More of the Asia and lighting design discussion
Thanks for the suggestions. From what you`ve said, a typical grad program is probably not right for me. But CalArts sounds like a good possibility, and I think Davis mentioned it too when I was talking with him before my graduation about what I might do. Chuck Jones (Looney Tunes director) went there, before it was CalArts, and in his autobiography said something along the lines of it being a great place for him and other animation directors because it trained them to be artists rather than simply teaching them the craft of animation. Hong Kong might be cool as well, I`ll be looking into that more for sure. I`ve checked up on the TCG New Generations Grant for Future Leaders, but it seems like that needs to originate with the theater that would be doing the mentoring, not with the mentee. Any idea on how to find a mentor?
I looked into the Luce scholarship program and your potential destinations (Brunei, Cambodia, China and Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam) a little more... Are you planning to work mainly with a single company or theater, or will you be traveling? It sounds like the program`s geared towards the former...
As far as places to visit go, Vietnam and Indonesia are probably at the top of my list of places I haven`t been yet, although I`ve heard Laos is beautiful and further off the beaten path. Malaysia and the Philippines would both be interesting too, and the barrenness of Mongolia has a certain allure for me. Taiwan is probably nice, but just doesn`t thrill me to much; Brunei`s really small; Cambodia`s also interesting, but I`ve heard a few bad stories and not many good from there; Thailand I`m ambivalent about, know there`s lots of cool history, religion, geography, etc. that I`d like, but I`m really turned off by the degree to which it`s geared towards tourism. To a certain degree this is true of Indonesia too, but I think it`s a little more avoidable. I also remember being told by a friend about how everything in Bali seemed imbued with inherent artistry... That`s appealing. And it`s not just one island, it`s lots, with lots of intermingled cultures. Hmm, just remebered that I know a professor from Holy Cross who studied traditional dance in Bali, I could try to get in touch with her if you want more information... Vietnam, again some beautiful country, good food (true for most places), interesting and difficult colonial history, and just a sort of inherent attraction for me, although I fear some of what I`d be looking for would be gone because it`s a Communist state.
I have been to China (and Hong Kong), Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. The only one of those 4 that I`d be really excited (as opposed to merely happy) to visit and explore again is China. There`s so much to see, and I`ve only seen a little bit of it, whereas I`ve been to Japan as a tourist a number of times. With South Korea, well, I`ve been here quite a while and seen a lot of the major things and am ready for a change. Singapore`s cool, but very small and quite uniform. No, that`s not really accurate, seeing as how it kind of sees a confluence of several different ethnic groups in a very small space... But, in any case, the sheer vastness of China allows for a lot of geographical diversity and a fair amount of cultural diversity, despite the government, as well. I suppose I should admit that when I visit most places, I prefer exploring the countryside to the cities. If you`re more a city person, well, China still has some cool cities.
Living is a very different matter from visiting though. Most of China, and especially the cities, has lots of nasty air pollution, more than Seoul or Tokyo (though neither of those is close to smog-free, and really most all the cities in any of the countries will have significant air pollution). I really don`t like that, and for that reason might decide against living in China. On the other hand, I like Chinese food the best and, of course, China has the greatest diversity of foods. Yeah, if I had to choose one country out of all of them to visit just for food, I`d choose China. On the third hand though, it can be a little difficult to be sure just how clean or MSG-free the food you`re getting is. I survived my time there just fine, but did get really sick at one point, and it took me more than a month to kick the bug. Although that was done with the help of a traditional doctor and some very effective herbal tea she made, sorted out my GI tract in no time...
Which brings up medical facilities. To the best of my knowledge, and without doing any research, Japan probably has the best, Korea`s good, Taiwan`s good, the others are more questionable, although if you`re looking for plastic surgery the Philippines may be the destination for you. There are probably some great facilities in China, but I`ve seen some pretty sketchy hospitals there as well. To date I`ve tended not to worry too much about that, but it might be something to consider.
I think I covered potential professional experience pretty thoroughly last time, but had a couple more thoughts:
Japan would probably be the most comfortable and familiar in terms of practices, organization, and equipment. However there would probably be a few differences, which could be interesting or frustrating, and I`m not sure how many people in theater in Japan would speak English that well.
Singapore probably has the best average English ability, by far, and would probably be comfortable professionally as well. It might be too unchallenging, although I think there`s a fair amount of interesting stuff going on there. I`d be more concerned about the tininess of the island.
China might be a good mix of challenging and familiar, but I`m almost certain that you would find some situations that were extremely frustrating due to lack of communication, understanding, or ability. At the same time there might well be more scope to learn new practices and styles, and it would definitely be a cultural experience.
(Of course, what do I mean by that? It`ll be a cultural experience no matter what... I guess I mean an experience where you`ll be working with people whose lives and background are unlike yours, whose outlook on and prospects in the broader world are more limited than, or at least notably different from, your own, and where the surrounding environment is unfamiliar and relatively difficult to assimilate. Does that make sense?)
