Appropriating Shakespeare and Resisting Colonialism: Reflections of a Stage Director

Abad, Ricardo G. (2009) Appropriating Shakespeare and Resisting Colonialism: Reflections of a Stage Director. In: Transnationalizing Culture of Japan in Asia: Dramas, Musics, Arts and Agencies. Japan Foundation and Japanese Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, pp. 74-89. ISBN 978-971-0426-06-5

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Abstract

To appropriate a classical western play, a Shakespeare in this case, is to abduct the western text from its original milieu and to reconfigure it to a system of signs that make sense in another milieu. Seen as a clash of cultures, appropriation entails the act of confronting empire and imposing native will. Seen as an accommodation of cultures, appropriation is an effort to fuse native and non-native traditions. This presentation describes my theatrical attempts to appropriate Shakespeare in these two ways and in light of Philippine cultural and performance traditions. I learned two things in the process: first, that appropriation does not simply relocate Shakespeare in another cultural context, it can also dislocate Shakespeare from orthodox paradigms of Shakespearian performance; second, that this dislocation can yield strategies of resistance to colonial (or neocolonial) discourses.

Item Type: Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords: theatre, Shakespeare, theatre performance
Depositing User: Machine Whisperer
Date Deposited: 01 Oct 2017 05:35
Last Modified: 01 Oct 2017 05:35
URI: http://philippineperformance-repository.upd.edu.ph/id/eprint/2203

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