Royal Holloway, University of London
Department Member, Drama and Theatre Studies
University of Essex, East 15 Acting School
Visiting Lecturer
Royal Holloway
About
My principal interest is in non-Western and intercultural theatre, with a focus on Japanese traditional and contemporary theatre. While working on my PhD thesis, exploring the influence of Noh in Western performance throughout the twentieth century, I have developed an interest in Modernist practice and post-modern Interculturalism, touching on themes such as post-Orientalism, globalisation and transcultural studies. Philosophically, my research looks at the intersection of aesthetics and ethics in performing arts. My teaching interests include, but are not limited to, Modernism, Performance Studies, Anthropology, World Theatre, Theatre History, Performance and Philosophy.
My blog: http://nohtheatre.wordpress.com/
PhD thesis abstract:
Arguing that fundamental aesthetic elements of Noh are deeply imbued with ethical qualities, the thesis describes how, throughout the different socio-economic scenarios that marked the transition of Japan and the West to new phases of modernity, Noh became part of an international debate on theatre and ethics. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, European practitioners such as Yeats, Pound, Copeau and Brecht sought to ‘restore’ theatre by returning to ideals of honesty and spirituality that were thought to be lost as a consequence of the rise of bourgeois materialism. The promotion of Noh in Japan and its reception abroad was appropriated both by right and left wing political discourses that provided contrasting and converging interpretations of its theory and practice. With the advent of ‘interculturalism’ Noh was inscribed in a renewed ethical rubric, and became part of a return to the ‘spiritual’ dimension of Asian theatre by practitioners such as Yoshi Oida and Eugenio Barba. However, today Noh is still enmeshed in misconstructions that limit its understanding: drawing on historical research and ethnographic fieldwork, this thesis uses ethical criticism (Carroll, Cooper, Gaut) and Watsuji Tetsurō’s thought in order to analyse past and present reception of Noh, shedding light on the inextricability of the aesthetics and ethics of Noh and seeking to provide a balanced view of individual/communitarian and spiritual/secular dimensions of its contemporary practice, thus placing Noh within the broader perspective of a global discussion of theatre and ethics.
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