The celebrated Japanese classical noh actor Akira Matsui and Professor Richard Emmert will give a performance of selections from classic noh plays on the stage of Royal Holloway’s Handa Noh Theatre to launch the Department of Drama and Theatre’s new Centre for Asian Theatre and Dance.

The Centre for Asian Theatre and Dance fosters research on performing arts originating from and/or practiced in Asia. The Centre aims to advance cutting-edge thinking on contemporary and classical arts in Asia and Asian diasporas (including theatre, dance, live art and performance art), the history of Asian dance and theatre, intercultural forms of performance, intermedial arts, media representations of Asian theatre and dance, museum collections of Asian performance artefacts, European arts as practiced in Asia and Asian arts in global contexts, among other areas. A range of methodological and disciplinary approaches to the field are embraced, including practice-as-research, history, performance and textual analysis, ethnography, sociology and geography. The Centre will run a seminar series, sponsor lectures and workshops, host performances and visiting scholars, oversee the annual Noh Training Project UK and develop relations with other international centres for Asian theatre and dance.