Download KT_pres_final

Japanese Elements in Southeast Asian Performance Contexts
Ken Takiguchi
The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur / Malaysian Alliance of Technical Theatre
1. Introduction
Japan’s influence in Asian contemporary theatre can be found in as early as the first
decade of 20th century when the exchange students from China started a theatre company
in Tokyo under the direction of Asajiro Fujisawa, one of the founders of Shingeki theatres.
Chinese contemporary theatre was established by the members of the group and it spread
to Southeast Asia eventually1.
The group learned the western style theatre in Japan and
tried to interpret in their own context.
In other words, Japan and Asia met through
western theatre.
On the other hand, the direct theatrical exchange between Southeast Asia and Japan
has been neither very extensive nor deep. One of the earliest efforts was made in early
1980s by Black Tent Theatre of Japan, which started the collaboration projects with PETA
of the Philippines, but it was only after the 90s that many artists started to interact. The
recognition of the Southeast Asian theatre has increased among Japanese theatrical
artists, that is obviously shown in the increasing number of publications about the Asian
theatre2.
In this paper, the ways in which Japanese elements appear in Southeast Asian
theatre will be categorized and examples will be given in the first part.
Then, the
background of the development will be discussed and lastly, the possible area of GloPAD
fulfilling the needs in Southeast Asian theatre will be suggested.
1
Kuo Pao Kun, “Re-finding Asian Theatre” (Asia Engeki No Saihakken), Performing Arts,
No. 3 (April 2003), p.49.
2
For example, the periodicals such as Theatre Arts, Performing Arts and Public Theatre
published special issues focusing on Asian theatre.
1
2. Japanese theatrical elements in Southeast Asian theatre
a) Productions using Japanese Elements
Japanese elements can be found in Southeast Asian contemporary theatre in two
different ways.
One is in the productions created by local artists either with themes
related to Japan, using the translated Japanese scripts or writing scripts based on
Japanese stories. The other is in the collaboration projects that involve Japanese artists
– directors, performers, designers and technicians.
The former has long been in practice. For example, Akutagawa’s Rashomon was
staged in Malay in as early as 1970s in Malaysia and was re-staged in English in 2003 and
2004. The director, Faridah Merican was invited to Tokyo for the preparatory meeting of a
collaboration project and happened to see Rashomon there directed by a Japanese
director.
She was inspired by that production and decided to restage in Malaysia.
Firstly,
she did it at her own space called The Actors Studio Bangsar in 2003, and the production
was invited to Malaysia’s National Theatre in 2004. The English script was done by the
artistic director of The Actors Studio, Joe Hasham, but it was obviously based on the
English subtitles of Kurosawa’s film.
Although many directors seem to be interested in Japanese plays, the difficulty to
find the translation has long been a barrier.
The positive movement is that English
translation of Japanese plays are increasingly available – still the number is far from
satisfying, though - thanks to the translation project titled “Half A Century of Japanese
Theatre” by Japan Playwrights Association.
In this project, which resulted in the
publication of seven volumes so far, the editorial committee selected 10-15 remarkable
plays of each decade and translated them into English.
While the World War II has been one of the most talked about issues when
Southeast Asian theatres choose themes relating to Japan, it was notable that the young
generation theatre practitioners started to talk about the World War II in 1990s.
Malaysian
playwright and director, Huzir Sulaiman’s Occupation is a good example. This piece was
staged in conjunction with Singapore Arts Festival 2002 and commissioned by Singapore
2
National Arts Council. Huzir, in his late 20s, wrote this play based on the true story of his
grand parents.
WWII was the biggest direct encounter between Southeast Asia and Japan, yet it has
not been discussed very openly.
It is also interesting that these younger generations’
interpretation of the war is from various points of views - not necessarily “accuse
Japanese” kind of approach.
Edwin Sumun of Malaysia made his debut as a director in
2001 with American playwright, Velina Hasu Houston‘s Tea which is a story about
Japanese war brides who got married to active-duty American serviceman between 1946
and 1960, when Japan was under occupation.
