What It Takes to Include Theatre Specialization in the English Department and Why It Essential for English Departments in Asia

I. Observations after a decade in the FJU English Department
(1989 -1999)

A. At university level: three university divisions separate the
performing arts:

CONDITIONS

Since its foundation seventy years ago, the dance area falls under

the Diocesan Section of Physical Education; the Music Department in

the Jesuit Section School of Music; and Performing Arts under the

Sons of the Divine Word (SVD) administrator of the College of

Foreign Languages and Literature, English and other language

departments.

CONSEQUENCES

Practical considerations:

Collaboration can be managed only on a private level by recruiting and

sometimes hiring dance or music majors to join a production; conductors

and musicians almost always must be hired from outside the university, for productions with one exception: forRUR - the musical, Spring 1999, composition student composed the original score for her thesis project and also provided piano accompaniment. Choreography has also been by contract in the same way and includes a very modest fee. Despite these examples of crossing administrative boundaries, almost no teacher from the music or dance areas has attended an English department performance.

Pedagogical considerations:

Without academic justifications, commercial language and motive take over as the highest priority; therefore, non-constructive attitudes about performance arise when money issues overshadow artistic choices. These political zones result in redundant expenditures for resources; but far worse, they claim to be offering a liberal arts education for the whole person, while denying students the opportunity to take classes outside their administrative division.

CONCERNS

Denying foreign language to arts and culture curriculum or depriving arts and culture fields of foreign language and literature curriculum results in the silencing of culture and stagnation of language and literature.

B. College of Foreign Languages and Literature level: under the SVD Section

CONDITIONS

Five foreign language departments offer a one-year Performing Arts class taught by foreign teacher(s), that is, in the Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English Departments. English department theatre courses also include Religion and Theatre, East/West Theatre History, and dramatic literature courses.

CFLL Building Committee met for five years to assist the design of the new multimedia theatre and conference center; the opening ceremony, benefit performance and a premier production of a newly composed musical took place in March through May, 1999. Since then, this new theatre and conference center is not being used by students or performing arts teachers because of an administration policy of charges for use which are too high for university department groups to pay to produce plays. Also, the College Theatre was reopened on an interim basis only. From 1995 to 1997, a faculty conference
committee chaired by the College Dean organized and raised the funds
for an international conference series entitled The International Conference on Religion and Literature, the 1997 conference was entitled eminine Spirituality in Opera,Theatre and Dance,?co-sponsored by the China Times and held at the China Times Theatre and Exhibition Hall October 17 - 19, 1997. At the conference four internationally known directors contributed to a panel on Asian Theatre and Feminine Spirituality for which Hong Kong distinguished director Dr. Daniel Yang delivered an address. Fourteen foreign theatre educators from the USA spoke, and two international page three dance educators from
Japan and Australia spoke and performed. Six Taiwan women professors spoke on spirituality in theatre and dance; two composers one from Taiwan and the other from the USA discussed their works in terms of the future; and two opera specialists presented. Outside agencies continue to support theatre and literature related projects; and recently, faculty in the English department have been awarded an international grant to establish a Medieval Studies program with computer assisted courses in Early British Literature, The Bible as Literature, and Medieval Drama plus the first Medieval Festival at Fu Jen University. Every departmental production runs for at least two evenings; the English department plays run three or four with nearly 200 attending each. There are the Senior Play, the Annual Play, Sophomore Demonstration Play, and five Freshman plays in the Spring Play contest. This year they will compete with five Medieval dramas. These are free and the budgets are raised mainly by student production teams, Student Association and teacher directors. Cultural agencies, the media and patrons provide substantial support.


