DOCSLIB.ORG

In Conversation╦

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
In Conversation╦ ITJ 1 (1) pp. 5–18 Intellect Limited 2017 Indian Theatre Journal Volume 1 Number 1 itj © 2017 Intellect Ltd Interview. English language. doi: 10.1386/itj.1.1.5_7 Indian Theatre Journal Intellect 10.1386/itj.1.1.5_7 1 INTERVIEW 1 5 RICHARD SCHECHNER New York University 18 SREENATH NAIR University of Lincoln © Intellect Ltd 2017 In conversation… Sreenath Nair: Richard, you have a long history of interaction with Indian theatre, people, performances and events. Richard Schechner: I’m familiar with the Ramlila. But, I’m not that familiar with Indian theatre. I have seen a good range of traditional Indian perfor- mances, seen few modern Indian theatre productions, directed a couple of productions in India and spoke in few conferences. When I go to India, I mostly go to Varanasi for Ramlila and visit my friends in Delhi. So, I don’t think of myself as much informed about Indian theatre. SN: Can I start this conversation with a basic question? Why do we need theatre and what functions do you think theatre perform in social and individual life? RS: Your question is part of a larger question of why do we need art and what function does art have in social life? We don’t need art to survive physically. But humans don’t live by bread alone. Isn’t it compelling that even the poor- est people, those who barely have food, shelter and clothes, still perform their religious rituals, sing songs and dance? They share what little they have with the gods. Performance activities in the service of religion, or in the service of art or in the service of pleasure – or all of these combined – continue regardless www.intellectbooks.com 5 ITJ_1.1.indb 5 4/13/2017 5:00:57 PM Sreenath Nair | Richard Schechner of who you are and how rich or poor you are. These activities human beings consider fundamental. A person who never sings or never says a line of poetry, who never dances, who never thrills at seeing a beautiful object, who never gazes at a powerful murti in a temple or sheds a tear during a film or play: we do not regard that person as a full human being. Performance activities are fundamental to the human condition. We eat, we sleep, we have sex, we make art. There are people in the upper Amazon, and elsewhere too, who have no clothes at all, who are 100 per cent naked for most of their life, and other people with almost no shelter at all, who don’t live in a house. But there is no one who doesn’t do some singing, some dancing and some keeping of a favourite object or two. Yes, the aesthetic impulse is fundamental. Another fundamental is curiosity about the ‘big questions’ of life and death: the ultimate. Everyone wonders: Why was I born? What will happen after I die? Who will care for my family? Why do I love who I love? These are large questions are often addressed by religion, philosophy and art. In fact, these three go together, are always infiltrating and affecting each other. Religion is philosophy is art; art is religion is philosophy; philosophy is religion is art. If you want to honour a god or a force of nature or a beautiful or terrifyingly sublime experience, you make something: an image, dance, song, poem, story. This is true not only in India, but everywhere. When I enter one of the great cathedrals of Europe, I am experiencing art that I know is in relation to religion. Or religion expressed in/as art. The same for when I participate in Ramlila in Ramnagar, across the Ganga River from Varanasi. The Ramlila is a religious act, but it is also theatre, it is also art. In the Ramlila, the people address the larger questions of life. Which art was first? The ‘cave art’ of Europe and elsewhere goes back more than 30,000 years. Incredible. Some ‘jewellery’ – necklaces, marked shells and so on – go back even further. I put these in quotation marks because we don’t know what the makers of these thought and felt – whether they could express in terms that we understand, concepts such as ‘art’. What we do know is that modern people, we, respond to these images and objects in the same way that we respond to art. For us, the images of Lascaux or Chauvet are art. Along with those items, in some caves, there are footprints in the clay indicating dancing – circular movement. I would reason that the performing arts are the first in terms of time. Look at the primates, the great apes who are our closest relatives. They move in a rhythmic ways, they make rhythmic sounds. So before humans could paint or sculpt, I believe we were singing, dancing and making music. SN: True. Art addresses some fundamental questions about human existence as does religion, philosophy and science. When did you go to India first, and what took you there? RS: I first went to India in 1970. How I took that trip is an intriguing story. In 1968, I was doing Dionysus 69, my first production in New York. At the end of one performance, as I was milling around with the spectators as I almost always did, an older man made himself known to me. ‘This is a very interest- ing performance’, he said. ‘You must have been to Asia. There is so much that is Asian in it’. I asked him what he meant. ‘The audience participation, the staging without a stage, the mixture of religion and art’. I said, ‘No, I have never been to Asia, but thank you for your praise’. The man replied, ‘Well! You must go’. Being young – I was 34 at that time – and the man was much older – I brashly said, ‘All right, then. You should send me!’ Without missing a beat, took out his card. ‘When you are ready to go, call me’, he said, ‘Really?’ I 6 Indian Theatre Journal ITJ_1.1.indb 6 4/13/2017 5:00:57 PM In conversation… replied, astonished. ‘You just phone me, come and see me, and I will sponsor a trip to Asia for you’. This man turned out to be Porter McCray, at that time the head of the JDR 3rd Fund, a nonprofit bank-rolled by John D. Rockefeller 3rd promoting cultural exchanges between the USA and Asia. Later on, the JDR 3rd Fund became the Asian Cultural Council. McCray was 60 when I met him. I took McCray at his word. When I met him in his JDR 3rd Fund office a week or so later he said to me, ‘You can go anywhere you want in Asia. You can stay for as long as you want’. I asked if Joan MacIntosh – we later married and still later divorced – a member of The Performance Group and a key performer in Dionysus in 69 – could go with me. ‘Yes’, McCray replied. I elected to take a trip of around 6 months, starting in October 1971. The time lapse between meeting McCray and my journey was needed to prepare The Performance Group for my absence and for me and Joan to plan our Asian itinerary. I visited almost every Asian country I could get into: China, Tibet, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma (later named Myanmar) were off limits. We decided not to go to Nepal, Pakistan and New Zealand, I don’t remember why, and to this day I have not been to those countries. Where did I go? India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. I spent the longest time in India, about four months. Actually, New Delhi was where I landed on a flight from Europe where The Performance Group was perform- ing Commune. After about a week in Delhi, we took off for Kolkata, called Calcutta. Later we travelled to many places in India. In New Delhi, it was my very good fortune to meet Dr. Suresh Awasthi, the Secretary of the Sangeet Natak Academy, India’s national agency of theatre, dance and music. The Akademi specialized in traditional rather than modern, that is, Westernized, forms. Guiding the Akademi was Dr. Suresh Awasthi, a boundlessly energetic, knowledgeable and enthusiastic scholar-promoter of traditional performing arts. Awasthi was like a bird, angular, thin, with poking gestures. He spoke rapidly and seemed to know everyone – performers, teach- ers, producers, directors. Awasthi was interested not only in preserving the traditional but also in encouraging a ‘theatre of roots’, whereby modern and traditional collaborated to make new fusion arts. Awasthi himself was born in a village, he appreciated the way the vast preponderance of Indians, at that time, lived. He knew an astonishing number of Indian performance genres, and he wanted me to see as many as possible. Awasthi knew the history of each form and the leading living expo- nents. He arranged for Joan and I to travel all over India from Mumbai to Kashmir, Calcutta to Kerala, Assam to Lucknow, Vrindavan to Varanasi and more. I don’t remember how many performances we saw, or all the different kinds. It was not the season for Ramlila, so I did not see it. But I saw, at least, bharatanatyam, odissi, pand pather, jatra, tamasha, kuchipudi, kathakali, kutiyat- tam, teyyam, chhau, kathak, raslila. Beyond the fold and art performances were visits to many temples – so different north and south – and so very intense with the crowds of worshippers, the smell of prasad and flowers, the ringing of bells, blowing of conch shells, chanting.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Performance Theory
    Performance Theory “Reading Performance Theory by Richard Schechner again, three decades after its first edition, is like meeting an old friend and finding out how much of him/her has been with you all along this way.” Augusto Boal “It is an indispensable text in all aspects of the new discipline of Performance Studies. It is in many ways an eye-opener par- ticularly in its linkage of theater to other performance genres.” Ngu˜ gı˜ wa Thiong’o, University of California “Richard Schechner has defined the parameters of con- temporary performance with an originality and insight that make him indispensable to contemporary theatrical thought. For many years, both scholars and artists have been inspired by his unique and powerful perspective.” Richard Foreman “Schechner has a place in every theater history textbook for his ground-breaking work in environmental theater in the 1960s and 1970s and for his vision in helping to found the discipline of performance studies.” Rebecca Schneider “Richard Schechner is the master teacher and the master conversant on the transformative power of performance to both performer and spectator, at its deepest level. Perform- ance Theory is the essential book which brilliantly illuminates the world as a performance space on stage and off.” Anna Deveare Smith A highlands Papua New Guinea man takes a break from dancing (see chapter 4, “From ritual to theater and back: the efficacy– entertainment braid”). Richard Schechner Performance Theory Revised and expanded edition, with a new preface by the author London and New York Essays on Performance Theory published 1977 by Ralph Pine, for Drama School Specialists Second edition first published 1988 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 First published in the United Kingdom 1988 by Routledge First published in Routledge Classics 2003 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
