Performative Power
Featured Performing Selves: A Case Study on the Dramaturgy of Everyday Lives of Student-artists in a Humanistic Buddhist Environment
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Katherine Mae Sabate
Learning, experiencing, and making theatre not only nurture artists but equip human beings to journey within themselves and understand the world they belong in. Guang Ming College, unique from other Performing Arts colleges in the Philippines, teaches Performing Arts in an environment informed by Humanistic Buddhism. Part of its curriculum is a course on Humanistic Buddhism in Performing Arts, which tackles how performing arts shall be experienced and expressed in the virtue of humanism – with its creation, collaboration and management. Guided by literature in applied theatre, drama and theatre in education, and Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,” - this paper investigates the importance of drama and theatre in education in performing every day in a highly contextualized space. Guided by the virtues and theories of/on Humanistic Buddhism, this paper juxtaposes the significance of how lived experiences become meaningful with mindfulness. This case study is a dramaturgical analysis of Guang Ming College’s performing arts students on how they lived and performed their everyday lives at the College. This paper, using theatre as a metaphor for daily life, looks into the nuances of how learning, experiencing and making theatre equipped these students to become dramaturgs of their own lives. Through the lives of these students, this paper concludes, reaffirms, and exhibits that/how theatre is a sanctuary for transformation where one can (re)discover the self, others, the self in the other, society, and the world to be mindful on one’s role in day-to-day adventures and challenges.
“A Space Where Traditionally They Were Not Welcome”: A Study of KPOP the Musical
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sheri Anderson, Juno Snider
American musical theatre has not traditionally been welcoming to the AAPI community. One study stated that, in 2019, there were only 20 Asian-American actors in all Broadway ensembles combined. Another study from 2017 indicated that 95% of all Broadway plays and musicals were authored by Caucasian playwrights. The 2017 off-Broadway run of KPOP: The Musical was, therefore, a groundbreaking event in the history of AAPI theatre. It was an Asian American story being told by an Asian American creative team, and featuring and entire cast of persons of color, 17 out of 18 of whom were of Asian descent. The production was both a critical and commercial success, selling out its entire run and winning Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical, and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. However, when the show transferred to Broadway, it closed only 17 performances after opening. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what went wrong, and to what extent race may have been a contributing factor in the show’s premature closing.
Dance Improvisation - a New Approach to Authentic Leadership Development: The Transformative Power of Dance in Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ke Yeng Lye
Authentic relationships are essential in teams and organizations to reach their goals and optimize results as the members are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and grow in a psychologically safe environment. There is an emphasis on authentic leadership to encourage leaders to foster trust and positive relationships with their team members in this competitive society. Competition arouses the desire in individuals to be perfect and not make any mistakes. If leaders try to present their perfect selves, the team members are unlikely, to be honest, and vulnerable with their leaders too. Leaders find it challenging to present themselves between professionality and a private sense of self. To achieve the balance, the challenge of being a true leader is to gain self-knowledge to figure out how we can use leadership ability to serve others (George et al., 2007). The main goal of this qualitative research is to explore the use of dance improvisation as a new approach to university students’ authentic leadership development. The methods used in this action research are surveys, video recordings, workshops, and interviews. As dance improvisation activities provide individuals with a safe environment to explore different sides of themselves without judgment by others, this sense of community helps them to build confidence and change their perception towards criticism and perfectionism. Therefore, implementing dance improvisation into leadership development courses in universities allows university students with different cultural backgrounds and no prior experience in dancing to learn about practicing authentic leadership in a more relaxed and creative way.
The Art Historical Perspective of T.J. Clark's Curatorial Approach: Illustrated by the Exhibition "Lowry and Portraits of Modern Life"
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Peixuan Lyu
From T.J. Clark’s perspective, L.S.Lowry’s paintings are not as aesthetic, but as "investigative," meaning to view the overall situation from a social perspective, which complicates the public's understanding. In the exhibition "Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life”, Clark, starting from the method of social art history, actively promotes the integration of Lori's work, exhibition narrative logic, and his artistic concepts into one, focusing on public space and class perspectives, providing a specific answer to "modernization" in this exhibition. Lowry focuses on the working class, which coincides with Clark's fascination with modernity. As a curator, Clark elaborates on Lowry's work from the perspective of social class. In the landscape of contemporary exhibitions, where participation in artistic practice, intervention, and publicness are important propositions in art curation, the profound insight into the social landscape and public consciousness is not only the responsibility of the exhibition but also the mission of the curator.
