
ATWG Sessions at IFTR Accra 2023, University of Ghana
30 July, 2023 by Sir Anril Tiatco | 0 commentsPresentations at the Asian Theatre Working Group meting at the University of Ghana, 24 - 28 July 2023. Read more
Founded by Yasushi Nagata (Osaka University), the Asian Theatre Working Group (ATWG) intends to broadly explore scholarly research on Asian theatre and performance. ATWG not only studies Asian theatre and performance but also investigates their influence on and relationship to world theatre. The group aims to discuss the technological and theoretical perspectives of Asian theatre in its entirety, including, but not limited to, authentic traditional forms, global contemporary applications and Asian Western-style theatre. Most Asian theatres have experienced the clash between tradition and westernization, and now intend to dredge new methodologies and scholarly theories from their painful experiences.
The vast diversity of Asian performance provides many comparative perspectives and will inspire new theories on theatre. It is difficult to clearly define Asian theatrical plays and performance. It is not significant to lump together Asia, which varies so greatly both geographically and historically. Neither can the region be simply lumped together. It is also meaningless to seek alternative features without proper consideration by highlighting distinctive Asian attributes in sharp contrast to Western concepts.
This attempt just works to place what has long been marginalized in the center, which ends up producing one alternative after another. However, it is undeniable that Asian plays and performances are characterized by their unique aesthetics and concepts. These aesthetics and concepts have not been focused on in Western theatre, but they certainly exist in Western theatre as well. From this perspective, the ATWG focuses on the distinctive aesthetics and concepts intrinsic to Asian theatrical performance and incorporates them in the existing concepts behind Western theatre. This approach will contribute to gradually transforming the whole thinking framework of global plays.
ATWG Winter / Spring Meetings (Colloquiums / Conferences):
National Chung Cheng University
“Theatre, War, Memory”
Taiwan, 2023
18 – 19 February 2023
University of the Philippines Diliman
“Towards a Post-COVID-19 Asian Theatres”
Virtual Meeting and Conference, Philippines
2 – 4 March 2022
Osaka University
“Asian Theatres and Wars”
Virtual Meeting, Japan
9 January 2021
Korea National University of the Arts
“Asian Theatre and Beyond”
Seoul, South Korea
21 – 22 February 2019
University of the Philippines Diliman
“Bodies in/and Asian Theatres”
First Transregional IFTR Conference
Quezon City, Philippines
21 – 23 February 2018
Manipal University
“Theatre and Hybridity”
Jaipur, India
18 – 19 February 2017
Nanyang Technological University
“Asian Theatre and Modernity Part 2”
Singapore
March 2016
Osaka University
“Asian Theatre and Modernity Part 1”
Japan
March 2014
Conveners:
Sir Anril P. Tiatco, sptiatco@up.edu.ph
University of the Philippines Diliman
Liyang Xia, liyang.xia@ibsen.uio.no
University of Oslo
Presentations at the Asian Theatre Working Group meting at the University of Ghana, 24 - 28 July 2023. Read more
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Asian Theatre Working Group will be meeting at the IFTR Conference in Sao Paulo, 10-14 July 2017. In connecting to the Conference theme, ‘Unstable Geographies, Multiple Theatricalities’, we would like Read more