In fact, if you wanted even more of a `cultural experience`, Indonesia could be a very cool place to look into. If they have much theater I would guess that there are some very unfamiliar ideas about what it should do, or about how it should do what it does. But my guess would be that there would be frequent frustrations, again from communication and technical ability, but also from people simply not doing things you need them to do. Not to stereotype, but stuff like that does happen. Hmm, their tourism site doesn`t have too much useful information...
I looked into the Luce scholarship program and your potential destinations (Brunei, Cambodia, China and Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam) a little more... Are you planning to work mainly with a single company or theater, or will you be traveling? It sounds like the program`s geared towards the former...
As far as places to visit go, Vietnam and Indonesia are probably at the top of my list of places I haven`t been yet, although I`ve heard Laos is beautiful and further off the beaten path. Malaysia and the Philippines would both be interesting too, and the barrenness of Mongolia has a certain allure for me. Taiwan is probably nice, but just doesn`t thrill me to much; Brunei`s really small; Cambodia`s also interesting, but I`ve heard a few bad stories and not many good from there; Thailand I`m ambivalent about, know there`s lots of cool history, religion, geography, etc. that I`d like, but I`m really turned off by the degree to which it`s geared towards tourism. To a certain degree this is true of Indonesia too, but I think it`s a little more avoidable. I also remember being told by a friend about how everything in Bali seemed imbued with inherent artistry... That`s appealing. And it`s not just one island, it`s lots, with lots of intermingled cultures. Hmm, just remebered that I know a professor from Holy Cross who studied traditional dance in Bali, I could try to get in touch with her if you want more information... Vietnam, again some beautiful country, good food (true for most places), interesting and difficult colonial history, and just a sort of inherent attraction for me, although I fear some of what I`d be looking for would be gone because it`s a Communist state.
I have been to China (and Hong Kong), Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. The only one of those 4 that I`d be really excited (as opposed to merely happy) to visit and explore again is China. There`s so much to see, and I`ve only seen a little bit of it, whereas I`ve been to Japan as a tourist a number of times. With South Korea, well, I`ve been here quite a while and seen a lot of the major things and am ready for a change. Singapore`s cool, but very small and quite uniform. No, that`s not really accurate, seeing as how it kind of sees a confluence of several different ethnic groups in a very small space... But, in any case, the sheer vastness of China allows for a lot of geographical diversity and a fair amount of cultural diversity, despite the government, as well. I suppose I should admit that when I visit most places, I prefer exploring the countryside to the cities. If you`re more a city person, well, China still has some cool cities.
Living is a very different matter from visiting though. Most of China, and especially the cities, has lots of nasty air pollution, more than Seoul or Tokyo (though neither of those is close to smog-free, and really most all the cities in any of the countries will have significant air pollution). I really don`t like that, and for that reason might decide against living in China. On the other hand, I like Chinese food the best and, of course, China has the greatest diversity of foods. Yeah, if I had to choose one country out of all of them to visit just for food, I`d choose China. On the third hand though, it can be a little difficult to be sure just how clean or MSG-free the food you`re getting is. I survived my time there just fine, but did get really sick at one point, and it took me more than a month to kick the bug. Although that was done with the help of a traditional doctor and some very effective herbal tea she made, sorted out my GI tract in no time...
Which brings up medical facilities. To the best of my knowledge, and without doing any research, Japan probably has the best, Korea`s good, Taiwan`s good, the others are more questionable, although if you`re looking for plastic surgery the Philippines may be the destination for you. There are probably some great facilities in China, but I`ve seen some pretty sketchy hospitals there as well. To date I`ve tended not to worry too much about that, but it might be something to consider.
I think I covered potential professional experience pretty thoroughly last time, but had a couple more thoughts:
Japan would probably be the most comfortable and familiar in terms of practices, organization, and equipment. However there would probably be a few differences, which could be interesting or frustrating, and I`m not sure how many people in theater in Japan would speak English that well.
Singapore probably has the best average English ability, by far, and would probably be comfortable professionally as well. It might be too unchallenging, although I think there`s a fair amount of interesting stuff going on there. I`d be more concerned about the tininess of the island.
China might be a good mix of challenging and familiar, but I`m almost certain that you would find some situations that were extremely frustrating due to lack of communication, understanding, or ability. At the same time there might well be more scope to learn new practices and styles, and it would definitely be a cultural experience.
(Of course, what do I mean by that? It`ll be a cultural experience no matter what... I guess I mean an experience where you`ll be working with people whose lives and background are unlike yours, whose outlook on and prospects in the broader world are more limited than, or at least notably different from, your own, and where the surrounding environment is unfamiliar and relatively difficult to assimilate. Does that make sense?)
In fact, if you wanted even more of a `cultural experience`, Indonesia could be a very cool place to look into. If they have much theater I would guess that there are some very unfamiliar ideas about what it should do, or about how it should do what it does. But my guess would be that there would be frequent frustrations, again from communication and technical ability, but also from people simply not doing things you need them to do. Not to stereotype, but stuff like that does happen. Hmm, their tourism site doesn`t have too much useful information...
posted by Colin at 7:55 AM
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