Li and Zhou: Applied Theater
Li
Ha!
Zhou
What?
Li
Here’s a good one!
Zhou
What?
Li
Oh, man. This is crazy. I have no idea how they thought they could print this.
Zhou
What the hell is it?
Li
Okay, so there’s a theater guy, a young guy from America. He’s here on a Fulbright.
Zhou
Oh, a Fulbright, he must be very smart.
Li
Yes, very smart. A Fulbright.
Zhou
Wow. A Fulbright! Where did he go to school?
Li
Yale.
Zhou
Yale! Wow!
Li
Yes.
Zhou
Wow. Yale.
Li
Anyway, he’s in China. He studies theater and Chinese. He does a new kind of theater.
Zhou
A new kind of theater?
Li
Yeah. It’s called applied theater. I’ve been reading about it. It’s not so new in the West.
Zhou
What is it?
Li
Basically, you make the audience into actors.
Zhou
Oh. Well, what’s so bad about that?
Li
The idea is that you explore social or political issues by getting the audience involved in particularly difficult situations.
Zhou
Political issues?
Li
Yeah. This guy went to northern Yunnan near Tibet and did a workshop with Tibetan and Han residents.
Zhou
Oh no.
Li
Yes. He presented them with a scene where a Han man got in fight with a Tibetan man and his girlfriend. The audience came in and took the roles and tried to resolve the situation.
Zhou
Well, did they resolve it?
Li
Of course not. A teacher had to make a speech about harmony.
Zhou
Really? He had to give the harmony speech?
Li
Yeah.
Zhou
Wow.
Li
And they wanted to print this story.
Zhou
Ha. Wow.
Li
Yeah.
Zhou
But Li-
Li
Yeah?
Zhou
He has a Fulbright. He went to Yale. Why is he doing this?
Li
I don’t know.
Zhou
Yale.
Li
Yeah, Yale.