This course is not currently offered, please contact the school or faculty of your program.

Course description

This course covers 2,000 years of theatre history from various Asian and Pacific perspectives. The first part of the course explores historical performance - ancient Sanskrit drama from India; classical theatre forms from China, Japan and Indonesia; and pre-contact performances from Polynesia - while the second half treats more recent plays and performances the engage relationships between Australia and its Asia-Pacific neighbours from postcolonial and transnational points of view. The course aims to bolster your knowledge of non-western theatre history, and to encourage you to consider what performance can tell us about processes of cross-cultural transaction in our broader region. You'll read critical and theoretical texts in addition to the plays, and explore some of these ideas through practical performance workshops, including a Butoh workshop with Zen Zen Zo. NOTE: Course offering may be cancelled unless a minimum of 20 students enrol.