The name of Shakespeare was already known in China by 1856, but it was not until 1902' that one of his plays, The Merchant of Venice, was performed by students in Shanghai. Since then Shakespeare's works have been frequently translated, produced and studied in China. Taiwan, being part of China in its cultural heritage, inevitably received Shakespeare in the Chinese manner, whether through translations, productions or critical and academic studies. This dissertation surveys the development of Shakespeare studies and production in Taiwan and makes use of first-hand experience of Shakespeare performance and of conversations with academics and directors in order to assess likely future developments. The purpose of the study is thus to examine how the Taiwanese received, translated, studied and produced Shakespeare in the past, how they are doing so at present and what they may do in the future. Among other things considered here is the possibility of presenting Shakespearean tragedy in an essentially Chinese or Taiwanese mode; that is, through a theatrical form which does not admit of the tragic in the Shakespearean sense of the word. Chapter One discusses the early Taiwanese reception of Shakespeare in the context of the history of modem drama in Taiwan, as a branch of Chinese drama but also as a form that developed under the influence of Japan. The second chapter introduces the background to the Taiwanese staging of Shakespeare's plays, focusing on the three main theatrical performing styles: Peking Opera (PO), Spoken Drama (SD), and Little Theatre (LT). The transition from SD to LT indicated a move from Chinese influence towards that of the United States of America. Chapter Three provides a historical survey of Shakespeare studies in Taiwan since the 1949 split from China. Earlier writing is discussed, followed by reference to the studies of various leading Shakespearean scholars who analyse Shakespeare's plays in terms of psychological analysis, feminism and political theory. Taiwanese theatre criticism is also Chapter Four looks at a Taiwanese Peking Opera staging of Macbeth (The Kingdom of Desire) in the traditional theatrical performing style ('Chinese style'), based on an earlier Japanese production. This provides an opportunity to discuss in more detail the possibility of reconciling two different views of dramatic art, technique and focus. Chapter Five examines a Taiwanese Spoken Drama staging of King Lear, a 'Western style' production although, in reality, an extension of Chinese productions. This introduces a discussion of 'alienation' techniques as a substitute for the dimensions of moral engagement and emotional 'catharsis' found in Shakespearean tragedy. Chapter Six discusses the future of Shakespeare in Taiwan. A mainland Chinese-based experience is recommended to help the Taiwanese accept Shakespeare, while it is argued that a new genuinely Taiwanese Shakespeare experience might possibly be formed by a combination of the Taiwanese Spoken Drama performing style and the Little Theatre experience. Translation and the problems observed by translators are described, with some suggestions for future approaches and strategies. Chapter Seven provides a brief conclusion by suggesting that Taiwan can now claim her own distinctive approach to the work of Shakespeare and, in so doing, make her own contribution to international Shakespeare criticism and to the theatre of the twenty-first century.

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This project focuses on performance-making practices for contemporary audiences and addresses the complexity of the self of the performer as other, drawing primarily on the author’s collaborative practice with Japanese performance company Gekidan Kaitaisha. The investigation approaches the enquiry from a practitioner’s perspective and addresses questions that emerge from that practice. The aim of this is to establish accounts of the self of the performer, performer expertise, collaborative performance processes and cultural hybridization. The project specifically transcribes the sensed and felt experience, and knowledge, of the expert practitioner. This offers insights into the complexity of the self of the performer as other, transcultural collaboration, and performance making. Through a qualitative research based inquiry, the project draws on a practice-centred approach, with the inquiry taking place through both practice as research and literature-based research, culminating in a written thesis and the DVD documentation of the rehearsal processes and performances from a range of collaborative projects. The inquiry constructs a layered, multifaceted, and multi-linear map of performer-bodyness and performer-selfhood that operates within the compositional processes of performance-making, and draws out an ‘actional self’ in-process and constantly altered, composed, recomposed, and difficult to grasp as a singular static unchanging “thing” or quality. The investigation addresses post-colonial complexities through an understanding of the work of certain twentieth century writers and practitioners, in terms of a desire for difference, and addresses the complexity of the self of the performer as other in a culturally complex context. It locates ‘otherness’ in terms of identity within the framework of cultural distinctions, where the other might be perceived to be a site of desire. The practice reveals that something is being played out, in performance-making terms, that is much more complex, complicated, and ungraspable than the idea of the ambiguities of cultural distinctiveness.

