Title:
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Geographies of identity and performance in Asian American theatre
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This thesis examines performative geographies of racial and ethnic identity and how
these operate through the specific artistic practices, aesthetics and spaces of Asian
American theatre. This is achieved through an ethnographic methodology that
examines the rehearsals and staged performances of two Asian American productions
in Los Angeles: Imelda: A New Musical (East West Players) and Solve for X (Lodestone
Theatre Ensemble). The thesis brings together two bodies of work on performance that
have remained separate within geography, namely: performance as a socialised practice
of identity and performance as a creative artistic practice. It therefore examines Asian
American theatre as a socio-political institution where marginalised identities can be re-centred,
explored and contested. In so doing it pays attention to the diasporic and
multicultural geographies of Asian American identity as well as the spatialized dynamics
of the embodied techniques through which those identities were re-performed.
Specifically, this thesis examines Imelda: A New Musical to highlight how theatrical
performance allowed actors to construct essentialist diasporic Filipino identities that
worked across different geographical scales (chapter three). This thesis also examines
the cultural-political locations of this production by using intercultural literatures on
translation and authenticity (chapter four). The production Solve for X is examined for
how it re-created Asian American identity in ways that moved beyond mainstream
stereotypical expectations. This thesis focuses on such a re-working of racialized
performativity through the relationship between script and performance (chapter five).
It also brings together geographical work on affect and emotion with theatrical
literatures that attempt to socialise Stanislavskian forms of acting (chapter six). The
thesis thus contributes to interdisciplinary engagements on space, identity and
performance, moving them towards a 'theatrical geography' (conclusion).
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