Tarryn Chun

Assistant Professor, Theatre

Specialties

History, Theory, and Criticism

Research Interests

Chinese theatre and performance, Asian theatre, theatre history, intercultural performance, technology and the arts, Chinese visual culture

 

Biography

Tarryn Chun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, where she holds a concurrent appointment in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and is a Faculty Fellow at the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

Prior to joining the faculty at Notre Dame, she completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese theatre, and she teaches courses in Asian theatre, global theatre history, intercultural performance, adaptation, and intersections among theatre and other arts/media.

Her book Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theatre, Technology, and Politics in Modern China (forthcoming from University of Michigan Press) examines the relationship between technological modernization and artistic innovation in 20th-21st century Chinese theatre. Other projects include a second book manuscript on "Spectacle and Excess in Global Chinese Performance," which received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 2021, and a collaboration with Professor Anton Juan on "Theatre for Justice in Asia: Past, Present, Futures." She currently serves on the boards of the Association for Asian Performance and the Association for Chinese and Comparative Literature, and as Online Editor for Theatre Journal.

 

Headshot by Myriam Nicodemus

Representative Publications, Performances, and Creative Works

Chinese Socialist Theatres of Reform: Rethinking Performance Practice and Debates in the Maoist Period. Edited by Xiaomei Chen, Tarryn Chun, and Siyuan Liu. University of Michigan Press, March 2021.

“Modern Drama Script Anthologies.” In Jack W. Chen, Anatoly Detwyler, Xiao Liu, Christopher M. B. Nugent, and Bruce Rusk (eds.) Literary Information in China: A History. Columbia University Press, May 2021.

"Mediated Transgression and Madame White: Technology and the Nonhuman in Contemporary Stagings of a Chinese Folktale.” Theatre Journal. 71, 3 (September 2019), pp. 307-326.

“Critical Acts—Spoken Drama and its Doubles: Thunderstorm 2.0 by Wang Chong and Théâtre du Rêve Expérimental.” TDR: The Drama Review. 63, 3 (Fall 2019), pp. 155-163.

“Revolutionary Illumination: Stage Lighting, Politics, and Play in 1930s Shanghai Theater.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. 30, 2 (Fall 2018), pp. 87-140.