ITTA Director Maori Sanmi, Professor of Chengcheng University, Japan
《Drama and Community》
I would like to talk about the relationship between drama and the community, and how drama further promotes the relationship between people, people and the community. We often hear people talking about money, but in my opinion, in Japan's real life, economic prosperity destroys the links between communities, so what can we do? The importance of drama is reflected!
The relationship between theatre and community can be shown in two ways: theatre community and theatre of community. Community theatre can be defined as a theatre set up in a community and served by its members, while theatre community can be regarded as a community composed of theatres. For such a definition, new questions arise. What is the meaning of community when we refer to community? Community is a very important social phenomenon. Sociologists have also made various experiments in developed countries to understand the relationship between people and communities. Baumann pointed out that the lack of community means the lack of security. Undoubtedly, for a happy life, security is very important; but at the same time, he also tells us ironically that promoting security requires sacrificing personal freedom, and the scope of freedom can be further expanded on the basis of sacrificing security.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Japan's further rapid economic development, economic prosperity and prosperity of life increasingly encouraged the development of liberalism, while the sense of community in rural areas was undermined. In 1969, the Japanese government set up a special working committee, the Community Affairs Committee, to publish a research report on community life in Japan. The problems pointed out in the report still exist today, such as the rapid decline of humanism, especially in the life of the working class, such as the trend of young people's individualism. For example, because a large number of people move to big cities, rural communities are in danger, accompanied by the problem of sustained ageing. Such phenomena exist in every country in the world, and China is no exception.
It is in this social and political context that the so-called underground theatre came into being in the 1960s. Underground theatres are mostly set up by young practitioners. Looking back from the current perspective, they can also be regarded as the needs of young theatre workers for the community at that time. Back to the history of the underground theatre, now known as the "Angolan Theatre Activity", there are two different directions, involving the exploration of the community. The corresponding two representatives are Suzuki Zhongzhi and Tang Shilang. Suzuki's organization is the community theatre, while Tang Shilang's is connected with the theatre community. In their early years, they had a performance space on the second floor of the cafe next to Waseda, which was obviously supported by Waseda University students. Later, Suzuki moved to a small village beside Mount Fuji, that is, the theatrical town of the time. The transportation between the mountains was very inconvenient. After Suzuki got the money, he built several theatres and theatres. The concept of field theatre has been deeply rooted in Suzuki's heart, and later moved to Jinggang Yunshu Park, which is also a theatre town. Suzuki seems to have been working on building community theatres, or regional theatres, but his theatres are so academic that the local people can't enjoy his performances very well. In fact, many Suzuki fans are not local people, but from Tokyo or other cities, and some even come from abroad to watch his performances. So we can regard Suzuki's theatre as an "imaginary community". Although this "imaginary community" is different from what Benedict Anderson described in his country and nationalist texts.
Tang Shilang's so-called situational theatre has a very different history. Tang Shilang may not be as famous overseas as Suzuki, but he is the most important and influential playwright and director in contemporary Japanese drama. He is a real Angolan theatre director who once performed in a huge red tent. It's a red tent that looks not very big, but actually is very big. The venue is so flexible that the audience can be taken to any open space where the stage can be set up immediately. Therefore, although Tang Shilang's drama performance does not belong to any specific community, it has created a very unique red tent community. The community attracts large audiences whenever it appears, and it is still active today. In this tent or a theater similar to a tent, the original free and amateur style of production has been maintained.
In Japan, the largest imaginary community is the Takayama, a theatre composed entirely of women. It is very similar to Vietnam Opera in many ways. In fact, it is also a case of cultural studies. The training, membership and production system, as well as the historical changes, as well as the grave community, are all very interesting research subjects. The grave is a theatre troupe founded a hundred years ago and has just celebrated its centennial celebration. Professor Kawabata put forward a theory of theatre magnetics. He said that a theatre attracts audiences like a magnet. Every theatre has its own magnetic field. The closer it is to the magnet, the stronger the magnetic field will be. It can be said that the grave is a magnet with very strong magnetic force. Of course, magnets attract iron products of different sizes, not other objects. Like me, it may not be about the magnetic field of the tomb, nor can it be attracted to the past, but undoubtedly, the fans of the tomb enjoy this state of attraction very much, passively attracted, completely immersed in the performance.
Drama is a form of performance, which requires the presence of the audience, and the audience will form a community of their own, sharing the same feelings and opposition with each other, including emotional and intellectual factors. If it is easier to evoke emotional resonance than intellectual influence, then consistent emotions can be controlled and controlled to bring about relatively dangerous social or political actions. I believe that a real theatre contains self-criticism in its artistic expression, whether it is active or passive, it will have reflection. When the audience is immersed in drama, there is a connection between community drama and theatre community.
Mr. Maori Sanmi has taken over the certificate of Director of the ITTA from Director Guo Xiaonan
(These contents are from the tape recordings of the speaker.）