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This is an updated and revised edition of Teatro e spettacolo fra Oriente e Occidente, first published in 1992. Taking the Silk Road as a point of departure, the book builds a history of performance around the migratory movements and cultural exchanges between Asia and Europe. Arranged chronologically, it spans from the Chinese Tang dynasty all the way to the work of Brecht and Grotowski in the 20th century. Much of the book's focus is on the role of the actor's trained body as a source of knowledge and a medium of transmission across cultures. The first chapter looks at early evidence of Asian influence in the performing arts from European antiquity to the Renaissance, including "Oriental" mimes in Rome, the Golden Age of the Yuan Chinese theatre during the time of Marco Polo, and the migration of actors along the Silk Road. Chapter two analyzes "Oriental" exoticism in 17th- and 18th-century European theatre by looking at "oriental" characters such as the Turk, the Moor, and the Harlequin, as well as at Turkish music and Chinese fashion in European and American stages. The next chapter investigates the relationship between Western contacts and Indian theatre in the Romantic and post-Romantic period by looking at early translations of Sanskrit plays, theatre in colonial India, and the role of Orientalism in melodrama, operetta, and the dances of the bayaderes. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries occupy the fourth chapter, with a particular focus on the first tours of actors from the East to Europe, such as Japanese performers Sada Tacco and Kawakami Otojiro. Chapter five explores the relationship between sculptor Rodin and Japanese actress Hanako as well as the role of Asian performance in the development of modern dance in Europe and the emergence of "universal expositions." The final chapter looks at the role of Asian performance in the practice and theory of modern theatre throughout the 20th century, from Gordon Craig to Eugenio Barba, with a consideration of transnationalism and globalization as part of this historic process.
Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies is a historically rich study of the way 1920s and early 1930s New York City African American performers problematized the sexual, racial, and class binaries of white bourgeois society while opening up the space for new artistic and cultural voices to emerge. The first chapter provides a sociohistoric and performance criticism foundation of the Harlem Renaissance by looking at the staging, make-up, and reception of Harlem rent parties and private lesbian and gay parties as incubators of a vibrant performance culture. Chapter two analyzes William Jourdan Rapp and Wallace Thurman's Broadway melodrama Harlem (1929), which dramatizes a rent party and opens up questions about racial representation, authorship, and identity politics during this period. The next chapter investigates the relationship between gay subculture and Edward Sheldon and Charles MacArthur's play Lulu Belle (1926), in particular its use of blackface and the portrayal of single black women. The work of Florence Mills and Ethel Waters forms the center of chapter four, specifically the ways in which these well-known African American performers, known at the time as "chocolate babies" or "cuties," collaborated with white artists and producers in creating problematic stereotypes while generating a higher visibility for African American artists. The final chapter of the books is devoted to the "blueswoman" Gladys Bentley (1907-1960), one of the most controversial performers [End Page 170] of the Harlem Renaissance, whose life, work, and persona cut across easy classifications of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Overall the book aims to revisit the Harlem Renaissance and highlight the role of not only race but also gender and sexuality at the core of this cultural period in American theatre and performance history.
