Pornrat Damrhung

Thailand's financial collapse and new constitution in 1997 brought issues of commercialization, education reform, and decentralization to the forefront of arts and culture. The paper focuses on three aspects of the current situation of the traditional arts and artists in Thailand. First, the commercialized globalization of the arts has prompted some artists to create drama companies and theatre events woven through with Western themes and contemporary forms, but grounded in traditional Thai performance. Second, the new emphasis on arts education by Thailand's recent educational reforms has prompted the creation of new arts education programs that train local artists to adapt themselves to a changing world. Thirdly, some artists trained in traditional techniques, like Pradit Prasartthong and Pichet Klunchuen, work on intercultural projects within and outside Thailand, bringing in new approaches to presenting their work in storytelling and choreography, and new modes of teachi...

This paper examines a performance project called Kita Natakan Lanna (Lanna Music and Dance) done by the artist, Saran Suwanachote, or Khru Nick, a dancer in the Northern martial dance form of “Choeng,” at the local arts and culture center known as the Lanna Wisdom School in Chiang Mai. By working with Khru Nick and observing how he produced a new work for this project, I learned that he used an approach based on a local form of cultural life made of interconnected parts, and used the concept of Rabob Niwet or “ecology.” This system is used to transmit distinct forms of local “wisdom,” including artistic knowledge, in Northern Thailand. This ecosystem approach is being used to develop innovative and sustainable ways to include performance practices and knowledge in projects linking Bangkok’s universities to local urban communities with support from Chulalongkorn University’s new Research Cluster in the Arts and Culture.

Three sessions of international and local participants from a July 2019 conference created active ecosystems which generated living examples of intercultural improvisation, performance research, cultural ecologies and artistic research in Thailand. Summarized and assessed in this article, these sessions revealed some of the first fruits of Thailand’s work in these areas through engagement with other practitioners in the region. Besides offering creative improvisation among Thai artists and artist-centered critical assessments of their work, the article captures active thinkers seeking to reimagine the “festival” format for performance research, and seeks for ways to continue future regional collaboration in artistic research. The article embodies the ecological aspects of live collective thinking in the arts.

This article explores two different attempts to make partnerships for the today’s stage with teams of classically-trained Southeast Asian dancers in the last three years. Working in different conditions and toward different ends, the Cambodian and Thai dancers discussed in this paper combined their classical artistic training and interests into performances differently directed toward today’s diverse dance audiences. In particular, this paper will reflect on two classically-grounded partnering projects I helped to bring into being as a contemporary theatre artist and producer: the masked dance (khon) performances done at the Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre in Bangkok and the Revitalising Monkeys and Giants work-in-progress with Cambodian and Thai artists. By focusing on how these pieces evolved due to their distinct blend of external conditions and artistic aims, I will raise questions about the multiple and complex reasons that prompt traditional artists to work together across nat...

Thailand’s financial collapse and new constitution in 1997 brought issues of commercialization, education reform, and decentralization to the forefront of arts and culture. The paper focuses on three aspects of the current situation of the traditional arts and artists in Thailand.

After questioning the conventional distinction between traditional and modem theater in Asia, this essay suggests that it may be more fruitful to view today’s live theater traditions as part of a garden of theater culture that includes both native and imported elements and both deep-rooted and recently transplanted traditions. The remainder of the essay amplifies this perspective using examples from Thailand’s theater traditions during the last century and a half. This prepares the way to consider the strengths and weaknesses of traditional theater staged in Thailand during the last decade or so, whether centered on juxtaposing various artistic forms onstage or performing artistic reinterpretations of traditional stories. In seeking to strengthen these approaches for future performances, the author suggests the need for pooling the discipline and creativity performers have in order to fashion patterns of artistic expression that convey significance both among artists and to their au...