C. Performing Arts curriculum level

CONDITIONS

The basic course is a year-long for two credit hours each term, and divided into Acting first semester; Directing with design and playwriting projects in the second semester. Enrollment has increased from 20 to 40 students per term. The course emphasizes improving sensory awareness and behavior observations through games, weekly diaries and peer-led activities. Following exercises in stage movement and voice; students learn elements of the stage and basics of stage make-up. Key group work focuses on dialogue and improvisations with side-coaching to promote spontaneous responsiveness. Expressiveness is further developed through mime and dictionary of emotions exercises. Weekly performances amount to at least three monologues and one duet acting scene. The final is a simulated audition with head shot, and resume plus monologue and musical number. This January 15th the audition or acting recital will open at STARTS in Taipei, entitled earning a Foreign Lanuguage Through Acting ? Duets must be selected from literary dramatic works; and each duet pair creates a computer disc visual projection for scenic background. Analyzing and visualizing are important processes based on interpretations of Stanislavsky method which lead to a stage truthfulness or believeability. Performance is taught as interpretive art with practical language and cultural enhancement, and theoretical values. Directing in the second semester continues the focus on theatre as literature in action. The core of the course is a age to stage project in student directors dramatize a short story, legend, folk tale or bible story.

Theatre is distinguished from film and attention is given to the differences that occur when adapting a novel to the stage and/or screen and even into musical or opera form. The role of the director is divided into the types of language he/she must speak: theoretical, descriptive; imagistic; organizational; cooperative; inspirational; creative; clear and decisive and transcultural. For the final, original mini-dramas are performed with lab theatre designs and classmate casting and staffing. Each director hands in a complete production book with script and line by line anaylsis, stage movements, costume and settting designs and otherrehearsal and production notes.

CONSEQUENCES

FJU English majors are leaders in Taiwan theatre community as directors, playwrights, designers, professors of theatre and cultural affairs officials. While students in theatre studies abroad is rising, the number of teachers available to teach theatre or direct is dwindling. Fewer teachers are willing to take on the intense after-hours schedule which magnifies normal teaching loads. Western teachers who have been exposed to theatre in the course of their education are also all gone but one. I may be the only foreign theatre professor/practitioner (theory and design trained) in Taiwan; and there are national academically degreed heoretical/practitioners who, for the time being, prefer to direct for the professional theatre where their talents will be recognized.

CONCERNS

A theatre trained foreign language educator can relate to language, linguistics, literature, literary theory, speech, culture and drama, but there is no successful liberal arts graduate program in theatre, and not even a reasonable representation in English Department graduate schools where theatre classes and certainly student initiated productions are a tradition.


D. Department play production level

CONDITIONS

Ms. Scott has directed and designed the following list of plays in Taiwan.

1991 J.B., MacLeish - Senior Play

1992 Peer Gynt, Ibsen - Senior Play

1992 Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare - Senior Play

1992 Reasonable Circulation, Barry - Play Contest Winner

1993 The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt *Musical

1993 Summer and Smoke, Williams - Senior Play

1993 Cuban Swimmer, Sanchez-Scott - Contest Winner

1994 Fame, Fernandez and Levy *Musical

1994 Playing for Time, Miller - Senior Play

1994 A Christmas Carol, Dickens - Christmas Play

1995 Once on this Island, Aharens and Flaherty *Musical

1995 Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, Guare - Contest Winner

1995 The Man Who Came to Dinner, Hart and Kaufmann - Senior Play

1995 A Christmas Carol, Dickens

1996 Grease, Jacobs and Casey *Musical

1996 Rites, Duffy - Contest Winner

1996 Annie: The Musical, Meehan and Strause Senior Play *Musical

1997 Interview, Italie, Play Contest

1997 He Ain Done Right by Nell, Play Contest

1997 Antigone, Play Contest Winner

1998 Aladdin, Eiler and Bargy Senior Play *Musical

1998 The Blind, Maeterlinck - Play Contest Winner

1998 Liliom, Molnar - Annual Play

1999 Night Sky, Yankovich - Play Contest Winner

1999 RUR, Karel Capek - Annual Play with original music and choreography

2000 Medieval Cycle Play

2000 The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov

*1998 Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Fo - NTU Anniversary
Production

