Where are the people? People’s Theater in Inter-Asian Societies

Where Are the People?
How Could the People’s Bodies Voice Themselves in the Form of
Theatrical Aesthetics?
At That Time, the Audience Really Stood Up.
In this evening, theater practitioners initiated the conversation with physical action. They engage with contemporary issues through their unique performance styles. From a discursive context, they enter the scene of resistance and undertake the labor of performance. Their performance is not just the preface to a series of dialogues, but also a witness to thirty years of People’s Theater.

“People’s theater” belongs to the people.
It is the theater created by the people and speaks for the people as it has appeared in history in diverse forms.
People theater in Inter-Asian Societies began to grow in a cross-region, which included Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Busan, Maputo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hualien, Taichung, and Taipei. Through the writings and images written down by theatrical artists from these spaces, we can figure out the body aesthetics that carry historical conflicts and the experience to find the form and channel of expression, and continue for work of thinking and creation.

“People Theater” is nothing but a rehearsal for a revolution.

This book has reviewed and reflected on the half-century development of people’s theater in inter-Asian societies, demonstrates how the theatrical practitioners and artists in different communities strived to open various spaces, dealt with the censorship from the authoritarian regime to the neoliberal societies, and experimented with diverse aesthetics and local objects to address political issues.

▍Preface
“It is a collection with the premise that can motivate our critical thinking with bodily energy. It reflects how we realize the statement—‘Viewing as participating; audience as actors.’It is also a book where some keywords constantly appear, like resistance, politics, the oppressed, and conversation. With its humming buzz and murmur against the present situation, it is a collection of words refusing to remain silent.”— Lin Hsin I（Associate Professor at the Institute of Applied Art, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University）

▍People’s Theater Practitioners
Asian People’s Theatre Festival Society (Hong Kong)／Assignment Theatre (Taiwan)／Centre for Applied Theatre, Taiwan (Taipei)／Grass Stage (Shanghai)／Langasan Theatre (Hualien)／Makhampom Theatre Group (Ching Dao/Bangkok)／Oz Theatre Company (Taipei)／Philippine Educational Theater Association, PETA (Manila)／Shigang Mama Theater (Taichung Shigang)／Teater Kubur (Jakarta)／Teatro em Casa (Mozambique)／Theater Playground SHIIM (Busan)／Trans-Asia Sisters Theater (Taiwan)／WANG Mo-lin (Taiwan)／Wiji Thukul (Solo)／Yasen no Tsuki (Tokyo)

▍Characteristics of this book

1.Beyond the geographical limitations of Taiwan and East Asia, combined the context of Inter-Asian societies and Third-World society, appreciate the theater work methods that are intertwined with folk culture and community traditions, and promote the practice of public theater.

2. This book focuses on depicting network relationships in specific historical periods, and explores how the cooperation and interaction of troupes in these heterogeneous regions occurred. And how do these interactions affect the characteristics and forms of popular theater organizations in the transition of different policies?

3. What this book looks back on is not only the continuation and development of troupes but also the sudden change or gap between new people theaters and old people theaters.