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Some interesting characters have started popping up around campus. Thanks to a Faculty Innovation Grant from the Office of the Provost, the theater program is creating a start-up initiative to introduce students to non-western techniques and aesthetics.
The two-year grant will help students learn about theater in diverse cultures and explore Asian and African techniques such as Noh, Bunraku, Kabuki, Kathakali, and shadow puppetry. Students also will explore a variety of performances, carnivals, and religious rites from Melanesia, Micronesia, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.
Mary Jo Lodge, assistant professor of English, Michael O’Neill, associate professor of English and director of theater, and Suzanne Westfall, professor and head of English, are collaborating on the project.
“The theater program embraces Lafayette’s aim to create global citizens, and we are so pleased that we can now educate students about the arts and theater of many cultures beyond those we have examined in the past,” says Lodge. “In this time of recession, when many arts organizations–both professional and academic–are struggling to stay afloat, we appreciate that Lafayette has made global education and the arts, specifically theater, a clear priority.”
Visiting artists also will serve residencies at the College. This fall, the theater program welcomed the company responsible for the shadow puppets used in the Broadway smash The Lion King.
This spring, College productions of As You Like It and The Jungle Book will include non-Western puppets created by professional artist Alisa Sickora Kleckner. Kleckner will train students in the Theater for Young Audiences class, from which The Jungle Book cast will be drawn, on the manipulation of Bunraku style puppets for the show. She also will visit students in the Theatrical Styles class as part of her residency. Other visiting artists this semester will include IchiFuji kai Dance Association, which will offer traditional Japanese Kabuki dance workshops, and Boris Daussa-Pastor, an internationally recognized Indian Kathakali expert.
Lodge is optimistic that the program will become a permanent part of the curriculum, adding an even greater global scope to an already interdisciplinary area like theater. Professors and students will learn side by side. She is especially excited to bring puppetry to The Jungle Book, a production not specifically written for puppets. She also plans to study Japanese theater this summer in order to choose a style suitable for the next show she directs.
“We hope the grant will aid us in offering our students a more global perspective on theater both in the classroom and on the College Theater stage, but the training and materials the grant will provide will obviously assist us in the future,” she says. “By offering our faculty opportunities to work with professional artists in master classes, by offering our present students the opportunities to learn the vocal and physical techniques necessary for non-western theater styles, and by offering all Lafayette students the opportunity to see their fellow students learning and performing in non-western plays, we hope to build a foundation that will allow us to sustain these programs in the coming years.”