Working Backwards?

Okay, so this was due last night, but there was a little bit of mis-communication in my group with The Spirit and I found out about the lock-in later than other people... so... I didn't have time to write it last night as I thought I would. So I'll just do this now and put in double the amount of effort into note-making.

As for the title of my post, seeing as we're starting from the end of the book, it seemed appropriate, albeit a little uncreative...

Chapter 16: Contemporary Trends
- Diversity and Eclecticism are definitely the two words to describe modern theater, and just as a more personal note, those are two things I hope to interject into my daily life. It's the stuff that makes life interesting, isn't it?

-Theater most certainly does reflect the complexity of life, because it's something that changes with those who perform it...

-(1960s to 1970s) I didn't know there was a subgenre for Asian American Theater, but the history is fascinating! So cultural and ethnic awareness gave life to a new form of theater.
     -1965: East West Players in Los Angeles
     -1973: The Asian Exclusion Act in Seattle
     -1973: The Asian-American Theatre Workshop
     -1977: The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York (Director-Actor Tisa Chang, 1945--)
     -1980: Song for a Nisea Fisherman (Philip Kan Gotanda, 1950--)


-David Harry Hwang (1957--) is interesting and has enough information to deserve his own bullet-point. He was the son of first-generation Americans who immigrated from China to California, and wrote several plays that have earned worldwide recognition:
     -1980: FOB
     -1981: The Dance and the Railroad
     -1988: Mr. Butterfly in Broadway, which seems to be a rather fascinating play! Homosexuality is a      controversial issue that still has yet to be resolved today, so to have a man fall in love with another man (even if he believed the subject of his interest a woman) was probably a risky move at the time, particularly when it's based on a true story.
     -1996: Golden Child
     -2003: The Sound of a Voice, a collaboration with Philip Glass - this is rather interesting because I believe I am familiar with Glass' works! I've particularly enjoyed a rather inspiring collection of his works that I believe was entitled Metamorphosis.
     -1996: I found this terribly fascinating! Yes, there has been much dispute over ethnicity and casting, and I've seen far too many movies and theater productions where Asian, Native American, and Middle-Eastern roles are played by Caucasian actors. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with actors playing other ethnicities, but I think Hwang and his comrade B.D. Wong were brave and justified in their protest against an English actor for the leading role in Miss Saigon. Nowadays, this is less of a problem, but I still believe that other ethnicities could better be incorporated into mainstream productions.

-Interestingly enough, I don't recall ever watching any form of Hispanic Theater. That is something I will have to rectify shortly in the future. It's interesting to see how Hispanic Theater has been grouped by the names of the people who practice it, going by "Chicano", "Cuban American", and "Puerto Rican"/"Nuyorican" Theater.  I'll need clarification on the exact cultural distinction between the three and whether a Cuban American production put on by say, a Korean cast would still be called Cuban American theater.

-Whereas I am unfamiliar with Hispanic Theater, Native American Theater has always thrilled me! I hope we'll be experimenting with it at some point during this course. I knew that traditional Native American Theater had spiritual and cultural elements that are just so enlightening to explore, but I hadn't known of any modern renditions of the art (although I should have expected it) so this is a rather pleasant surprise. I was also surprised to see strong overlaps with Feminist Theater... and that being said...

-Feminist Theater and LGBT Theater are of large interest to me because it demonstrates how art and theater can express and challenge the views of society and bring about change. In my spare time, I plan to explore these sides of theater further and look up the plays mentioned, sch as The Boys in the Band - it's interesting because I believe that this was mentioned in a history fact book that I read for a research assignment last year.

-I greatly enjoyed reading the history of performance art, and found it extremely interesting how it is said to have been related, at first, specifically to painting and dance, and now it has evolved into something freer and more expressive. I believe that this form of theater is well-known but not all that appreciated because people never take the time to look deeper and see past the controversy into the heart of the issues and the message conveyed in the performance itself.

-In all honesty, although I have heard the word 'postmodernism' several times in my life, I had never truly understood what it was. I was surprised to find that many of the productions I have watched and enjoyed in my life were, in fact, postmodernist shows. I have always enjoyed watching new spins on old tales, or as the book puts it, the 'deconstruction of texts' and it was rather interesting to find that this is considered a form of postmodernist theater. My favorite part of this section is, however, how postmodernism is said to go beyond the limitations of 'reality' and 'abstraction', because the two are not mutually exclusive - I have always believed that works, be it visual art, music, writing, or theater, that managed to achieve a beautiful surrealism that comes from a balance of realistic and abstract were the most fascinating. It turns out that postmodernism was my favorite style of artwork all this time.



Work in Progress