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Opening Talk

TERASIA: Theatre for Traveling in the Age of Isolation started in May 2020 with the participation of artists from Japan, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia. It posed the question: is it possible to create an international collaborative work of art at a time when travel across borders is difficult or impossible? Subsequently, artists from Vietnam joined the project in February 2021. Now, a year and a half since the project began, the situations surrounding each team have changed dramatically. Under the influence of the pandemic and amidst political turmoil, what have the artists been thinking and doing in their respective locations? In this roundtable session, we will discuss the current position of the project and introduce some of the highlights of TERASIA Online Week 2021.

Talk

Opening Talk:
“Traveling in the Age of Isolation – Where Are We Now?”

Date:
11/19 (Fri.) from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. [Japan Time: GMT+9]

Speakers:
Maho Watanabe [Japan], Narumol (Kop) Thammapruksa [Thailand], Kamizu [Myanmar], Nguyen Hai Yen (Red) [Vietnam]

Moderator:
Rina Tanaka (Theater Sociologist)

Language:
English with Japanese interpretation

Streaming Schedule

For those who cannot view the livestream, the session will be archived indefinitely.

Program Highlights

In October 2020, Thai artists performed TERA เถระ in the city of Chiang Mai as the first work of TERASIA. In March 2021, the Japanese team performed TERA in Kyoto, a new work presented three-and-a-half years after the original production Tera in Tokyo. Artists in Myanmar and Vietnam are planning to release their new works in 2022. At this point in time, the destination of our journey is the TERASIA Summit in Indonesia scheduled to be held in 2023.
In the opening discussion, as a guide through the ten days of TERASIA Online Week 2021, one member from each team (Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar) will talk about their current activities in their location, with theater sociologist Rina Tanaka as the moderator.

Speakers

Maho Watanabe
Born in Saitama in 1992, Maho Watanabe is a translator and dramaturg who works in and around art, media, and humanitarian work. In 2014, during her year abroad in the West Bank as an Arabic Studies student, she joined the director Yukari Sakata in Rashomon | Yabunonaka, a theatre co-production by Palestinian and Japanese artists. This marked her first involvement in performing arts, followed by numerous international collaboration projects, festivals, and workshops. Her translation of Lilac Duhaa (Death in the Era of IS) by Palestinian playwright Ghannam Ghannam won the 2019 Odashima Yushi Award for Drama Translation.
Narumol (Kop) Thammapruksa
Narumol Thammapruksa is a performing artist and Aikido self-defense artist with a particular interest in social issues. She developed a technique called autobiographical storytelling to portray the performer’s experiences by telling stories of the individual’s views on societies in parallel with the present world. At the same time, this also portrays how one was oppressed and how others are affected by oppression. In addition to plays, she explores non-verbal movement, including mime, modern dance, and using masks. As a director, she breaks the tradition of the imagined “wall” that separates the performers from the audience. In her performances, she occasionally urges the audience not to be taken by its stories, and uses symbolic language to deconstruct and reconstruct. At present, she is on the committee of the Peace Culture Foundation, whose aim is to build a culture of peace by promoting non-violence through social art activities and Aikido practice. It is her wish that these activities will help to foster love, compassion, empathy, and diversity, in striving for a more harmonious society.
Kamizu
Kamizu is an artist and art therapist who has pursued a career in visual art for over two decades. Actively involved in numerous domestic and overseas art projects and workshops over that time, she strongly believes that art can bring peace and mindfulness to anyone. Her philosophy is that every human being is an artist from a different perspective; it is just that some do not notice this themselves. She hopes art can be a platform to interact with people and connect them to themselves, to each other, and to nature as part of an emotional journey. Her works are research-based, and extend beyond painting and drawing. Kamizu has presented four solo exhibitions to date in Myanmar, Japan, and Malaysia. In addition, she has participated in numerous international art festivals, art fairs, and artist residencies. She was a founding member of SEA*5, a collaborative art and cultural project between five countries (Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines). Her works have been featured in more than twenty group exhibitions at venues in Myanmar, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. She is also one of the founders of Expressive Therapy Space, where she facilitates and runs art and healing workshops and programs.
Nguyen Hai Yen (Red)
Red started practising moving images at Hanoi Doclab in 2015. Her short film Summer siesta: 6th hour counting from dawn (2017) was exhibited at Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and White Chapell (London) She is also a member of AJAR Press, an independent publishing house based in Hanoi. In June 2019, she had her first art residency at Á Space (Hanoi), and coordinated her first solo exhibition, Mùng mung. She has practiced organizing mixed experimental music/film/performance programs at Heritage Space since 2018. In late 2019, she began researching contemporary dance and theater production. She has been collaborating with H2Q Art, MORUA, the choreographer Ngo Thanh Phuong, Mat Tran Ensembles, and other artists. Her experiences include various projects including Method; L’EGO (Kinergie Studio), X-PROJECT, Sound Barrier, Through the door then…, Eye See Ai, 1936, and more. She was chosen to be a participant of Producers Camp 2021, organized by the Taiwan National Theater & Concert Hall.
Rina Tanaka
Rina Tanaka is an Assistant Professor at Meiji University’s School of Global Japanese Studies. She was a visiting fellow at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien. Her research interests include the sociocultural history of contemporary musical theatre in and between German-speaking countries and Asia. In 2019, she was awarded the Helsinki Prize of the International Federation for Theatre Research. She is also active as a professional translator and critic.