Part One: An interview with Australian Theatre Director/Playwright, Margaret Davis
Janice: Margaret, you recently were in Vietnam working with students of theatre. Can you share some of your experience with us? Margaret: This was my second visit as Guest Lecturer at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema working on plays by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov with third year acting students. In 2018 we worked on The Seagull and in 2019 Three Sisters. These intensive classes form part of a semester on Western Theatre in which the students also explore texts by Moliere and Shakespeare. The Chekhov texts are difficult for acting students around the world because the style of naturalism requires detailed study of the text for clues about what motivates the characters. The Vietnamese style of acting is much more presentational - big on physicality and powerful gestures - with less emphasis on the tiny moment by moment shifts and inter-personal relationships that playing Chekhov requires. Als...