Houston herself is a daughter of a
Japanese war bride and the Tea is based on the real story of her mother. While Edwin
concentrates in the inner space of the characters rather than talking about the war,
Singapore’s Agni Kootthu Theatre Company’s 2005 production, Romusha tried to deal
directly with the issue of abuse by Japanese Army during WWII.
b) Collaboration Projects
International collaboration between artists of Japan and Southeast Asia, is rather new
movement which has been tried since late 1990s.
Most of early projects were initiated by
Japanese with their government’s support, mainly through the Japan Foundation. One of
the most extensive efforts was the Foundation’s “Exchange and Study and Training
Program for Asian Theatrical Artists” program which resulted with more than 10
collaborations between Japanese and Asian countries’ artists.
This program was
established in 1995 as a part of the Asia Peace and Friendship Exchange Plan which was
announced on 31 August 1994 as the basic foreign policy of Prime Minister Tomiichi
Murayama. This program was composed of four parts, namely (i) inviting Asian artists to
Japan for study and training, (ii) joint production of works, (iii) public performances of the
works in Japan and (iv) public performances of the works in the participating countries.
The Island In Between (2001), which was one of the last productions created under
this program (the program was terminated in 2002), was the largest-scaled theatrical
collaboration project between Japan and Malaysia ever. The play was directed by Jo
Kukathas of Malaysia and written by Kam Raslan and Kukathas herself. Performers and
3
technical staff were selected from both Japan and Malaysia, and Setagaya Public Theatre
of Japan and Kukathas’s Instant Cafe Theatre Company played a role of the co-organizers
together with the Japan Foundation. The Malaysian team was invited to Japan nearly
two months in total for the research and the rehearsals.
This is a story about an island somewhere between Malay Peninsula and Sumatra
Island where the ghosts are trapped forever. The story begins when a Japanese engineer,
whose company is building a bridge linking Malaysia and Sumatra, arrives on the island.
The characters both living and dead represent the history of Malaya, including WWII. In
one scene, a Chinese Malaysian ghost accuses a living Malay that Malays cooperated
with Japanese during the war while Chinese resisted and suffered a lot.
This
collaboration was not only a joint creation between Japan and Malaysia but also a trial to
bridge ethnic groups in Malaysia.
One of the most unique features in this project was that the technical team was also
a mixture of both Japanese and Malaysians.
Lighting was designed by Mac Chan, a
Malaysian designer, with the assistance of Japanese technicians and set was designed by
Rumi Matsui, a Japanese designer, and a Malaysian builder built it. It has been very rare
to have such an extensive collaboration in the technical field.
remarkable.
And the result was
Chan, who is now the technical director of Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts
Centre (KLPAC) which opened in May 2005, designed KLPAC with a great influence of the
design of Setagaya Public Theatre.
The Japan Foundation participated even larger multi-country collaboration projects
such as Liar (1995-1999), directed by Ong Keng Sen of Singapore and Hotel Grand Asia
(2003-2005). The latter, co-organized with Setagaya Public Theatre, was a child of The
Island In Between in a sense. To answer the question, “why do we collaborate?” which
was a big issue in Island, this 3-year project, which was produced by the same producer
as Island and involved Kukathas again, was started with 16 artists from all over Southeast
Asia and Japan.
These government-funded projects were rather big and extensive in terms of their
structure and hence huge budget was needed. On the other hand, much smaller-scaled
4
projects, initiated by the artists themselves or private theatres and institutes, started to
bloom in last few years.
Singapore’s Necessary Stage is one of the most active companies in this field. The
company’s resident playwright Haresh Sharma participated the Hotel Grand Asia project
and utilized the network created there for their own collaboration projects.
He invited
Philippines’ Rody Vera to their 2004 production, Godeatgod and now they are setting up
another collaboration about the Asian migrant workers with Tatsuo Kaneshita of Japan,
Nurumol Thammapruksa and Pradit Prasartthong of Thailand and Rody Vera, all
participants of Hotel Grand Asia.
Teater Cahaya’s Siddahlta was staged in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.
