Jo Riley
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer, translator, theatre actor, and schoolteacher. Dr. Riley has written and translated several books about theatre arts, especially Chinese theatre
Chinese theatre
Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera, there have been many other forms of theatre in China.-Classical Chinese theatre:There are...
. She currently teaches drama at Munich International School
Munich International School
Munich International School is a private international school located in Starnberg, south of Munich, Germany. MIS teaches students from EC to grade 12. Students travel from an area around Munich to attend the school, with the help of a school bus network that reaches into the area around Munich,...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Riley reads, writes, and speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is better known for having in the early 1980s widely traveled in China and learned to act in the Chinese theatre
Chinese theatre
Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera, there have been many other forms of theatre in China.-Classical Chinese theatre:There are...
as one of the first foreign students at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, eventually writing Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance (1997, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
), a reference book that "gives an 'inside' view of Chinese theatre and the actor in performance for the first time [...] from her personal observations of, and dialogue with, Chinese actors and her first-hand experiences of the theatre world of China in general, none of which was possible before 1980." She also made the first English translation of The Other Shore
The Other Shore (play)
-Translations:* 1997: as The Other Side: A Contemporary Drama Without Acts, tr. by Jo Riley, in An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, 1997, ISBN 0-19-586880-3...
by Nobel Laureate in Literature playwright Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. An émigré to France since 1987, Gao was granted French citizenship in 1997...
.
Life
Jo Riley graduated from the University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. After working for a number of small touring companies, she went to Asia to explore a different kind of theatre. In the early 1980s, after learning Mandarin Chinese, she was one of the first foreign students at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where she learned to act in the Chinese theatre
Chinese theatre
Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera, there have been many other forms of theatre in China.-Classical Chinese theatre:There are...
(example pictured at right).
She has since then helped teach and direct traditional Chinese theatre in Salzburg, Mainz, and Bayreuth. She's also been at intercultural workshops with Cardiff Laboratory Theatre and Pan Projects at Goldsmiths College, London. In addition, she has written articles and books on Chinese theatre, especially Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance (1997, see Works section), and has edited or translated several plays or books on European and intercultural theatre
Intercultural theatre
Intercultural theater also known as Cross-cultural theatre may transcend time, while mixing and matching cultures or subcultures.-Imitational Theatre:...
.
She currently teaches drama at Munich International School
Munich International School
Munich International School is a private international school located in Starnberg, south of Munich, Germany. MIS teaches students from EC to grade 12. Students travel from an area around Munich to attend the school, with the help of a school bus network that reaches into the area around Munich,...
in Germany.
Works
In 1997, Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
published Riley's Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance, a book often cited on the topic of Chinese theatre
Chinese theatre
Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera, there have been many other forms of theatre in China.-Classical Chinese theatre:There are...
. It covers not only jingju (Beijing opera
Beijing opera
Peking opera or Beijing opera is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty court...
or Peking opera, example pictured at right) but also Chinese puppet theatre and shadow play
Shadow play
Shadow play or shadow puppetry Shadow puppets have a long history in China, India, Turkey and Java, and as a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults in many countries around the world. A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen...
, as well as Chinese exorcism and ancient animation rites at the tomb, to explore how the Chinese create presence on a stage. In a 1999 review for the Asian Theatre Journal
Asian Theatre Journal
The Asian Theatre Journal is an academic journal dedicated to the performing arts of Asia, focusing upon both traditional and modern theatrical forms. It contains descriptive and analytical articles, original plays and play translations, as well as reviews of books and plays and reports of current...
, China specialist Prof. Colin Mackerras (author of The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China, brother of Malcolm Mackerras
Malcolm Mackerras
Malcolm Hugh Mackerras AO is an Australian psephologist and commentator and lecturer on Australian and American politics.-Education and works:...
) noted how the book "looks at the skills of the Chinese actor from the insider's point of view – not that of the Westerner or the student of China." Indeed:
Riley also made, under the title The Other Side (1997), the first English translation of the controversial play The Other Shore
The Other Shore (play)
-Translations:* 1997: as The Other Side: A Contemporary Drama Without Acts, tr. by Jo Riley, in An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, 1997, ISBN 0-19-586880-3...
