I ran into Owen Griffiths the other morning, who has created the GRAFT garden based on Frank Brnagwyn’s Empire panels as part of Marc Rees’ Now the Hero. Marc and Owen asked me to write a short piece for the programme notes, which I was thrilled to do, entitled ‘Theatres of War’. It combines thoughts on war, … More Now the Hero/Nawr Yr Arwr
Last week, Bridget and I unveiled the ‘Our Place’ soundwalk that we’ve been working on for the last few months. It was a busy day and we’ve now had around 40-odd people listen to it, which is really great. It is the final output from her Leverhulme Trust funded Residency. Audience responses were … More Our Place Soundwalk
We had some fun last week back in the sound booth for the Our Place soundscape that Bridget is creating. I had a sneak preview of the first cut and I was incredibly excited. I think my colleagues will be really thrilled and surprised. We have so many fascinating resonances with one another, so many echoes … More Back in the Booth
I haven’t blogged for ages. Then, I had coffee with two people: Bridget Keehan and Steph Januchowski – separately. They both encouraged me to write more. I don’t write enough – whether papers, books, articles, blogposts. I think it is a dyslexic confidence thing. Ironically when I do write, I write too much. Anyway, a brief … More Having Been Absent for a While…..
I’ve had to sit on this news for over a month, which was really hard, but I can finally tell everyone that last night I was awarded the Dillwyn Medal by the Learned Society of Wales for Outstanding Early Career Research in the Creative Arts and Humanities. I am so thrilled and honoured to receive it, … More Dillwyn Medal
In the space of a few weeks I’ve had a bit of writing success: I’ve had my Progress in Human Geography paper published on ‘Advancing the Geographies of the Performing Arts: Intercultural aesthetics, migratory mobility and geopolitics’; and I’ve had a paper accepted for Area which will be out soon on ‘Material Migrations of Performance.’ As always, … More New Writing
The protest I was involved in made the front page of The Stage this week. This is fantastic news and congratulations to everyone involved/everyone quoted here. If any theatre casts white people in East Asian roles again, they have to know that this will happen, that there are consequences. Some huge steps forward are being … More Protest Front Page, Centre Stage
Last night in London, I protested at the Print Room with British East Asian theatre professionals, their friends, and their allies from the wider theatre industry. This is the first time that British East Asians have actually staged a physical protest against a theatre (unlike the US, there was no equivalent Miss Saigon protest back … More Yellowface Protest at the Print Room
Before Christmas, in response to the Print Room controversy over the casting of Howard Barker’s latest play, I mentioned that I would make my publications on yellowface (on the RSC’s The Orphan of Zhao) open access. It took a bit longer than I expected but ta-da! These are the accepted versions (so they are PDFs, not … More Yellowface publications (open access)
In a week where BAFTA announced that, from 2019, films that do not demonstrate diversity and inclusivity will no longer be considered for awards, in theatre land the antics at the Print Room, Notting Hill, show just how far we still have to go. Organisations such as Act for Change have initiated a wider cultural shift … More Yellowface alive and well at the Print Room
Theatrical Geographies 