In the English department two or three teachers are carrying the load of eight annual productions; and the line between linquistics teachers and literature teachers has worsened the situation. Every Freshman English class section produces a play a year, but only one teacher of the five sections is willing to serve as faculty/director. This indicates that the standards for performance are high and require trained faculty. After years of successful contests, and enthusiastic testimonies from present and former students, the administration continues to overlook theatre as a foreign language faculty.   The Student Association has established a Drama Committee which participates in national drama festivals and supervises the Sohomore Demonstration play and Annual Play. The Senior Play is now a one-credit course and thirty-seven students were enrolled to produce Midsummer Night Dream in Tang this December. The faculty/director is required to choose the play, often in consultation with student leaders; cast the parts; set forth the production and rehearsal schedule; design and build the show lighting, sound, costumes, setting and properties. In most years there are balanced numbers of student actors and student crew to achieve outstanding results without any loss of sanity. When other faculty are directing, serve as the technical director (TD) for them. A non-musical mainstage production costs between NT$80,000 and NT$100,000. One-act plays expend up to NT$25,000. For musicals, as mentioned, I hire an artistic team of music or chorus director, choreographer, piano accompanist and musicians, but do some of the choreography and all stage blocking myself . I supervise financial staff; secure permission, and pay royalty and rental fees. Musical productions cost from NT$100,000 to NT$150,000. It should be noted that most of the musical productions have been staged by the Evening Division Performing Arts or Educational Theatre English course which shares the College Theatre and faculty director with the Day Division.

CONSEQUENCES

Fu Jen University English department has an excellent reputation; its graduates are known for their superior abilities which have prepared them for a wide range of international professions or for further study, usually abroad. FJU students have achieved cultural sensitivity, communication skills and personal confidence as a result of stage performance training, to some degree with western professors. University educational performance as a cultural activity promotes community awareness, brings good will to the school. Media coverage facilitates fund raising needs and provides opportunities to bring government, educational and cultural agents to the campus. Educational theatre becomes a cultural as well as scholarship ambassador which to builds a network among educational institutions and researchers world-wide. Every language has it theatre culture; and intercultural, intracultural, cross-cultural and multicultural are just a few of the terms which connect research fields in performance studies, theatre studies, theatre arts and educational theatre. Educating future translators in theatrical language, history, and special functions for the stage prepares the way for translations of more dramatic literature models as well.

CONCERNS

Except for the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (The Fulbright Foundation), no educational theatre specialists are coming to Taiwan. In recent years, Fulbright lighting designers have made a huge contribution toward raising the professional standards of productions as well as designing and building many of the new theatres island-wide. Academic actors and directors frequently are placed at the government universities or at national arts institutions to teach in their fields. Although theatre performance is a part of the curriculum and official department activities, teachers and students are expected to carry the burden of time and expense as a service to the university. These amount to a large commitment to our academic life which goes unrecognized by the administration. Furthermore, the administration obviously prefers machines over possibly uncensored public events.

E. Teacher/Artist level

CONDITIONS

The foreign language theatre specialist believes there is more authentic language education in theatre activities that are produced to professional educational theatre standards than in the extracurricular drama activities mounted under the self-serving guise of hey did it themselves. As educators, no one says, ere the book; learn by yourself. English Departments are not Theatre and Drama Departments; therefore the foreign language theatre specialist does not seek to train professional theatre practitioners as a priority. His/her first priorities are authentic ommunication, as well as cultural transformations and aesthetic values to some degree for all.  Theatre specialization is a flexible, pedagogical method which includes practical expertise to enliven all areas of language and literature.

CONSEQUENCES

By applying theatre techniques from role-play, to readers theatre, to performance games, mainstage productions and musicals, the foreign language theatre specialist authenticates the English Department curricula for both language and literature streams. Furthermore, theatre specialization offers the opportunity to connect drama curricula with dramatic theory and criticism which covers new language and culture fields related to postcolonialism, interculturalism and identity.


CONCERNS

Unless professionalism in applied to the foreign language drama program student performances filled with cynical emotions, inconsistent interpretations, extreme exhibitionism, or stage fright, crude stagecraft, ignorance of authorship and text will become a parody of the principles of analysis upheld in all their other department courses. No wonder professors take a hands off attitude. Without theatre professonalism, proper university performance facilities will not be built. Universities will continue replicating the same old proscenium auditorium as though it were the only theatre model and at the same time build new multimedia centers with low ceilings, fixed desk seating and no performance aesthetics. Both suffer from this non-professional, one-dimensionalism.