    [Show full text]
  • Performance Studies
    PERFORMANCE STUDIES The publication of Performance Studies:An Introduction was a The book itself has also been revised, with 25 new defining moment for the field. Richard Schechner’s pioneer- extracts and biographies, up-to-date coverage of global and ing textbook provides a lively and accessible overview of the intercultural performances, and further exploration of the full range of performance for undergraduates at all levels and growing international presence of performance studies as a beginning graduate students in performance studies,theatre, discipline. performing arts, and cultural studies. Among the topics Performance Studies is the definitive overview for under- discussed are the performing arts and popular entertain- graduates, with primary extracts, student activities, key ments, rituals, play and games, and the performances of biographies and over 200 images of global performance. everyday life.Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the social sciences,performing arts,poststructuralism,ritual Richard Schechner is a pioneer of performance studies. theory,ethology,philosophy,and aesthetics. A scholar, theatre director, editor, and playwright, he is This third edition is accompanied by an all-new companion University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at website curated by Sara Brady. It features clips of Richard the Tisch School of the Arts,NewYork University.He is editor Schechner discussing his approach to performance studies and of TDR:The Journal of Performance Studies. Schechner is the explaining key ideas,
    [Show full text]
  • PERFORMANCE STUDIES: an Introduction
    PERFORMANCE STUDIES The publication of Performance Studies:An Introduction was a The book itself has also been revised, with 25 new defining moment for the field. Richard Schechner’s pioneer- extracts and biographies, up-to-date coverage of global and ing textbook provides a lively and accessible overview of the intercultural performances, and further exploration of the full range of performance for undergraduates at all levels and growing international presence of performance studies as a beginning graduate students in performance studies,theatre, discipline. performing arts, and cultural studies. Among the topics Performance Studies is the definitive overview for under- discussed are the performing arts and popular entertain- graduates, with primary extracts, student activities, key ments, rituals, play and games, and the performances of biographies and over 200 images of global performance. everyday life.Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the social sciences,performing arts,poststructuralism,ritual Richard Schechner is a pioneer of performance studies. theory,ethology,philosophy,and aesthetics. A scholar, theatre director, editor, and playwright, he is This third edition is accompanied by an all-new companion University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at website curated by Sara Brady. It features clips of Richard the Tisch School of the Arts,NewYork University.He is editor Schechner discussing his approach to performance studies and of TDR:The Journal of Performance Studies. Schechner is the explaining key ideas,
    [Show full text]
  • Vignettes from a Lifetime of Studying Performance Richard Schechner
    Vignettes From a Lifetime of Studying Performance Richard Schechner Abstract In this commentary, summarized from a recent interview, the author shares insights and memories from a career devoted to drama and performance studies. He enthusiastically recounts events, initiatives, and collaborations that have helped sustain his lifelong passion for performance. Prologue: New York City, April 27, 2020 There is no darkness that doesn’t have some light. It’s very nice to be in a city where there is 60 to 80% less air pollution; where the sky is clear; there is very little traffic, you can breathe. When you go out in the morning and take a walk, the streets are pretty empty, but you do this dance if somebody comes near you, you move away. The negative, of course, is that it’s a night without a clear dawn in the sense that when it gets dark tonight at 7:30 or 8:00 pm, I know that at 6:30 or 7:00 am the light will come up. I’m not sure when the light is going to come up with this pandemic. Developing a Critical Distance As I got into my late teenage years and decided to go college, I saw myself at that point as a writer and literary person. My undergraduate degree was in English and Philosophy with a lot of Psychology. I started to do lots of writing during that period. I was at Cornell University at the daily newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, and I wrote for it intensively. When I was a senior, I probably could have stood to be editor-in-chief, but by that time I was more reflective, so I decided to become the editorial page editor, who oversees the opinions of the paper, and also I was a drama reviewer.