This artist
collective, formed in 2001, consists of performing artists of Asian traditional performances
such as Noh, Arja, Bedoyo, Topeng Bharata Natyam and Makyong. The idea of Teater
Cahaya originated from discussions among three non-Asian nationals who had been
involved in theatre forms in Asia including Noh specialist Richard Emmert who is based in
Tokyo over thirty years. They invited artists from Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia and
started small workshops which eventually resulted in the full production, Siddahlta.
Spring in Kuala Lumpur, another collaboration between Japan and Malaysia was
also a result of unique development.
The director, Hiroshi Koike of Japan’s Pappa
Tarahumara Company, came to Kuala Lumpur for the first time in 2000 for their Japan
Foundation-sponsored performance at the National Theatre of Malaysia.
He conducted a
short workshop during his stay with a very good response from the participants. The
Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur received a request from the participants to bring them
back for another workshop and two more workshops were held in 2002 and 2003 without
any intention to create a production.
But at the end of the day, both Koike and
participants desired to finish this project with a production and Malaisia’s Five Arts Centre
and the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur decided to start the Spring in Kuala Lumpur.
Koike stayed in Kuala Lumpur nearly two months together with three dancers of his
company and several technical staff members.
It is interesting that this was quite
different from Island In Between while it looked really alike as a Japan-Malaysia
collaboration with the support of the Japan Foundation.
5
The major differences between these two collaborations were; (i) the idea to create a
production came from the artists in Spring while it was a premise in Island and the
Foundation selected the artists purposely.
(ii) Spring staged only in Malaysia and
prepared according to Malaysian standard way while Island followed Japanese way even
when staged in Kuala Lumpur. (iii) The total budget for Spring was far less than 10% of
the budget of Island because it was a project of Japan Foundation’s regional office, not a
headquarters’ project.
So far, the artist-initiated projects have no formulated way of the development and
each project has unique features.
Although international collaborations are getting
popular and usual thing, they still cost too much for most of the artists in Southeast Asia
even with some financial support. In that sense, it is natural that Singapore is leading the
way in the region in this field.
3. Background of the Development
Kuo Pao Kun, who was Singapore’s most influential playwright and director, once
said, “It is natural that the national level activities are done before individuals and groups
start the collaboration works. We would call it “the international order” and thus the nation
has to open the door before individuals begin… But what are important are not the
governments but the companies and artists who work together.
Although each country
has its own foreign policy and various political intentions intervene the arts, what artists
themselves intend to do is the most important”3. He wisely predicted what happened in
last couple of years as shown above.
Such shift from the governmental initiative to the artists’ or private sector’s initiative
shows the diversifying and deepening of the relationship among artists of Southeast Asia
and Japan.
The reasons of the shift can be attributed to the following three
developments.
Firstly, the chances of the interaction among artists have increased. The increasing
3
Kuo Pao Kun, Theatre at the Margins (Kyokaisen Jo No Engeki), Public Theatre, No. 14
(February 2001), p.42
6
number of the grant programs has resulted in artists’ greater chances in winning grants to
pursue his or her projects and researches.
In addition to Japan Foundation, which had “Exchange and Study and Training
Program for Asian Theatrical Artists” program and several other fellowship programs, some
grant making foundations have become major actors in this field.
Nippon Foundation has decided to award a research grant to a Malaysian director
Lim How Ngean this year.
His research is about Japanese traditional theatre and how
they work together with contemporary artists. He will be attached to Setagaya Public
Theater which now has a Kyogen master Mansai Nomura as the artistic director.
Arts Network Asia (ANA), which was established in 1999 under the initiative of Ong
Keng Sen, the director of Theatre Works of Singapore with the funding from the Ford
Foundation, plays a major role among the Southeast Asian theatre practitioners who hope
to collaborate with other Asian artists. This program is unique in terms of the organization.
Theatre companies in the region become the secretariat of ANA in turn and the artists in
the panel will take the full responsibility of the screening and selection.
Currently,
Malaysia’s Five Arts Centre is working as the secretariat and several Malaysian artists
have got the research grant.
Mac Chan, who was a lighting designer of Island In Between, is currently trying to
form a network of theatre technicians using ANA grant.
