Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A-S-I-A): A Collaborative Digital Project

Abstract

Asian Shakespeare has gained worldwide recognition for its role in the emergence of new artistic and cultural forms in the global age. Directors such as Ninagawa Yukio, Miyagi Satoshi, Ong Keng Sen, Oh Tae Sook, Wu Hsing-Kuo and many others experiment with new combinations of traditional and contemporary performance, new strategies for working across languages and genres, new ways of reaching diverse audiences. Shakespeare productions in Asia are now widely recognized as among the most innovative and distinguished in the world: they are changing how we understand the Shakespearean plays. They serve as a forum for theatre artists to deal with such contemporary questions as the emergence of new ideas of national and Asian identity, and reshape debates about the relation of East and West. In this paper we introduce Asian Shakespeare Interactive Archive: a Collaborative Digital Project (A S I A), which is a collaborative intersection between practitioners, individual scholars and three major Asian Shakespeare projects?the MIT Shakespeare Project (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Relocating Intercultural Theatre (National University of Singapore) and A Web Archive of Asian Shakespeare Productions (JSPS Kaken/ Gunma-Doho Universities). A S I A is an extensive on-line archive of Asian Shakespeare productions dedicated to synergizing the field of Asian Shakespeare intercultural performance studies. This interactive, user-driven archive will feature new tools for use by scholars, teachers, practitioners and audiences.