    [Show full text]
  • RICHARD SCHECHNER and the Perforl^IANCE GROUP: a STUDY
    RICHARD SCHECHNER AND THE PERFORl^IANCE GROUP: A STUDY OF ACTING TECHNIQUE AND METHODOLOGY by ESTHER SUNDELL LICHTI, B.A., A.M. A DISSERTATION IN THEATRE ARTS Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May, 1986 ego r3 copyright 1986 Esther Sundell Lichti T'3 C^^^» -^ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to Professor Richard A. Weaver and to the other members of my committee. Professors Clifford A. Ashby, Michael C. Gerlach, Daniel 0. Nathan, and Steven Paxton, for their encouragement and helpful criticism. I would also like to thank Richard Schechner for his time and generosity. This study was funded in part by the Paul Whitfield Horn Fellowship made possible by the Texas Tech University Women's Club and the University Quarterly Club. Finally, I am grateful for the love and support I have received from my fellow students, my friends, and my family. Ill ABSTRACT The social and cultural upheaval of the 1960s spawned a wide range of "alternative" theatre companies concerned with finding a solution to what they perceived as the imminent death of theatre in the United States. The Performance Group, under the direction of Richard Schechner, proved one of the most important. The study is presented in three sections. Section one sets forth the history of TPG, the theory of environmental theatre, and a study of influences upon the company's work. Section two examines the productions Dionysus in 69, Makbeth, and Commune with regard to their development from the inital idea through performance, including descriptions of the physical environments, acting problems, and performance methodology.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 RICHARD SCHECHNER Richard Schechner Is University Professor
    RICHARD SCHECHNER Richard Schechner is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He also teaches regularly at NYU's Abu Dhabi global campus. Schechner is a founders of the field of performance studies and the author of the widely used textbook, Performance Studies—An Introduction . His BA is from Cornell University (1956), MA the University of Iowa (1958), and PhD Tulane University (1962). He was the founding artistic director of The Performance Group and is artistic director of East Coast Artists. He is editor of TDR: A Journal of Performance Studies (the leading journal in the field). He is the editor of the Enactments book series published by Seagull Books and the Worlds of Performance Series published by Routledge. Schechner is the author of scores of articles and many books including: Public Domain , Environmental Theatre , The End of Humanism , Performance Theory , Theatres, Spaces, and Environments (co-author), The Engleburt Stories (co-author), Between Theatre and Anthropology , The Future of Ritual , Over, Under, and Around , Performance Studies: An Introduction, and Performed Imaginaries. Books of his writings have appeared in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Parsi, Turkish, and Romanian. In 1967 in New York Schechner founded The Performance Group with whom he directed a number of productions, including Dionysus in 69 and Commune (both group devised) , Makbeth (devised by Schechner after Shakespeare), Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children , Seneca’s Oedipus , Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime , Terry Curtis Fox’s Cops , David Gaard’s The Marilyn Project , and Jean Genet’s The Balcony .
