Telling A Thai Tale: A Dance Dramaturg’s Take (via The Theatre Times)
about 66 months ago (11/30/2018)
Telling A Thai Tale: A Dance Dramaturg’s Take (via The Theatre Times) Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles November 30, 2018 “When I collaborate, I want to collaborate with the wrong person.” Pichet Klunchun, Thai dancer, and director reveals a glint of mischief behind his earnest and gentle demeanor. “I am looking for misunderstandings, for opportunities to negotiate. When things are wrong, they are right.” [1] When I was initially brought as a dramaturg into the Mahajanaka Dance Drama project, directed by composer Sebastian Reynolds and choreographer Adrienne Hart (Neon Dance), in collaboration with Klunchun and Thai musicians Pradit Saengkrai and Great Lekakul, we began by asking “how can we tell a story from the Buddhist mythology using traditional Thai and contemporary Western art forms?” Mahajanaka Dance Drama is a retelling of one of the Jataka stories, a set of myths about the previous lives of the Buddha.