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John Emigh (born 3 September 1941) is Professor Emeritus from the Departments of Theatre, Speech and Dance and of English at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Emigh taught at Brown from 1967 to 2009. Since his retirement, he has mainly been teaching and directing in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program.
John Emigh was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up in Connecticut. In his New Britain high school, he was a saxophonist in the school band, treasurer of numerous clubs, and planned on going to law school with the goal of going into politics. He entered Amherst College, became interested in theater arts, and took a year off to travel to Spain and Morocco to study and translate plays by Federico García Lorca. He received his BA from Amherst in English and Dramatic Arts in 1964 and went on to graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans. Tulane awarded him an MFA in Theatre (Directing) in 1967, and a PhD (Theatre: Theory and Criticism) in 1971.[ citation needed ]
Emigh is a director, performer, and acting teacher who has directed more than 70 plays in universities and in professional theatre, and has written extensively on the masked theatre and rituals of New Guinea, Bali, and India, as well as on Western theatrical practices. In 1974–75, he traveled in New Guinea, South Asia, and Indonesia, where he studied Balinese "topeng" masked dance with I Nyoman Kakul. Since then, he has made several more research trips to Asia, investigating the street jesters and court fools of Rajasthan, the use of masks in Eastern India, and the changing dynamics of performance in Bali.[ citation needed ]
His 1985 documentary film, Hajari Bhand of Rajasthan: Jester without a Court, [1] has been shown at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Emigh also compiled an interactive database of the permanent collection of masks at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi. His book Masked Performance: The Play of Self and Other in Ritual and Theatre [2] combines years of ethnographic research with the insights of a practicing actor and director to describe and theorize the use of masks in both Asian and Western contexts.
Emigh has published contributions or articles in Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies; [3] Cambridge Guide to Theatre; [4] Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance; [5] South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia; [6] Teaching Performance Studies; Re-Playing Shakespeare in Asia; The Idea of Rajasthan: Explorations in Regional Identity; [7] Gender in Performance: The Presentation of Difference in the Performing Arts; [8] Art and Politics in Southeast Asia, Six Perspectives: Papers from the Distinguished Scholars Series; Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook; Masks: Faces of Culture, published by the St. Louis Art Museum; [9] Teaching Performance Studies; [10] SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies; Seagull Theatre Magazine; Faces; The Drama Review; Communications; Asian Theatre Journal; World of Music.
His recent projects include an essay on the killings in Bali in 1965 as reflected in the Balinese performing arts, an article theorizing about Samuel Colt as the inspiration for George Bernard Shaw's Undershaft, and a report on a Balinese adaptation of Macbeth in the style of the gambuh theater. He is also investigating the links between the traditional concerns of the theater and recent research in neuroscience, as well as studying mask performance and traditions in Mexico, Austria, Germany, and Italy.[ citation needed ]
As a performer, Emigh has acted with leading Balinese artists and has performed one-man shows and lecture-demonstrations based on Balinese mask techniques at schools, hospitals, universities, theatres, and festivals throughout the United States and in Bali and India, including the Performing Garage in New York City, The New Theatre Festival of Baltimore, the Indian National School for Drama, the Tibetan School of Drama, and the Balinese Academy for the Arts. Substantive articles about Emigh's theatrical work have appeared in TDR: The Drama Review and Asian Theatre Journal, as well as in various Asian journals.[ citation needed ]
He was the founding chairperson of the Association for Asian Performance and served as chair of Brown University's Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance from 1987 to 1993. In 1971, he conceived and co-ordinated the RI Festival of New Theatre (the first festival to bring together the work of America's leading avant-garde groups of that period). In 2005, Emigh was Artistic Director for Performance Studies International's Providence, RI conference and festival: "Becoming Uncomfortable". [11] He served on the steering committees for the founding of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education [12] and of Performance Studies International, and he currently serves on PSi's executive board.[ citation needed ]
Emigh is married to Ulrike Emigh and the father of Eric E. Emigh, and he is the father of Aaron Emigh and Rebecca Emigh from a previous marriage.[ citation needed ]
Bali is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre. The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the 1980s. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of its economy.
Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones and a set of hand-drums called kendang, which keep the beat. The kemanak, a banana-shaped idiophone, and the gangsa, another metallophone, are also commonly used gamelan instruments on Bali. Other notable instruments include xylophones, bamboo flutes, a bowed string instrument called a rebab, and a zither-like instrument called a siter, used in Javanese gamelan. Additionally, vocalists will be featured, being referred to as sindhen for females or gerong for males.
A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment, and often employed for rituals and rites. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes, as well as in the performing arts and for entertainment. They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer's body.
Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue." She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
Kecak, known in Indonesian as tari kecak, is a form of Balinese Hindu dance and music drama that was developed in the 1930s in Bali, Indonesia. Since its creation, it has been performed primarily by men, with the first women's kecak group having started in 2006. The dance is based on the story of the Ramayana and is traditionally performed in temples and villages across Bali.
Rangda is the demon queen of the Leyaks in Bali, according to traditional Balinese mythology. Terrifying to behold, the child-eating Rangda leads an army of evil witches against the leader of the forces of good — Barong. The battle between Barong and Rangda is featured in a Barong dance which represents the eternal battle between good and evil.
