Western Theatre in Global Contexts Directing and Teaching Culturally Inclusive Drama Around the World

Western Theatre in Global Contexts explores the junctures, tensions, and discoveries that occur when teaching Western theatrical practices or directing English-language plays in countries that do not share Western theatre histories or in which English is the non-dominant language.

This edited volume examines pedagogical discoveries and teaching methods, how to produce specific plays and musicals, and how students who explore Western practices in non-Western places contribute to the art form. Offering on-the-ground perspectives of teaching and working outside of North American and Europe, the book analyzes the importance of paying attention to the local context when developing theatrical practice and education. It also explores how educators and artists who make deep connections in the local culture can facilitate ethical accessibility to Western models of performance for students, practitioners and audiences.

Western Theatre in Global Contexts is an excellent resource for scholars, artists, and teachers that are working abroad or on intercultural projects in theatre, education and the arts.

Section 1: Global Flows: Western Theatre in International Contexts

1. An Introduction to Western Theatre in Global Contexts

Jillian Campana and Yasmine Jahanmir

2. Similarities and Differences in Teaching Western Based Theatre in China and the Arab World

Marvin Carlson

Section 2: International Stages: Western Theatre in Performance

3. Lysistrata in Cairo: maintaining values while extending the limit

Jillian Campana

4. Laxmi Bai got Drunk at Malini’s Dinner and Venturewell became an Underwear Baron: JUDE productions of Western classics in Kolkata, India

Arnab Banerji

5. West Side Stories: the racial politics and aesthetic considerations of staging Hell’s Kitchen globally

Yasmine Jahanmir

6. Across a Cloudy Room: the cultural appropriation of American musicals by Chinese students at the expense of their own national identity; a case study

Jim Mirrione and Wei Song

7. How to Swim in the Desert: on developing a theatre department in Oman

Mark Tardi

Section 3: Pedagogy Abroad: Western Theatre in Education

8. The Viewpoints as Transcultural Pedagogy

Adam Christopher Marple

9. The ISTA Performing Arts Academies in Shanghai and Hong Kong

Anne Drouet and Jillian Campana

10. Reaching the Audience

Fenella Kelly

11. Collaborative Creations: teaching devised performance in Santiago, Chile

Anne García-Romero

Section 4: Intercultural Exchanges: Theory and Practice

12. The Ethical Demand of Experiencing Imaginative Literature in Teaching Sophocles’ Antigone to Students of Applied English

Selma Helal

13. Post/Colonial Theatre in Madagascar: hybridity and controversy in Jean-Luc Raharimanana’s Le Prophète et le Président

Haddy Kreie

14. Towards "Relevance" and Collective Action in a South African School’s Touring production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra: discovering the operations of Imperial Rome, Cleopatra’s power and the meaning of a crocodile

Sarah Roberts and Néka Da Costa

15. Intersections and Encounters: the meshwork of an international Australian/Jordanian puppet theatre collaboration

Lynne Kent

16. Conclusion: provocations for educators and practitioners

Jillian Campana and Yasmine Jahanmir

Jillian Campana is a Professor and Director of the Theatre program at the American University in Cairo, in Egypt. She has taught and devised new work across the United States, Europe and Asia and worked with Augusto Boal in both Brazil and the US. Campana has developed drama programs around the world including ones for military veterans, a Swedish brain injury rehabilitation center, and a shelter for victims of human trafficking in India.

Yasmine Marie Jahanmir is Assistant Professor in Theatre History, Literature, and Theory at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has recently taught and directed at the American University of Kuwait. Her research interests include nationalism in performance, gendered sport, Middle Eastern theatre, and performance pedagogy.