Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Exeter
TOLD BY THE WIND
Description and Rationale
Produced by The Llanarth Group (2009-10), Told by the Wind was co-created as a practice-led research project exploring intercultural theatre processes/aesthetics by Zarrilli (actor/director) with Kaite O’Reilly (playwright), and Jo Shapland (performer) with input from Dr. Mari Boyd (Japanese theatre specialist, Sophia University, Tokyo) and Peader Kirk (London).
Approaches and Strategies
The project explored East Asian principles/beginning points for creating an alternative dramaturgy and performance aesthetic without reproducing in any way East Asian performance styles:
1. the dramaturgy of “phantasmal” noh with female transformation scenes;
2. the aesthetic principle of yugen informing noh;
3. principles and qualities of “quiet theatre” exemplified in Ōta Shōgo’s dramas of “living silence”.
Outcomes and Evidence are performance-based and articulated through conventional scholarly media:
1: Public performances. Preview (Escrita na Paisagem Festival, Portugal, 2009); premiere (2 weeks, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, 2010); touring (2010-11) UK, Tanzfabrik (Berlin), Grotowski Institute (Poland), The Dance Center (Chicago). Funding: £32,000 (AHRC/ACW). Video: Poland; excerpt (http://vimeo.com/20741448).
2: Reviews: 4* GUARDIAN review 2/02/10; British Theatre Guide. 04/02/10.
3/4: Book chapters. Zarrilli. “…presence…” as a question and emergent possibility,” Archaeologies of Presence, eds. Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye. London: Routledge, 2012:119-152.
Zarrilli. “Altered Consciousness in Performance: West and East,” Altering Consciousness: Vol. I: History, Culture and the Humanities, eds. Etzel Cardena and Michael Winkelman. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2011:301-326.
5: Essay. Boyd, Mari.“Quietude in Intercultural Performance: Phillip Zarrilli’s Told by the Wind and Yojiro Okamura’s Aminadab,” Comparative Theatre Review (English Issue), 11:1:43-51 (2012).
6: Further funding/performances. ACW funding (£5,000) supported a 2nd production, The Echo Chamber (Chapter Arts Centre, 5 performances, January/February, 2012). WAI/DAIWA funding (£10,500) for touring Told by the Wind and exchange/collaboration between Zarrilli/Llanarth Group and Okamura Yojiro, Artistic Director, Ami Theatre (November, 2013) to create a 3rd East-Asian-based production (for 2014-15).
