Non-Western Theatre Resources

General Asian Theatre Materials

• USF ASIAN THEATRE SITE, maintained by the University of San Francisco. A compendium of excellent links to China, Japan, Southeast Asian and Asian American sites.

• Asian American Theatre Review. Little history here, but an excellent resource for those interested in contemporary Asian-American theatre activity. Back on-line after a lengthy hiatus.

• Asian Theatre Journal, University of Hawai'i Press.

• Theatrehistory.com. Pretty lightweight; of about the same value as Cliff Notes.

• Modern Asian Theatre Archive. Good solid site, maintained by Robert S.Petersen, Eastern Illinois University, unfortunately last updated May 2001. News, productions, biographies, companies, etc.

• Asian Theatre Bibliography. Maintained by the Kalamazoo College Library. Short, but pithy.

• Performance in Asia. The site is maintained by the University of Sydney (Australia) Library. Good resource.

• South East Asia Video Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Librarys.

  The National Library of AustraliaPuppetry in Asia, A Selected Bibliography.

The Countries of Asia

Cambodia

The Theatre of Indo-China, circa 1940, by Donald Oenslager. "This article was originally published in Theatre Arts. Donald Oenslager. New York: Theatre Arts, Inc., 1941. pp. 344-353."

Rehabilitation of Cambodian Performing Arts. An article published by UNESCO 22 December, 2002.

• Conduct a Cambodian Ensemble, a PBS "P.O.V." presentation. Both court and folk music examples are played. Individual instruments may be selected for close listening. A very interesting site.

  Photos from the Royal Cambodian Ballet. "The ancient art of Cambodian ballet - the purist form of South East Asian dance - was almost wiped out by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Most of the practitioners were murdered in the killing Fields. Now, with a concerted effort by the few surviving dancers and teachers in conjunction with scholars and the Cambodian Ministry of Culture, this exquisite art form is being revived and taught again to young students at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Phnom Penh." Photos by Dan White, photojournalist.

  Photos from the Khmer Theatre. "After being almost destroyed by the Khmer Rouge and successive wars, Cambodian drama is once again performed at the newly re-opened Bassac Theatre on the banks of the Tonle Sap River." Photos by Dan White.

China

• USF ASIAN THEATRE SITE - China University of San Francisco: Links to sites related to Chinese Theatre.

• Beijing Opera (Peking Opera), including music clips and photos. A link from the China the Beautiful site. Very rich resources from China.
• Beijing Opera. The site was last revised in April 1977. Contains photos and drawings, text, arias, etc. Maintained at that time by X Wang
• The Development of Beijing Opera During the Cultural Revolution a web site based on the thesis of the same name by Wendy A. Levine © 1995. An excellent scholarly site, with thesis excerpts and many excellent photographs in the gallery. Site contains an extensive bibliography.

India

• CETI: AIIS - Miniature Painting Index American Institute of Indian Studies. From the Varanasi collection of the University of Pennsylvania, United States. Excellent slides of Indian dress.

  Ramayana Theatre in India & South-East Asia. A series of short articles by Dr. S.A.K.Durga. Follow the "To be continued" link at bottom of page for the several installments of this article. This is a portion of Dr. Durga's longer article on Ethnomusicology which appears in Chennai Online, an Indian e-zine. For articles on modern Indian music and dance, follow the Dance/Drama link on the home page. It's a commercial site, so you'll have to dodge the pop-up ads.

  Overview of Indian Theatre genre. A good populist starting point for an exploration of the various Indian theatre forms, published online by "www.culturopedia.com, the Treasure House of Indian Culture and Heritage."

Japan

http://www.ntj.jac.go.jp/english/index.html

• Directory of Special Collections of Research Value in Canadian Libraries: Japan Drama Collection.

  JIN Virtual Museum of Traditional Japanese Arts. A wonderful site, made especially delightful by the hypertext interface.

• The Japanese Arts Council, with material on the National Theatres of Japan, including
  
  • the National Noh Theatre;
    
  • the New National Theatre, Tokyo;
    
  • the The National Engei Hall (for kugo story-telling and the like)
    
  • the National Theatres (Large and Small) in Tokyo.

• Japanese Noh Theatre. Good references and links. "Paul Binnie, an artist from Scotland and the author of this article, lived in Tokyo for more than 5 years. Kabuki and the Japanese Noh Theater became his great passion."

  Noh Theatre, an unattributed article, with numerous links.

  Noh Dancing, an online essay, with numerous links, by Don Herbison-Evans, Technical Report 335, Basser Department of Computer Science University of Sydney (updated 24 July 2005). See also for eleven related links.

• Schauwecker's Guide to Japan, Japanese Theatre Links for Kabuki, Noh and Bunraku. Commercial, but a good resource none-the-less.

• Traditional Theatre in Japan. Part of a project begun at Cleveland State University in 1995. See also the main entry for the balance of this turorial on Japan, its culture and customs. This site is rich in external links.

• Japanese Traditional Theatre Timeline. Commercial site; good information and illustrations.

  From Questia, "the world's largest online library" -- research topic: Kabuki Theatre. Good bibliography of books and articles related to the Kabuki theatre.

Middle East

• Adam Basma Middle Eastern Dance Company Interesting site, with excellent collection of Middle Eastern costumes, unfortunately none labeled. Also photos of the company in performance. The company was formed in Los Angeles in 1980.
• Traditional Turkish Shadow Theatre, Karagoz Hacivat. Complete history of Karagoz, its traditions, characters and dramas.

• Turkish Culture Foundation web site. With links to all things Turkish, including theatre, music and the visual arts.

• Tiyatro Keyfi The site includes photographs of Turkish theatre artists from the past 65 years as well as reviews of contemporary productions and news theatrical in Turkey, as well as links to Turkish theatre sites.

Burma (Myanmar)

• Arts and Literature in Myanmar. Short articles and photos of the various arts. Be sure to explore the site to discover a great deal of information about this tiny country.

  Music and Dance of Myanmar (Burma)

Philippines

Reinvention in Theatre, an essay on theatre groups in Mindanao by Geejay Arriola, " a theatre artist, songwriter, and webdesigner." Published in Our Own Voice Literaty Ezine: Filipinos in the Diaspora, 2002. Click anywhere on the homepage to enter this interesting site.

Taiwan

• Taiwan Theatre Museum. Very superficial overview.

• Taiwan Museums Directory

Vietnam

• Southeast Asia on the World Wide Web Outdated (1998), but many still useful links.