is broken down into four main sections: the history of wayang kulit craftsmanship and modern adaptations in the process; an analysis of how tourism and policy have influenced these changes; the development of business and puppet typologies; and finally, a larger analysis of how changes in craftsmanship might affect wayang kulit as a whole. This dissertation not only provides a history of traditional puppetry craftsmanship but examines and documents the current processes of wayang kulit production in Central Java, Indonesia. This includes innovations in training, materials, design, tools, carving, and painting. Additionally, this work examines how growing tourism has affected the methods, creativity, and business models of wayang kulit craftsmen in the area. Outside of creating a cohesive craftsmanship history, the ultimate goal of this research is that the new typologies developed in this work might be used more broadly in discerning how craftsmen’s views of tourism and tourism-induced changes to their art play into the view of ‘authenticity’ in handicraft markets, how tourism might drastically affect the future of puppetry, and how tourism might play a part in preventing some art forms from diminishing across Southeast Asia.
Cải lương theatre through the oral/life history of its performers
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2013-05) Nguyen, Trinh Kim
Cải lương, or "reformed theatre", came into being at the turn of the twentieth century when Vietnamese people and customs encountered aspects of Western culture introduced by the French. Among Cải lương's defining characteristics is its openness to many sources, its constant changing appearance and scope, and its diverse interpretation and employment in different eras and places, making its' identity as an artistic form easily identifiable and yet hard to pin down historically. This dissertation begins to tease apart the complex layers of cải lương, and presents a comprehensive overview of the artistic and historical development of cải lương as a theatrical form, with special consideration of the spoken narratives of cải lương performers interviewed. The birth and development of cải lương has always been tightly linked to the many historical changes of Vietnam. Therefore, the Vietnamese history under focus in relationship cải lương is divided into three main periods: 1) the French presence in Vietnam at the start of the early twentieth century (1900-1945); 2) the First Indochina War until the introduction of the open door policy called đối mới (1945-1986); and 3) the post U.S.-Vietnam War era until the early twenty-first century (2000-2010). In doing so, I investigate how historical changes over these periods in Vietnam have influenced the production, performance, and reception of this unique aesthetic form. As equally important is how the lives of those who have been involved in cải lương have been affected. These personal narratives gathered are then used to analyze and interpret the challenges that cải lương is confronted with today. Through the eyes of a small group of highly respected cải lương performers my goal is to better understand the history of cải lương, shed some light on the state of the theatrical form today and to further understand this rich element of Vietnamese culture.
Kamron Gunatilaka and the Crescent Moon Theatre: contemporary Thai theatre as political dissent
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2010-12) Jungwiwattanaporn, Parichat
The cultural and political hegemony constructed by Thailand's centralized administration has exercised considerable influence on cultural expression, including theatre, which has been dominated by government directives and by the aesthetics and ideologies espoused by ruling elites. Nevertheless, certain folk/popular traditional and contemporary performing arts have resisted this domination. As a pioneer in the People's Theatre during the student-led political uprising in the 1970s, Kamron Gunitilaka (1946-), co-founder of the Crescent Moon Theatre Group, has dedicated himself to creating original and innovative theatre works that challenge hegemonic norms. Arguing that theatre is a cultural phenomenon dependent upon its sociopolitical contexts, this dissertation uses representative works of Kamron to explore the possibilities of theatre as a voice of dissent. This dissertation articulates the roles of Kamron's theatre through the trajectories of history, aesthetics, politics and philosophy. First, it relates Kamron's biography to his theatre profession, and to the democracy movement. Juxtaposing examples of state-imposed aesthetics and hegemonic elite theatre, it traces the history of the People's Theatre movement and the Crescent Moon Theatre, both of which offer alternative content and aesthetics. Second, it offers an in-depth analysis of Kamron's representative productions based on specific aesthetic concepts (i.e. Buddhist-Brechtian, Buddhist-Artaudian, and postmodern) in relation to his political and philosophical thought. Third, by analyzing the ideological, philosophical, and political implications in Kamron's work, this dissertation demonstrates that theatre, as a signifying system, can challenge and criticize the existing hegemony and even call for revolutionary action.
