My research wanders around in the overlap of theatre and religion. Broadly, I think theatre and religion operate similarly and accomplish similar aims. While doing other things, as well, both develop the conditions out of which emerges heightened experience, or what psychologist Abraham Maslow called 鈥減eak experience鈥. A shared device by which both phenomena make heightened experiences available is role-play. Theatre and religion offer adjunct identities, through the playing of which people bring ideal realities into existence. By playing the 鈥淗amlet鈥 role, or by playing the devotee role, a person may come to experience Hamlet鈥檚 world, or the world imagined by Christianity or Hinduism or What-have-you-ism.
Which is not to say that my work argues that religion is fake. My correlation of theatre and religion does not accept that theatre is fake. Aristotle felt that he had to reduce theatre to mimesis in order to rescue the art from Plato, who thought we鈥檇 be better off without theatre. But Aristotle was wrong. Playing roles does transform people, and theatre does throw the world into confusion. Plato, in fact, was right, and we should be afraid of theatre. Very afraid.
Currently my work is concerned with theatre audiences and with private devotion. I would argue that theatre audiences that do have some kind of heightened experience鈥攁nd if you cried at the end of Old Yeller, you know what I mean鈥攁pproach that experience by taking on and playing a role that anticipates the materialization of that experience. To some extent, I am following Hjalmar Sund茅n鈥檚 鈥渞ole theory of religious experience鈥, here. But I would add that elements of cognitive theory, narrative theories of personal identity, and existentialism contribute significantly to understanding how we experience reality as something other (or more) than what reality should be.
My first book examined r芒s l卯l芒 theatre in Vrindavan, India, which exists almost exclusively to facilitate devotion to the divine Krishna. For actors and audiences, together, r芒s l卯l芒 performances do not merely represent (or imitate) Krishna, but manifest Krishna, and this religious tradition is rather up front in the way that it encourages and values role-playing as genuine devotional activity.
My second book鈥攁 biography of Brigham Young鈥攚as a bit of a detour. If I鈥檓 the only person who learned something from that book, the effort was still well worth it.
My most recent book concerns play. Generally, I think we don鈥檛 appreciate the transformative force of play. The book argues that the phenomena that we call, variously, 鈥榬eligion鈥 and 鈥榯heatre鈥 are not altogether different from each other, insofar as each develop from a fundamentally human urge to overcome the alienation from the cosmos that our peculiarly human consciousness entails. Even at the risk of our lives, it seems, we will do whatever facilitates an experience of self as a participant in existence. Call that doing 鈥榬eligion鈥 or 鈥榯heatre,鈥 as you will. At its root, that sort of doing is 鈥榩lay,鈥 and it creates the universe. Really.
Incidentally, the accompanying photos are from my 2013 production Bouffant: La Teuer de Vampires (there鈥檚 no 鈥淏uffy鈥 here). Yes, I鈥檓 aware that teuer is not a French word.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(Routledge, 2019)
(New York: Routledge, 2014)
(New York: Palgrave, 2009)
鈥淰ideo Games, Theatre, and the Paradox of Fiction鈥, Journal of Popular Culture 47.6 (2014): 1123-35.
鈥淩asa and the 鈥楽aturated Event鈥欌, Studies in South Asian Film and Media 54.1 (2013): 47-55.
鈥淭he Phenomenology of Audience in Vrindavan鈥檚 R芒s L卯l芒&苍产蝉辫;罢丑别补迟谤别鈥,&苍产蝉辫;Journal of Vaishnava Studies 21.1 (2013): 131-43.
鈥淩eligious Experience as a Model for Emotional Experience in Theatre鈥, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 22.2 (2008)
鈥淩asa, 鈥楻asaesthetics鈥, and Dramatic Theory as Performance Packaging鈥, Theatre Research International 31.1 (2006)
鈥淲ho Is the Indian Shakespeare? Appropriation of Authority in a Sanskrit A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream鈥, New Literary History 34.2 (2003)
鈥淪tanislavsky, Smarana, and Bh芒v: Acting Method as Religious Practice in Vrindavan, India鈥, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 18.1 (2003)
SELECTED RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS
2014 HOWARD FELLOW, The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation
2001 FULBRIGHT-HAYS FELLOW, United States Department of Education
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN PERFORMANCE
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR THEATRE RESEARCH
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS
OTHER STUFF
I'm editor of.
I鈥瞞 currently the Director of Asian Studies at 九色.
I also write the blog for Patheos.com
Education
M.A., South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison