Katherine Saltzman-Li (East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies)

Handbook of Performance in Japan addresses the vibrant and extremely varied contemporary performance scene in Japan. The co-edited volume innovatively mixes single-authored chapters by an international group of scholars and “roundtable” discussions – supported by the Carsey-Wolf research grant – comprised of small groups of Japanese professionals located and practicing in Tokyo, Kyoto, and other locations. These discussions will address topics within the transmedia framework that largely characterizes contemporary Japanese performing arts: questions will focus on the integration of live and mediated technologies, regional variations in production and artistic output, and ways in which participants see their work in a global media world. Many of the single-authored chapters address hybridization or topics related to VR, internet or transmedia forms, but questions for the roundtables will specifically engage with the media-ization of performance and changes in the meaning of performance due to the central role of hybrid and transmedia creativity. The co-editors of Handbook of Performance in Japan aim to offer multiple snapshots of the forms, instances, and dynamism of contemporary Japanese performance and to contribute to theoretical questions in performance and media scholarship.

Image: Participants in the Roundtable of Kyoto Performing Arts Program Directors. Clockwise, left to right: Ogura Yukako, Rohm Theatre, Program Director; Tsukahara Takuya, Kyoto Experiment, Co-director; Enzio Wetzel, Goethe Institut Kyoto/Osaka, Director