NEH
Faculty Development Workshops: “Asian Culture Through Theater” was
held at the University of Redlands, during the spring semester, 2006. The
first workshop was scheduled for February 3-5, 2006, with Professor Leonard
Pronko (Pomona College) and Professor Carol
Sorgenfrei (UCLA), while the
second workshop was scheduled for March 10-12, 2006, with Professor Betty
Bernhard (Pomona College) and Professor Kathy
Foley (UC Santa Cruz).
25 participants were selected from a large pool of applicants. They came from
15 primarily undergraduate institutions in nine states. Although the majority
of participants are from the U.S. Southwestern region, some traveled from as
far as Alaska, Georgia and Pennsylvania. They also represented a wide range of
discipline
in humanities, including theater, literature, cultural studies, history, religious
studies, music, cultural anthropology and education.
Over all, workshops were a great success, thanks to our wonderful presenters,
who generously shared their knowledge and expertise in Asian theater with us,
and the participants who traveled all the way to Redlands twice during the semester
and actively engaged in workshop activities.
Workshop I: Traditional Japanese Theater (detailed
schedule)
The first workshop on traditional Japanese theater took place from February
3-5, 2006. Professor Sawa Kurotani (University of Redlands) served as the
workshop coordinator. On the first day of workshop, Professor Pronko and
Professor Sorgenfrei provided historical and cultural background to three
major traditional theaters: noh, kabuki and bunraku. They also examined
the cross-fertilization that took place between these three theater forms,
and considered cultural and religious values represented in them. In the
evening, Professor Pronko gave a keynote speech on the comparative analysis
of western and non-western theater, entitled, “From Dinner Theatre
to Theatrical Feasts,” which provided a broader scholarly context
to the significance of this workshop series.
On the second day of workshop, Professor Sorgenfrei gave a presentation
on the significance of traditional theater in today’s Japan, including
its impact on contemporary theater and fusion theater. In the afternoon,
Professor
Pronko led us in the physical exercise of kabuki movements. This presentation
was extremely useful in allowing participants to engage in experiential learning,
to understand, not only in our minds but also in our bodies, how kabuki, and
more generally Japanese theater arts, is based upon a very different conception
of beauty, gender differences, and class distinction, as we attempted to portray
these conceptual distinctions through physical movement.
The last day of workshop was dedicated to processing the learning experience
of the first two days and considering how the contents of this workshop may
translate into curricular enrichment. Participants spent 45 minutes in small
breakout groups, brainstorming how their newly acquired knowledge of traditional
Japanese theater may change their teaching in their particular pedagogical
context.
Workshop II: South and Southeast Asian Theater (detailed
schedule)
The second workshop on South and Southeast Asian theater, with a focus on
India and Indonesia, took place from March 10-12, 2006. Professor Karen Derris
(University of Redlands) served as the workshop coordinator. On the first
day of the workshop, Professor Bernhard spoke on the theater tradition of
India. The morning session focused on basics of Indian theater, including
religious themes, narrative structure, symbolism and movement. In the afternoon,
we further explored the significance of theater in today’s Indian culture,
with a particular emphasis on theater as a form of social commentary and
protest.
The second day of the workshop began with the presentation by Professor Victoria
Lewis (University of Redlands), who introduced teaching resources for Asian
theater that were available to U.S. educators, and suggested some creative
use of popular visual material to teach Asian theater to undergraduate students.
Professor Lewis’ presentation was followed by stimulating sessions on
Indonesian theater by Professor Foley. In her first session on masked theater,
Professor Foley focused on the importance of archetypes in Indonesian theater
and the cosmological significance of numbers. In her second session, she continued
to discuss Indonesian puppet theater and emphasized the flexible ways in which
it has adapted to contemporary social settings and modern needs. Participants
were encouraged to take part in the sample performance , through which they
were able to learn first-hand how archetypes not only inform the performance
and narrative structure, but also influence social interaction in Indonesian
culture more broadly.
The final day of the second workshop was set aside for the concluding workshop
to reflect on the outcomes of two workshops, and start thinking about concrete
ways in which these outcomes can be utilized in specific teaching situations.
Participants formed three focus groups according to their teaching needs: 1) “Introduction
to Non-Western Theater” group; 2) “Introduction to Humanities” group;
and 3) “Introduction to Asian Civilization” group. While each group
identified unique challenges and creative solutions for these different types
of courses, several common themes emerged.
First, the inclusion of or focus on Japanese, Indonesian and/or Indian theater
will significantly increase the cultural diversity of curricular contents in
all these category of courses. More specifically, the diverse cultural values,
beliefs and worldviews that are represented in these different theater forms
create an opportunity for students to consider a variety of ways in which culture
and history impact human experience.
Secondly, all groups pointed out the importance of experiential learning through
the study of physical movement and participation in performative exercises,
and how beneficial it would be to incorporate such a component in our teaching.
Finally, development of teaching resources was identified as a critical factor
in future curricular development. While the material used in this workshop
series and the list of Asian Theater teaching resources presented by Professor
Lewis provided a good starting point, there are many other resources to be
explored.
