The first ever comprehensive collection of plays in English from Southeast Asia. Features work by eight playwrights from seven countries in Southeast Asia, a region which is experiencing profound change: Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia. Southeast Asian Plays explores the rich variety of dramatic work that is only beginning to be translated into English. Theatre scripts are merely blueprints for productions, especially in this region. As elsewhere, second productions and revivals are rare, so publication is key to allowing play texts to find a wider international readership. Topics include the global financial crisis, sex workers, traditional v modern values, the role of faith in society, corruption in high places and journalistic ethics. The plays have been selected for performance. Plays: The Plunge by Jean Tay (Singapore) about the efects of a financial crisis An Evening At the Opera by Floy Quintos (Philippines) about a dictator and his wife Night of the Minotaur by Tew Bunnag (Thailand) about a man misused as a monster Tarap Man by Ann Lee (Malaysia) about a man wrongly imprisoned under the justice system Dark Race by Dang Chuong (Vietnam) about corruption in high places Frangipani by Chhon Sina (Cambodia) about the sex trade in Cambodia Piknic by Joned Suryatmoko (Indonesia) about the need to get rich quick in Bali Nadirah by Alfian Saat (Singapore) about the conflict between faith and morality "The editors have done an excellent job of opening up our chances of reading and learning about plays from all over Southeast Asia. ...editorial choices are significant for opening up spaces to voices which are otherwise heard less often. All in all the plays are interesting for the ways in which they grapple with key concerns in their respective societies." --The Asiatic

An astonishing variety of theatrical performances may be seen in the eight countries of Southeast Asia-Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Brandon's lively, wide-ranging discussion points out interesting similarities and differences among the countries. Many of his photographs are included here.

A comprehensive and authoritative single-volume reference work on the theatre arts of Asia-Oceania. Nine expert scholars provide entries on performance in twenty countries from Pakistan in the west, through India and Southeast Asia to China, Japan and Korea in the east. An introductory pan-Asian essay explores basic themes - they include ritual, dance, puppetry, training, performance and masks. The national entries concentrate on the historical development of theatre in each country, followed by entries on the major theatre forms, and articles on playwrights, actors and directors. The entries are accompanied by rare photographs and helpful reading lists.

This is a tribute to one of the foremost writers and directors in Indonesia, with essays on his work, a script of his play Geez!, and various reflections by his peers. Distributed for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Modern Japanese Theatre and Performance is a collection of sixteen essays on Japanese theatre, including historical overviews of twentieth century theatre, analyses of specific productions and individuals, and consideration of the intercultural nature of modern Japanese theatre. Also included is a new translation of a 'Superkyogen' play.

Ecocriticism in relation to the Southeast Asian region is relatively new. So far, John Charles Ryan’s Ecocriticism in Southeast Asia is the first book of its kind to focus on the region and its literature to give an ecocritical analysis: that volume compiles analyses of the eco-literatures from most of the Southeast Asian region, providing a broad insight into the ecological concerns of the region as depicted in its literatures and other cultural texts. This edited volume furthers the study of Southeast Asian ecocriticism, focusing specifically on prominent myths and histories and the myriad ways in which they connect to the social fabric of the region. Our book is an original contribution to the expanding field of ecocriticism, as it highlights the mytho-historical basis of many of the region’s literatures and their relationship to the environment. The varied articles in this volume together explore the idea of nature and its relationship with humans. The always problematic questions that surround such explorations, such as “why do we regard nature as ‘external’?” or “how is humankind a continuum with nature?”, emerge throughout the volume either overtly or implicitly. As Pepper (1993) points out, what Karl Marx referenced as ‘first’ or ‘external’ nature gave rise to humankind. But humanity “worked on this ‘first’ nature to produce a ‘second’ nature: the material creations of society plus its institutions, ideas and values.” (Pepper, 108). Thus, our volume constantly negotiates this field of ideas and belief systems, in diverse ways and in various cultures, attempting to relate them to the current ecological predicaments of ASEAN. It will likely prove an invaluable resource for scholars and students of ecocriticism and, more broadly, of Southeast Asian cultures and literatures.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork spanning twenty years, Power Plays is the first scholarly book in English on wayang golek, the Sundanese rod-puppet theater of West Java. It is a detailed and lively account of the ways in which performers of this major Asian theatrical form have engaged with political discourses in Indonesia. Wayang golek has shaped, as well, the technological and commercial conditions of art and performance in a modernizing society. Using interviews with performers, musical transcriptions, translations of narrative and song texts, and archival materials, author Andrew N. Weintraub analyzes the shifting and flexible nature of a set of performance practices called Padalangan, the art of the puppeteer. He focuses on "superstar" performers and the musical troupes that dominated wayang golek during the New Order political regime of former president Suharto (1966-98) and the ensuing three years of the post-Suharto period. Studies of actual performances illuminate stylistic and formal elements and situate wayang golek as a social process in Sundanese culture and society. Power Plays includes an interactive multimedia CD-ROM of wayang golek. Power Plays shows how meanings about identity, citizenship, and community are produced through theater, music, language, and discourse. While based in ethnographic theory and methods, this book is at the center of a new synthesis emerging among ethnomusicology, anthropology, and cultural studies. Its cross-disciplinary approach will inspire researchers studying similar struggles over cultural authority and popular representation in culture and the performing arts.