This thesis investigates performances of and critical responses to English plays that have been written and performed in the post-1956 period and subsequently been staged in Athens in the years following the downfall of the colonels' dictatorship. Theatre productions and reviewing are located within or positioned against the specific socio-political, ideological and cultural matrices that helped determine each intervention. The central focus of the thesis is an exploration of the relation between theatre and Greek national identity. Starting from Benedict Anderson's definition of the nation as 'imagined community', the thesis challenges the established conceptualisation of Greekness as bound up with the dichotomy of 'Greek' and 'Other'. It accounts for the articulation of this dichotomy in the reception of English drama, demonstrating the ways in which English texts were perceived - mainly by the reviewers - as 'Other'. Each case study destabilises this clear opposition between 'Greek' and 'English Other', suggesting an alternative way of 'imagining' Greekness as constantly shifting and performed in 'the present moment'. The Introduction presents the thesis' objectives, methodology, and a brief survey of relevant literature on theatre and national identity. Chapter One engages with the debate about the nation and national identity, and provides the theoretical framework for a fuller comprehension of the 'making' of Greekness. Each of the next four chapters explores specific case studies: the production of Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular (1974, Chapter Two); Osborne's Look Back in Anger, Pinter's The Caretaker and Churchill's Top Girls (1982-3, Chapter Three); Bond's Summer (1990, Chapter Four); and Churchill's The Skriker and Ravenhill's Some Explicit Polaroids (1999-2001, Chapter Five). The thesis includes two appendices: the first lists productions of English plays that opened in Athens during these three decades while the second includes selected photographs of the productions.

This thesis examines performative geographies of racial and ethnic identity and how these operate through the specific artistic practices, aesthetics and spaces of Asian American theatre. This is achieved through an ethnographic methodology that examines the rehearsals and staged performances of two Asian American productions in Los Angeles: Imelda: A New Musical (East West Players) and Solve for X (Lodestone Theatre Ensemble). The thesis brings together two bodies of work on performance that have remained separate within geography, namely: performance as a socialised practice of identity and performance as a creative artistic practice. It therefore examines Asian American theatre as a socio-political institution where marginalised identities can be re-centred, explored and contested. In so doing it pays attention to the diasporic and multicultural geographies of Asian American identity as well as the spatialized dynamics of the embodied techniques through which those identities were re-performed. Specifically, this thesis examines Imelda: A New Musical to highlight how theatrical performance allowed actors to construct essentialist diasporic Filipino identities that worked across different geographical scales (chapter three). This thesis also examines the cultural-political locations of this production by using intercultural literatures on translation and authenticity (chapter four). The production Solve for X is examined for how it re-created Asian American identity in ways that moved beyond mainstream stereotypical expectations. This thesis focuses on such a re-working of racialized performativity through the relationship between script and performance (chapter five). It also brings together geographical work on affect and emotion with theatrical literatures that attempt to socialise Stanislavskian forms of acting (chapter six). The thesis thus contributes to interdisciplinary engagements on space, identity and performance, moving them towards a 'theatrical geography' (conclusion).