II. The next decade in the FJU English Department (2000 to 2010)

A. At the professIonal level

CONDITIONS

(1) English Departments continue to explore interdisciplinary connections between language, literature and performance by searching for foreign
language theatre specialists as faculty; as providers of theatre and
performance in-service training programs; as conference speakers; as
artists-in-residence; and as exchange scholar/practitioners.
(2) Department curriculum be updated to legitimize and endorse foreign language theatre as a valuable discipline to enrich language and literature studies by creating a continuum of professionally taught theatre, theory and performance courses in the curriculum from undergraduate to graduate level.
(3) While encouraging interdisciplinary and culturally contextual research
projects, English Departments, administrations and educational ministries evaluate the academic value of professional faculty directed theatre performances as they do other scholarly work and count it toward professional advancement.

CONSEQUENCES

Professionalism in a departmental field merits the appropriate faciltiies; therefore, English Departments contact theatre design consultants and begin advocacy for a foreign language theatre lab: a flexible, professionally equipped stage with arrangements for management based on academic and professional considerations; designated for student foreign language productions; and designed large enough to accommodate one whole department audience plus community guests.

CONCERNS

No one stream such as language, literature or performance be viewed as privileged over another. Thus, performance methods and opportunities to perform in the theatre lab must be treated fairly and with professional respect. Theatre and performance pedagogy is not replacing any discipline, but providing a common link methodology.

B. At intercultural and intracultural identity levels

CONDITIONS

Asian higher education may have inherited some of the sins of western separation of theory and practice complicated by recent explosions of sms for every cultural phenomenon. Theatre and performance methods bring literature, language, culture and sm back together.

CONSEQUENCES

In Asia professional theatre practitioners often hold higher degrees;Their presence in an English Department as resident artists, perhaps team-teaching a literature, language and performance-related course would put students and faculty in touch with a living intracultural contexts.

CONCERNS

Performance enlivens the national cultural identity inherent in the bodies of foreign language students. Culturally astute behavior emerges as they speak lines in English, but use their own experiences and emotions to interpret the role. English Department faculty and curricula cannot afford to undermine the value of their achievements.  With the promotion of English, there is a danger that other foreign language departments will become marginalized; English Departments need to create an internationalized model that recognizes the value of all languages and cultures.   English Departments hold the key to decrease the number of current unfortunate cultural blunders in the international arts community.   Grossly Inflated foreign theatre imports; and awkward localizing of world literature are a few cases which could have been prevented with an educational model that integrates culture, language, literature and performance as well as the performing arts themselves. The future development of successful interculturalism depends on the proper education models in the strategic English Departments of Asia.

C. At the student level

CONDITIONS

Acting makes a foreign language real. Performing Arts transform students by building confidence; allowing for different learning modes; giving recognition; stimulating emotions, and improving language, especially intonaton, with side-coaching during rehearsals.  In Performing Arts all constructive answers are right; a constant open channel to receive student input encourages students to explore new ideas and solutions. The typical environment of Performing Arts is personal, enthusiastic, surprising, varied and always open to choices.

CONSEQUENCES

Most acting exercises may be adapted to the needs of language and literature courses. For example, by arousing student curiosity about human behaviour through extensive character analysis, they are prepared to ask relevent questions about reasons and motives in when discussing a literary work.

COMMITMENT

Foreign language theatre methods as practiced in theatre and performance curricula are essential to mainstream language and literature pedagogy in Asia intercultural educational environments.

III. Learning a Foreign Language Through Acting: January 15, 2000 Acting

Scenes

FJU College of Foreign Languages and Literatures - Performing Arts Class

A. On pedagogical level

CONNECTIONS

The process of preparing to act makes language meaningful by adding contexts.

B. From student actors' point of view

COMMENTS AND DISCUSSION

Student actors and attendees