A Blog of the Centre for Global Theatre History
Christopher Balme (PI of the GTH project) held the opening address at the 1st World Theatre Education Convention, Central Academy of Drama, Beijing (www.atecnet.org/ATECEN/) on 18 May, 2014 under the auspices of the Asian Theatre Education Centre (ATEC).
The paper was entitled: ‘Asian Theatre and Globalization: Historical Perspectives’. (see Asian Theatre and Globalization_Balme for an extended version of the talk)
Three members of the GTH team, Nic Leonhardt, Christopher Balme, and meLê yamomo, have been invited to organize a panel at the annual conference of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia & Europe in a Global Context” (8-10 October, 2014, Heidelberg) They will present and discuss hitherto unknown facets and new findings on Theatrical Agents, Managers and Impresarios in Global Theatre Histories (1850-1920) in Asia and Europe.
Conference Theme: “Cultural Mediation: Creativity, Performance, Display”
Conference Organisation: Cluster of Excellence, Research Area B: C. Brosius, M. Trede,L. Abu-Er-Rub, H. Harder
http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en
Shakespeare in Taiwan, Circus in India, Richard Wagner societies in Indonesia, Opera in South-East Asia… Theatre can be considered a global artistic practice and a central part of transnational networks of artistic exchange. The Global Theatre Histories science cast (https://itunes.apple.com/de/itunes-u/global-theatre-histories-hd/id804045891?l=en) playfully illuminates the project’s agenda and methods, and highlights its collaborative and international work mode.
Watch the video and learn more about the world of GTH!
This blog is part of the research project “Global Theatre Histories”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (www.gth.theaterwissenschaft.uni-muenchen.de). The project investigates the emergence of theatre as a global phenomenon against the background of imperial expansion and modernization in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It brings together two previously separate scholarly debates: ‘global or world history’ and recent discussions on the emergence of a ‘transnational public sphere’. It aims to provide a major corrective to existing theatre historiographical principles and research agendas by linking theatrical modernism (as an artistic practice) and modernization in its political, economic and institutional manifestations. The temporal coordinates of the project parallel the acceleration of colonialism and imperialism leading ultimately to political decolonization in the early 1960s and finally the end of the East-West division in 1990. The main focus lies on hitherto under-researched phenomena: theatrical trade routes facilitating the movement of theatre artists and productions; the creation of new public spheres in situations of cross-cultural contact in multiethnic metropolitan centres and the dynamics of theatrical modernization in non-Western countries.