Lee Swee Keong, a Malaysian
Buto dancer, will visit Japan to join the course of Yoshihito Ohno.
While greater availability of the grant programs enabled to increase the chances to
visit the country of the counterpart and meet in person, it should be also stressed the
technical development, especially the Internet has decreased the cost of communication
dramatically and easiness of emails reduced the mental barrier to communicate each other.
If the videoconference becomes popular and materials come to be available online - that is
what GloPAD would offer -, more visual and practical exchange can be done with low cost.
Secondly, the number of private and public theatres which are keen to international
collaborations has increased and they started to act as host organizations of collaborations.
These theatres are now taking place which once was dominated by governmental
7
agencies.
Setagaya Public Theatre, which was established in 1997 by the ward office of
Tokyo’s Setagaya ward, stated its involvement in the international collaborations as one of
the theater’s main objectives from the very beginning. It was a unique trial for a public
theatre in Japan because most of the public theatres before Setagaya did not have
producing functions and were usually rented out to the outside companies.
Setagaya
invited Makoto Sato, the director of Black Tent Theatre, as the first artistic director and
Sato led Setagaya to participate actively in collaboration projects especially with Asian
countries as a host organization using his connections with Asian artists established
through Black Tent Theater’s various collaborations.
Setagaya’s activities brought a great impact to Japanese theatre scene and some of
the recently established public theatres got to have produce department.
Yamaguchi
Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in southern Japan, which hosted the workshop and
rehearsal of Hotel Grand Asia in February 2005 is a good example. Although the number
of such theatres is still small and they are not as active as Setagaya yet, greater chances
of the collaboration will be emerged in the future because of the activities of these
theatres.
In this field, Japan is still taking the lead, but some new theatres in Singapore and
Malaysia have potential to take part in international collaborations.
Singapore’s
Esplanade is one of the largest theatres in the region in terms of both the venue and the
budget. It has not yet been active in collaboration, but surely it has a potential to host
projects.
Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre was just started (yet official opening is to
be held only in September) and is setting up the projects now.
The artistic director, Joe
Hasham, has stated his intention to make it a “meeting point” of artists, not only from
Malaysia but also from foreign countries by hosting international collaboration projects.
Lastly, a good spiraling process is working in terms of the human relationships. A
relationship created in one project inspires a subsequent project.
And thus new
relationships are continuously formed.
Lee Swee Keong, who is going to visit Japan under ANA grant as mentioned above,
8
got the idea of this research project during his stay in Japan in 2004. He was one of the
leading acts of the Spring in Kuala Lumpur, and the director Hiroshi Koike invited him to
his company’s new production, Street of Crocodile.
Lee stayed in Japan for nearly two
months for the rehearsal and happened to meet Japanese legendary Buto master, Kazuo
Ohno and his son, Yoshihito Ohno in Tokyo. Yoshihito Ohno recommended Lee to study
under his supervision at their studio to learn the comprehensive methodology of Buto. In
a sense, Spring opened a door for Lee to pursue his career as a Buto dancer.
The “legacy” of government-funded projects plays big role as the seed of the smaller
projects initiated by the artists.
Hotel Grand Asia, which was a child of Island In Between,
had a remarkable meaning as the generator of such relationship among artists. This
project started with the discussions about the reason and necessity of the collaboration
and took more than three years to be finalized with the production.
It was unique
because nothing has decided in advance - there was even a possibility to stop the project
right after the first meeting if the conclusion was “no need to collaborate”. The project let
the participating artists to talk a lot.
They talked about their artistic views, political
opinions and even personal matters. The three-year’s extensive and deep collaboration
generated close ties among artists and they are trying to maintain and extend the
relationship through their own projects such as The Necessary Theatre’s Godeatgod.
4. Possible Areas of GloPAD Fulfilling the Needs in Southeast Asian theatre
Many contributions can be expected from GloPAD to encourage Southeast Asian
artists to work with Japanese counterparts or to use Japanese theatrical elements in their
productions.
