The other week I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Dr Dave O’Brien at Goldsmith’s about my book for the New Books in Critical Theory website. The podcast/audio file is now available, open access and therefore free, at the site here: http://newbooksincriticaltheory.com/2015/03/25/amanda-rogers-performing-asian-transnationalisms-theatre-identity-and-the-geographies-of-performance-routledge-2015/
He wrote a really great blurb for it which I am unashamedly cribbing here:
Identity, performance and globalisation are at the heart of the cultural practices interrogated by Amanda Rogers in Performing Asian Transnationalisms: Theatre, Identity and the Geography of Performance (Routledge, 2015). The book explores the global networks of theatre that have emerged between Asia, America and Europe, using a variety of policy, practice and political examples. The book argues that globalisation, and the attendant transnational flows of people and culture, has both the potential to create theatre careers and new, important, works, whist at the same time constraining individuals, communities and cultural forms. The book draws on a rich combination of ethnographic and interview data, along with theoretically informed cultural analysis, using examples ranging from The British Council and the Singapore Art Festival, through Asian American and British East Asian identities, to controversial performances of the Orphan of Zhao. The book will be of primary interest to cultural, geography and performance scholars, but has valuable insights for social science and the humanities more generally.
I hope I do it, and everyone I met through the project, justice. I was a bit nervous and I admit that I am not going to listen to it to spare myself any embarrassment, though I have received some nice compliments so far. We talked about a range of issues, including how I got into this area in the first place, the merging of passion and theory, some of the specifics of the research such as questions of scale, race and performance in different contexts, geographies of performance and transnationalism, policy making, the variety of approaches that I take, and what I am doing next. It’s about 50 mins long. Enjoy!
Theatrical Geographies 