Staging identity: the intracultural theater of Hawaii
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-08) Choy, Sammie L.
The theater of contemporary Hawaii has never had an extensive study, nor have its characteristics been separated out from under the all-inclusive term, "Asian American." The term is neither precise nor accurate when applied to Hawaii or its theater. This study was prompted by the incongruity of a Hawaiian-themed play by a Native Hawaiian playwright published in an Asian American theater anthology. Oddly, there was no acknowledgement in the collection's introduction of the dissonance between the Conversion of Kaahumanu and the Asian American plays. It is only in the brief explanatory text directly pertaining to Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl's play that the indigenous is addressed at all--most of the introduction is concerned with political and cultural issues specifically concerning Asian Americans in the United States (Hawaii is not separated out). This inclusion suggested several conclusions--that indigeneity is considered either subordinate or equivalent to immigrant status; that the "Asian American experience" is the same nationwide that cultural coherence may be imposed by the demographically dominant; and that the theatrical output of Pacific and Oceania may be arbitrarily subsumed by Asian America. Challenging these assumptions required that theater in Hawaii be analyzed as a discrete category. I use Rustom Bharucha's nomenclature of "intracultural theater" to characterize Hawaii's theater in order to account for the proximity of both the Local and the Hawaiian, and Stuart Hall's identity theorizing to account for Hawaii's combination of the fluid and the immutable. In order to theatrize the Hawaiian separately, I use Manulani Aluli Meyer's system of Hawaiian epistemology, as well as Native American literary theory. I explore the use of languages--Hawaiian, Hawaii Creole English, and Standard English--and situate the plays in their historical, political, and cultural specificity. The Local plays are analyzed for commonalities in the social imaginary they represent that of people mainly of color--many times of Asian ancestry, sometimes Hawaiian, sometimes Caucasian--whose history of conflict, accomodation, colonialism, and immigration is reflected in a unique body of theatrical work.
The power of image: Hijikata Tatsumi's scrapbooks and the art of buto
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008) Wurmli, Kurt
Hijikata Tatsumi (1928-1986) is the acclaimed founder of the performance art genre commonly known as buto. After an initial experimental period spanning the late 1950s to the mid 1960s he concentrated his artistic efforts on directing, choreographing and teaching buto using his own creative system, called buto-fu or "buto scrapbooks." Like many visual artists Hijikata collected and arranged existing (found) images and composed sixteen scrapbooks. The scrapbooks served Hijikata as a medium to create, explore and reflect on his buto. While making up his scrapbooks Hijikata applied established fine art techniques such as collage, montage and pastiche to isolate, emphasize or synthesize visual and artistic qualities of the images. These techniques were also reflected in the structure of his performances, where Hijikata borrowed, adapted and adopted images from seemingly opposite worlds and genres to construct a genuinely new stage world.
Lending their strength: The survival of professional lakhon phut samai mai in Bangkok through strong female characters
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008) Maneerat, Kulthida
Bangkok's Dass Entertainment and Patravadi Theatre are the epitome of professional lakhon phut samai mai, or modern spoken drama, in Thailand. These two pioneering professional troupes have survived for more than fifteen years where other theatres have failed after a few short years of operation. In this dissertation, I examine how the survival of these two professional troupes may be attributed to their primary focus on the depiction of phuying kraeng, or strong female characters. The term phuying kraeng is used in this study to refer to mentally strong and independent women who are the embodiment of samai mai, or modernity, within the Thai dramatic context. Chapter two provides a brief historical overview of lakhon phut samai mai and the emergence of professional troupes, focusing on the social and economic factors that shaped the operations of Dass Entertainment and Patravadi Theatre. For the purposes of this study, I delineate three chronological periods based primarily on the historical narratives of these two companies in order to demonstrate the evolution of professional lakhon phut samai mai. The three periods are the Formative Period (1990--1993), the Popular Period (1994--1997), and the Recessive Period (1998--2002).

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