Talking To: Shanghai Theatre Academy's Michael Leibenluft

“I think I use theatre to understand China,” says Michael Leibenluft while speaking in a café near the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Even he admits it’s a broad statement, but Leibenluft speaks it so straightforwardly that one can’t help but be intrigued. He continues, “I think of theatre as a tool both to collaborate and exchange with people and also to investigate something. In some cases it is in response to China, but in other cases, and much more often, it’s about using theatre as context to meet Chinese people and collaborate with them.”

Less than two years after graduating with a degree from Yale University in Chinese and Drama, Leibenluft has done just that. Obtaining a prestigious Fulbright grant to research applied theatre in China, Leibenluft has worked with Chinese NGOs and taught classes at the Shanghai Theatre Academy on how to use theatre to communicate and investigate social issues – all in Chinese. He describes his ability to pick up Mandarin Chinese as an adjunct to his interest in theatre. “Learning a foreign language is theatrical in that you have to be willing to improvise and perform.”

 Growing out of left wing political movements of the 60s and 70s in Europe and the Americas, applied theatre differs from more traditional forms in that it attempts to use the process of theatre to explore issues, rather than focusing on a finished product.

 “The difference is that you’re working with people whose goal is not to become professionals. Your ultimate priority isn’t on artistic work or craft; it’s for an educational or social goal. A lot of it is about access and participation.”

 Of course, this distinction between traditional theatre and improvised theatre isn’t cut and dry. Leibenluft readily acknowledges that performances created by non-professionals can resonate in a way that gives them artistic merit. However, he is interested in the process of a community coming together to work through an issue through theatre rather than the end result. This can be a difficult concept for others to grasp, especially amateurs who see theatre more as a chance to emote.

“For their final projects, my students at the Shanghai Theatre Academy had to stage a workshop in the community in Shanghai. One group of students chose to do a workshop on homosexual men and identity. There were all these queens there who were so into acting. Every scenario had to be a huge tragedy,” says Leibenluft. “I told my students that your goal is to challenge the situation because your goals at the workshop are different than theirs.”

Applied theatre revolves around games and improvisation, often asking participants to create situations around key issues they might otherwise be incapable or uncomfortable exploring otherwise. One typical exercise is called a forum play, where professional actors establish a conflict and members from the audience step in to attempt to resolve the situation. As participants explore and bring up issues, the results can often be electrifying, but also deeply sensitive socially and politically.

In exploring issues through applied theatre, Leibenluft recognises that while these techniques help to make people aware of an issue, they rarely lead to solutions right away. “If you’ve come up with a good conflict, often you’re problem solving through it, but rarely do you have a forum where you find the solution that nobody thought of before.”

This open-ended approach to exploring a situation is one that Leibenluft has found deeply challenges his Chinese students who are used to an education that emphasises rote learning over critical thinking. But more than challenging his students pedagogically, Leibenluft also realises that his approach poses greater risks for his students, often pushing them to take on taboo topics that have larger dimensions for them socially.

“I’m lucky enough to be able to risk these things in a safer way, whereas my students can’t. I remember there were discussions last year in my class where we’d get to a point and my students would say ‘There’s no way; China is just this way.’ And I don’t know how to respond to that. Who am I to say that’s wrong? Who am I to ask more? But I feel like it’s an easy cop-out and if I’m willing to compromise, then everything goes.”

And Leibenluft intends to push on for the time being, teaching and staging performances in Shanghai. He is currently co-directing a play called North Bank Suzhou Creek, a bilingual play about Shanghai’s former Jewish ghetto that premieres at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on 23 March.

Although he eventually intends to return to the US to pursue more opportunities in directing in the future, he acknowledges that he will always be attracted to the exhilaration of speaking Chinese and engaging with the Chinese people.

“I wonder if I’m braver when I speak in Chinese. When you start to speak Chinese, it already feels like you’ve broken a rule.”

North Bank Suzhou Creek premieres on 23 March at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. 7.30pm. RMB 100. Tel: 6541 5008