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE JOSEPH ROACH November 2016 Department of English (203) 432-2233 (O) Yale University, PO Box 208302 (203
    CURRICULUM VITAE JOSEPH ROACH November 2016 Department of English (203) 432-2233 (o) Yale University, PO Box 208302 (203) 859-8170 New Haven, CT 06520-8302 FAX: (203) 432-7066 http://ipsy.commons.yale.edu/ [email protected] EDUCATION Ph.D. Cornell University, 1973 M.A. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1970 B.A. University of Kansas, 1969 PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS 2008- Sterling Professor of Theater; Professor English and African-American Studies; 1997-08 Professor of Theater, English, and African-American Studies; 2001-08 Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor, Yale University 1990-97 Professor of English, Tulane University 1993 Visiting Professor, Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU 1987-90 Professor of Theatre and English, Northwestern University 1982-87 Associate Professor, Performing Arts, Washington University in St. Louis 1975-82 Assistant-Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, Sweet Briar College, 1979-1982 1973-75 Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre, SUNY-Albany HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND GRANTS Oscar Brockett Award for Outstanding Teaching, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2013 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2012- American Antiquarian Society, 2012- Interdisciplinary Performance Studies at Yale, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2011- Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Warwick (UK), 2009 Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow, Huntington Library, 2008-09 William Clyde Devane Lectures, Yale University, 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
    [Show full text]
  • Cutugno Carmela Tesi.Pdf
    Intercultural Performance and Dialogue From Richard Schechner Performance Studies Onwards Carmela Cutugno A Mamma e Papà Indice 0.0 Ground floor: Introduzione metodologica p. 5 0.1 Dichiarazione d’intenti: per una meta-metodologia 5 0.2 Embody the subject, walk on the field! 7 1.1 Performance Studies: impalcature generali 12 1.2 TDR: un copione gestativo per Performance Studies 17 1.3 Performance Studies: brevi cenni biografici 22 1.4 Tutta un’altra storia: Performance Studies alla NYU Vs Performance Studies alla NWU 38 1.5 Teatro ⊂ Performance Teatro Performance 42 2.1 PS: Segni Particolari. Performance come Oggetto, Performance come Lente 55 2.2 Performance come oggetto di studio 56 2.3 Archivio Vs Repertorio 66 2.4 Remains Vs Disappearing 71 2.5 Reenactment: da Marina Abramovic all’Intangible Cultural Heritage dell’UNESCO 74 2.6 Clifford Owens: from the Ontology of Performance to an Anthology of Performance 91 2.7 Non toccare l’intoccabile: una Convenzione UNESCO per salvaguardare il Patrimonio Culturale Immateriale 95 3.1 Performance Studies: “in pratica”? Praticanti della teoria, teorici di fatto 105 3.2 Intervallo immaginativo: Re-imagining “Imagining O” 110 3.3 Altri artisti della performance. Curating Performance 190 4.1 No Conclusion: “in between” works in progress 198 4.2 Lo stato liminale dei PS: gli “in betweenness” disciplinanti 199 4.3 Studi impegnati, performances schierate 201 Allegati I. Interviste Ia. Richard Schechner’s Performance Studies 210 Ib. “Rebecca Schneider’s Performance Studies Remains” 229 Ic. A “specific perspective” from a “Performance Studies International” voice. An Interview with Maaike Bleeker 241 Id.
    [Show full text]
  • “Environmental Theater” Richard Schechner
    OTHER TITlES FROM THE ApPLAUSE ACTING SERIES: THE ApPLAUSE ACTING SERIES ON SINGING ON STAGE David Craig THE END OF ACTlNG: A RADICAL VIEW Richad Homby ACTING IN FILM (book & videocassette) ENVIRONMENTAL Michael Caine DIRECTING THE ACTION Charles Morowitz MICHAEL CHEKHOV: ON THEATRE AND THE ART OF ACTING THEATER (autiotapes) THE MONOLOGUE WORKSHOP lack Poggi An Expanded New Edition RECYCLING SHAKESPEARE Charles Morowitz including "Six Axioms Fo! SHAKESCENES: SHAKESPEARE FOR Two lohn Russell Brown Environmental Theater" SPEAK WITH DISTlNCTlON Edith Skinner STANISLAVSKI REVEALED Sonia Moore THE STANISLAVSKY TECHNIQUE: RUSSIA MelGordon Richard Schechner THE CRAFTSMEN OF DIONYSUS Jerome Rockwood THE ACTOR AND THE TEXT Cicely Barry ONE ON ONE: BEST MONOLOGUES FOR THE NINITIES lack Temchin (ed.) SHAKESPEARE'S PuYS IN PERFORMANCE lohn Russell Brown ,I m ZHdK-MIZ (Zürich) IH>. A'3>0b An Applause Original -- ---""-~-~---- -------_./ Environmental Theater By Richard Schechner Copyright © 1973, 1994 Richard Schechner All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanicaI, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast. m Special emphasis is placed on photocopying of any part of this text for classroo use. The publish­ er hereby cautions that all breaches of copyright will be prosecuted. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Contents Schechner, Richard, 1934- Environmental theater I Richard Schechner.
    [Show full text]