Topeng is a dramatic form of Indonesian dance in which one or more mask-wearing, ornately costumed performers interpret traditional narratives concerning fabled kings, heroes and myths, accompanied by gamelan or other traditional music instruments. Topeng dance is a typical Indonesian dance that can be found in various regions in Indonesia. Topeng dance has the main characteristic that the dancers use masks to cover their faces. The dance will usually be performed by one dancer or a group of dancers.
Prof. Dr. I Made Bandem is a Balinese dancer, artist, author, and educator.
Ralph Minor Lee was an American puppeteer and theatre artist. His work was centered on the design and use of masks in theatre and performance. The majority of his productions took place outside of traditional performance venues, included parades, pageants, celebrations, and outdoor theatrical performances. Masks and large puppets were central to his productions, which aimed to make artistic experiences accessible to all members of the community. He staged his productions in familiar, public locations, charging no admission fee whenever possible and creating vivid images that could immediately resonate with the audience.
Komal Kothari (1929-2004) was an Indian folklorist and ethnomusicologist. Komal Kothari had devoted his life to investigation and documentation of folk traditions of western Rajasthan. Kothari received the honour of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan from the Government of India. Komal Kothari painstakingly worked to preserve the cultural memory and made numerous recordings of folk music. He studied Langa and Manganiyar communities of folk musicians of Thar desert. Komal Kothari was not only a scholar but also a man of action. He co-founded Rupayan Sansthan - Rajasthan Institute of Folklore, in 1960 in the village of Borunda. The institution houses a repository of recordings by Kothari and works to collect, preserve, and disseminate the oral traditions of Rajasthan. Kothari was co-editor of the journal Lok Sanskriti, a journal based on the theme of folk culture. Besides, Kothari arranged international performances of folk artists from Rajasthan in several counries. His monograph on Langas, a folk-musician caste in Rajasthan, was enlivened by an accompanying album of recordings of twelve folk songs sung by Langa artistes. His understanding of desert culture and its connections with ecology endeared him to the environmentalists. He planned a museum based on the ecology of the broom’, to show the technical use of specific types of desert grass for specific purposes. His vision was actualised in the form of Arna Jharna - The Thar Desert Museum of Rajasthan in Borunda, near Jodhpur. Kothari was a scholar of patterns of culture and his expertise enriched both folklore studies and history.
Wayang wong, also known as wayang orang, is a type of classical Javanese and Balinese dance theatrical performance with themes taken from episodes of the Ramayāna or Mahabharāta. Performances are stylised, reflecting Javanese court culture:
Wayang wong dance drama in the central Javanese Kraton of Yogyakarta represents the epitome of Javanese aesthetic unity. It is total theatre involving dance, drama, music, visual arts, language, and literature. A highly cultured sense of formality permeates every aspect of its presentation.
Lauren Raine is a painter, sculptor, mask artist, performance artist, author, and choreographer with work in international private and public collections. She was Director of Rites of Passage Gallery in Berkeley, California.
Balinese dance is an ancient dance tradition that is part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people of Bali island, Indonesia. Balinese dance is dynamic, angular, and intensely expressive. Balinese dancers express the stories of dance-drama through bodily gestures including gestures of fingers, hands, head, and eyes.
I Made Sidia is a Balinese wayang puppeteer. He is one of Bali's most acclaimed shadow artists.
Gambuh is an ancient form of Balinese dance-drama. It is accompanied by musicians in a gamelan gambuh ensemble.
Professor Leon Rubin is a UK theatre director, theatre management consultant, professor, writer, and former Director of East 15 Acting School. He is a member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was the first foreigner to be awarded an Honorary Professorship of GITIS Russian Theatre Academy, Moscow, in 1997. He began his career as assistant director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has been artistic director of three major UK theatre companies: Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Watford Palace theatre the Bristol Old Vic and Associate at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and a frequent guest at the Stratford Festival, Canada. He has directed theatre production in many countries across the world. In April 2019 it was announced that he had decided to step down from his position as Director of East 15 Acting School, and joined the school's newly formed research department, undertaking an initial 2-year research programme and focusing on directing and writing. Routledge published his book, Rehearsing Shakespeare in 2021. He then became Dean of Performing Arts at LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore.
Arja, also known as Balinese opera, is a popular form of Balinese theatre which combines elements of opera, dance, and drama. It was created in 1825 for the funeral of a Balinese prince. In the beginning it had an all-male cast; since the 20th century all performers have been women.
Indonesian theatre is a type of art in the form of drama performances that are staged on a stage, with a distinct Indonesian nuance or background. In general, theatre is an art that emphasizes the performing arts that are displayed in front of a large crowd. In other words, theater is a form of visualisation of a drama that is staged on the stage and watched by the audience. Indonesian theatre includes the performing arts of traditional theater and modern theatre located in the territory of Indonesia. Some examples of Indonesian theater are Arja, Wayang, Wayang wong, Lenong, Ludruk, Janger, Randai and others. Theatre in Indonesia can also be referred to as regional or ethnic theatre, because it originates and develops from 1,300 ethnic cultures in Indonesia.
Larry Reed is a shadow puppeteer. Reed is one of the first westerners to train in traditional Balinese shadow theatre and is considered a Dalang, or shadow master. He first began studying in San Francisco Art Institute before moving to study in Bali in the 1970s. Reed founded the company Shadow Light Productions to expose the general public to shadow theater and has created many original works while collaborating with others. Reed was born in Los Angeles, California but lived most of his life in San Francisco, California.
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