The Russian School of Acting was a term encountered amongst theatre-practitioners in 1990s' Moscow. Its roots lay in Stanislavsky's system with influences from Michael Chekhov and Jerzy Grotowski. In defining the phrase, this investigation follows Stanislavsky's psycho-physical technique through three practices: (1) pre-determining a production through a detailed mise-en-scene; (2) analysing the play through round the table discussions and (3) exploring the Method of Physical Actions. Chekhov's `creative individuality' and Grotowski's via negativa are also considered. The contemporary Russian School of Acting is examined through experience of actor-training at the State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, 1993 - 1994, in terms of: (a) work on oneself, as explored through Vladimir Ananyev's Scenic Movement; (b) work in the ensemble, as explored through Katya Kamotskaya's Actor Training programme and (c) work on the role, as explored by Albert Filozov's rehearsal of playtexts. An attempt is made to apply the elements of this psycho-physical actor-training to two British repertory productions at the Swan Theatre, Worcester - The Seagull (February 1995) and Steaming (March 1996). In conclusion, an assessment is made of the relevance of the process-orientated Russian technique to the essentially result-orientated British repertory environment

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This thesis represents the first detailed account of the Soho Theatre’s early history, from 1968 to 1975. During this period, ‘Soho’ was a pioneer of lunchtime theatre, offering a challenge to conventional theatre-going practice and placing new demands on writers, director and designers. Soho quickly established a dominant position on the burgeoning fringe and alternative theatre scene. It did so, however, in spite of critical misgivings about the value of the lunchtime ‘movement’. Commentators often failed to appreciate the innovative qualities of lunchtime work, finding fault with what they saw as a random approach to programming and an apparent lack of clear artistic policy. Many later theatre histories have reproduced this critique. As well as documenting the Soho Theatre’s history, therefore, this study offers a reassessment of the contribution it, and other lunchtime companies, made to the theatrical activity of the time. In my first chapter, I trace the development of the lunchtime theatre phenomenon, situating it within a number of theatrical, political and cultural contexts. I consider its complex relationship with the Arts Council and engage with some of the more dismissive accounts of its practices, revealing the ideological positions on which such assessments rest. In Chapter Two, I examine the company’s first ‘home’, at Le Metro Club on New Compton Street, and show how it quickly became an integral part of the developing theatrical landscape. In Chapter Three, I concentrate on Soho’s time at the King’s Head pub in Islington. Here it mounted a series of productions that challenged traditional notions of the ‘one-act’ play and tested the boundaries of the performance space. In 1972, the Soho Theatre moved again, to a basement on Riding House Street owned by the Polytechnic of Central London. Chapters Four and Five examine the company’s first years at what became known as the Soho Poly. I pay particular attention to the importance of the venue itself, showing how it played a crucial role in Soho’s survival. I conclude by arguing that existing studies of fringe and alternative theatre have underestimated the values of ‘eclecticism’, ‘contingency’ and ‘responsiveness’ that often characterised the Soho Theatre and other companies on the lunchtime scene.

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This thesis establishes groundwork for producing an aesthetic language for theatre technology by creating and testing a model for looking at theatre technologies in a critical manner. This model has several functions: Firstly it identifies theatre technology as something which can have a specific or a psycho-plastic scenographic effect. Through processes of re-invigoration and diversification the model allows a device to be regarded in its own context while historiologically allowing for precedent technologies to be acknowledged and compared. Lastly, because the model is ouroboric, self-consuming, it accounts for theatre technologies to be able to interpolate (and be interpolated by) other technologies whilst maintaining its own aesthetic integrity. This allows a critic to treat technology as a text rather than as a medium, and therefore enables it to be closely "read" as a text of the stage affording the technology a content of its own. Through problematising this model against theories of media and remediation, the thesis observes that the common critical position in theatre and performance studies is to treat theatre technology merely as a theatrical technē -- a tool or craft of the art. The arguments presented in the thesis reposition theatre technology from the position of craft to a position of art -- as alētheia, an artistic truth revealed through poiētic means. In the repositioning of attitudes towards technology, and by identifying theatre technologies as separate alētheuein, this thesis is then able to investigate theatre technologies aesthetically. Examining the contexts of technologies through the ouroboric model, and then critically studying their content, usage and meaning textually, this thesis is able to take a theatrical technological effect and begin to identify its affect. It posits that technology as an art in its own right can be aesthetically criticised and awarded meaning of equal weight to other elements of performance and theatre art.