From the experiences in Malaysia and Singapore, three areas seem to be
the biggest possibilities namely, i) making it easy for Southeast Asian artists to find their
counterparts in Japan, ii) giving practical information about Japanese technical theatre
including costumes, lighting and sound. iii) giving information about Japanese system in
the theatre including the glossary and the function of each position.
Even though the amount of the information about Japanese theatre available abroad
9
has been increasing, mainly thanks to the Internet, still it is difficult for Southeast Asian
artists to find the necessary information because there is no format or “gateway” to the
information. It is very difficult to identify which information is trustworthy from the great
amount of listings we will see after searching Internet.
to rely on their own contacts.
At the end of the day, artists have
For example, The Necessary Stage invited an actress from
Seinendan Theatre Company of Japan for Godeatgod. I felt her acting style was not very
suitable and asked why they choose her. The answer was it is because Seinendan is the
only company they have contact in Japan. The same thing happens to those who seek
Japanese counterparts or host institutes for their research grant.
Malaysia’s Lim How
Ngean, who will be in Japan under Nippon Foundation grant, experienced a great difficulty
to find the suitable counterpart.
Finally he decided to be attached to Setagaya Public
Theatre, but it was not the result of comparison of possible institutes. He had no other
contacts there.
The Japan Foundation organizes a website titled Performing Arts Network Japan
(www.perfromingarts.jp) with Institute of Arts and occasionally release brochures and
CD-ROMs which contain the introduction of Japanese contemporary theatre companies.
The website rather concentrates on the news and updates as well as interviews to the
artists while brochures and CD-ROMs is more “encyclopedia” format with detailed
information of each company with photos and CD-ROMs are with video clips.
But the
area covered there is obviously very limited.
The Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur collaborated with Kakiseni.com, a web
magazine company in Malaysia, to set up an online database of Malaysian performing
artists and companies. If GloPAD and such databases can be linked in any way, it would
be really useful for Southeast Asian artists to find their counterparts.
Another area that GloPAD can contribute is to provide practical information about
technical aspect of Japanese theatre.
For example, when Rashomon was staged in
Kuala Lumpur in 2003, a local designer designed costumes.
The request from the
director was to make them with enough Japanese taste but not necessarily complete copy
of Kimono.
Although the result was satisfying, the biggest problem was the basic
10
structure of the costumes was based on the western cloths. Therefore, actors’ movement
was not very Japanese. For instance, the costume of the Wife had ring-shaped hard rims
in the cuffs and the overlapping of the skirt was very deep.
freely - she could even run with wide steps.
woman in Kimono.
Thus, she could move very
As a result, she did not look like a Japanese
For the restaging in 2004, a Japanese designer was invited and
designed with the same condition. His design also did not follow the traditional Kimono
designs, but his design was based on Kimono structure. The result was remarkable and
quite naturally the costume limited actress’s movement and it became a persuasive
presentation.
Photos of the costumes, lighting designs and sets are easily available via Internet
now, but there is always a danger the understanding achieved from them is very superficial.
If GloPAD can provide material with deep and extensive explanations, it would be a great
help for the artists who try to involve Japanese elements in their productions.
The third area is useful especially when producing the collaboration projects - the
information about Japanese system in the theatre such as the function of each position
and glossary. When the preparation of Island In Between was going on in Kuala Lumpur,
the position which was most difficult to fill was technical director because usually they do
not have that position in Malaysia.
Finally one sound technician, who has a good
knowledge and experience, was appointed as the technical director, but he was very
frustrated towards the end of the project because he really had no idea what was expected
for that position.
The definition of the function of stage manager is the most fluid of all the theatrical
disciplines.
Japanese stage managers are usually not only a manager, but also a builder
and an operator.
When Malaysian Alliance Technical Theatre planned to have a
workshop of building portable set suitable for the tour and asked Japanese counterpart to
recommend a lecturer, a name of stage manager was suggested to their surprise.
Collaborations are not only the exchange of the artistic visions. When it comes to
the production, it is a process of learning and understanding of the entire background and
system of each country’s theatre. GloPAD has great possibilities to lessen the difficulties
11
by providing the background information about the custom and structure of theatre in each
country.
12