Cecil Thomas (Tom) Ault

Domaine de recherche

Asie du Sud

Pays de résidence

États-Unis d'Amérique

Titre

Associate Professor of Theater

Affiliation

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Adresse électronique

ctault@grove.iup.edu

Adresse

Indiana University of Pennsylvania
206-I Waller Hall
Indiana PA 15705 USA

Téléphone/Télécopie

Ph.D. in Theatre (University of Michigan, 1983)
M.A. Theatre & English
B.A. Spanish

Pays de spécialisation

India

Recherche

Set Designer and Scenic Artist for over 20 years. Now, Theatre Historian
with emphasis on Early Italian Renaissance through the Eighteenth century.
However, I am concerned with the whole phenomenon of technical stage production
in the Western world, as it is a spin-off from Italian practice. I have
published on stagecrafe in Italy, France and Germany. My doctoral thesis is on
the staging of operas at the Paris Opera 1763-1873.

Now....about Indian performance. I went to Delhi in 1975 to teach high school
at the American Embassy School. I stayed for three years and became fascinated
with Indian culture. I studied Hindi, which I still know pretty well and
travelled all over the north, including Nepal and Bhutan. I saw some
Rajasthani Khyal players at an exhibition in 1978, and became very interested in
a style of theatre totally different....no stage technology at all....from the
type in which I had been working for so many years. I returned to India many
times after that, especially since I was married to Sharon Lowen, a well known
Odissi dancer. Finally, I got an Indo-US Subcomission grant to go to Rajasthan
in 1986. I went and this launched my second career in theatre, which, actually
has overtaken everything else. I was recently in Jodhpur to
put the finishing touches on my book,
Gods, Heroes & Demons: The Theatre of Rajasthan. It should come out early 2001.

I am also working on the Rani Gumpha, a 1st century B.C. rock cut,
acoustical theatre in Orissa, just outside Bhubaneswar. My colleague,
Umashankar Manthravadi and I presented a paper on that theatre November
1999 at Columbus, Ohio. I have many publications on Western Theatre, plus
an article in Asian Theatre Journal, 1991, on Marwari Khyal.

Publications

None on file.

Mots-clés

set design ; scenic art ; Theatre history ; Italian Renaissance ; Indian performance ; ...