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Hi Numpeng, Sreenath, and all,
I am applying my PhD in Theatre Education in Singapore, and I am also
interested to pursue further inquiries on how one may use psychophysical and
cross-cultural theatre to develop for actors training. Although my specific
actors training is anchored along the lines of developing the autonomous actor;
ie. an actor who is able to create, self-direct, and solo perform.
Firstly, my definitions of psychophysical is build on late Stanislavskian
acting research work that is further developed by theatre practitioners such as
Grotowski, Barba and Zarrilli. In simple terms, psychophysical means the body
and mind embodiment of the actor, as opposed to the notion of psychologically
driven acting. It suggests that the actor's presence on stage stretches beyond
the confines of the psychological.
Secondly, my cross-cultural theatre research is focused on the reconnection of
classical Asian theatre systems of Beijing Opera, Kutiyattam, Noh and Wayang
Wong with contemporary acting approaches. I feel that contemporary acting
history is very short, and despite having lived and worked in Shanghai,
Singapore and the UK under various directors, I sense a great limitation in
modern day acting approaches, in developing/articulating
languages/processes/ways to support the acting work required today,
articulating stories from a world that is getting smaller due to globalisation
and digital technology.
I was contemplating Sreenath's queries, and I thought, while Stanislavski
mentioned that, “Human life is so subtle, so complex and multifaceted, that it
needs an incomparably large number of new, still undiscovered “isms” to fully
express it fully”, one common problem encountered for multicultural theatre
research today, as highlighted by Jacqueline Lo and Helen Gilbert was that,
“Even when intercultural exchanges take place within the ‘non-West,’ they are
often mediated through western culture and/or economics” (Lo & Gilbert,
2002: 36-7). Looking from the classical Asian theatre systems' perspectives,
they suggest different psychophysical acting processes even among themselves (Beijing
Opera, Kutiyattam, Noh and Wayang Wong).
As such, while psychophysical and the cross-cultural investigations are not
exactly addressing the same specificities, psychophysical acting investigations
also invite us to question, "To what degree are we actively making an
environment which encourages critical inquiry and reflection, not only about
“art” in the narrow sense but also concerning the material circumstances and
issues implicit in the art we make?... Failing that, we abrogate our
responsibility not only to train students’ acting skills but also to educate
them about what they are being trained to perform" (Zarrilli, 2006: 3). To
me, they seem like two different threads of research that is intrinsically
intertwined. And as with Numpeng, I am very interested to hear from you with
regards to pointing me towards current relevant literature in this field, or if
you employ 'psychophysical' or 'cross-cultural actor training' as terms within
your own work.
Hope to hear from you.
Thank you very much.
Best Wishes,
Chris Lee Ban Loong
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