| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this research project was to understand, both at practical and theoretical levels, how contemporary American theatre is developing and/or refashioning itself in an age of globalization., from a comparative perspective between Japan and the U.S. For four years during the project, the investigator has conducted research 1) at American and Japanese theatre venues actually observing performances. 2) in reading through written material basically in the genre of culture and social theory. In the process, the multivalent notion of "globalization" has become a key concept in analyzing and thinking about contemporary theatre practices both in Japan and the U.S., while its concrete manifestations in "localized" theatrical works have been important sites to look at some theoretical issues that had to be addressed and explored. Capitalistic social relations have become globalized, making oppressive power invisible and even difficult to locate as a result. Thinking in those terms, if we assume globalization or the social structure that was being transformed because of it, can be observed in cultural sites such as theatre practices, it was rather interesting to discover that contemporary Japanese theatre practices after the new millennium have been transforming themselves through various formal experiments, partly because of their rapidly changing social milieu. On the other hand, American theatre artists are shifting and relocating their practices towards a social sphere, taking up some of the urgent issues of globalization. At the same time, everyday life social relations needs time to enter the artistic sensibilities, and it should be reminded that we keep this kind of research for some more years to come.
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