(1986) by Nobel Laureate in Literature playwright Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. An émigré to France since 1987, Gao was granted French citizenship in 1997...
.
As editor
Edited or co-edited publications include:- 1990: The Dramatic Touch of Difference: Theatre, Own and Foreign, by various
- Collected essays edited by Erika Fischer-Lichte(in German), Jo Riley, & Michael Gissenwehrer, Forum Modernes Theater, vol. 2, Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-8233-4023-9, , , GBOOK BoB6jbZqbhgC; 287 p., illustrations, paperback — Co-credit was to "Josephine Riley".
- 1997: The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective, by Erika Fischer-Lichte(in German)
- Collected essays (1986–1995) edited (and some translated from the GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
into English) by Jo Riley, Studies in Theatre History and Culture, Iowa City: University of Iowa PressUniversity of Iowa PressThe University of Iowa Press is a university press that is part of the University of Iowa.Established in 1969, the University of Iowa Press publishes books that fill the needs of scholars and students throughout the world, poetry and short fiction, and works of creative nonfiction...
, November 1997, ISBN 0-87745-608-9, , , GBOOK HF3wu1vVm2gC; 426 (x, 412) p., illustrations, paperback. (Hardback: February 1998, ISBN 0-87745-607-0)
- Collected essays (1986–1995) edited (and some translated from the German
As author
Publications include:- 1997: Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance
- Cambridge studies in modern theatre, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, June 1997, ISBN 0-521-57090-5, , , GBOOK OIAiYaIfFagC; 360 (xii, 348) p., illustrations, hardback. (Paperback: December 2006, ISBN 0-521-03523-6, .)
- Cambridge studies in modern theatre, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
As translator
Translations include:- 1997: The Other Side: A Contemporary Drama Without Acts, by Gao XingjianGao XingjianGao Xingjian is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. An émigré to France since 1987, Gao was granted French citizenship in 1997...
- Translated from the ChineseChinese languageThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
Bi An (1986; ) into English by Jo Riley, in Martha P. Y. Cheung & Jane C. C. Lai (eds.), An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, p. 149–184, Hong Kong & New York: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, September 1997, ISBN 0-19-586880-3, , , GBOOK XUFkAAAAMAAJ; 900 (xxvi, 873) p., hardback — Part of an anthology of 15 plays. This play was later retranslated by someone else as The Other ShoreThe Other Shore (play)-Translations:* 1997: as The Other Side: A Contemporary Drama Without Acts, tr. by Jo Riley, in An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, 1997, ISBN 0-19-586880-3...
for a different collection of plays.
- Translated from the Chinese
- 2001: History of European Drama and Theatre, by Erika Fischer-Lichte(in German)
- Translated from the GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Geschichte des Dramas (1990) into English by Jo Riley, London, UK & New York: RoutledgeRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
, December 2001, ISBN 0-415-18059-7, , , GBOOK 5JWfX8mjX8AC; 432 (x, 396) p., hardback. (Paperback: May 2004, ISBN 0-415-18060-0, .)
- Translated from the German
Sources
Main sources used for this article:- ISTA (2008). "Teacher Information Pack for the London 1 TAPS" (Theatre Arts Programmes Symposium) (Word document), International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA), 2008 — Contains a self-bio.
- Mackerras, Colin (1999). "Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance. By Jo Riley" (book review), Asian Theatre JournalAsian Theatre JournalThe Asian Theatre Journal is an academic journal dedicated to the performing arts of Asia, focusing upon both traditional and modern theatrical forms. It contains descriptive and analytical articles, original plays and play translations, as well as reviews of books and plays and reports of current...
, University of Hawaii PressUniversity of Hawaii PressThe University of Hawaii Press is a university press that is part of the University of Hawaii.The University of Hawaii Press was founded in 1947, with the mission of advancing and disseminating scholarship by publishing current research in all disciplines of the humanities and natural and social...
, , vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 1999), , p. 127–129