I’ve written previously that the theme of this semester’s "Research Training for Practitioners" module on my Master’s course at Surrey is collaboration. Indeed, I’ve written a couple of posts about my concerns about it - specifically whether I’m any good at it. The rubber has now hit the road, and our tutorial group has formed into two collaboration sub-groups.
The first thing to say is that I’m delighted we’ve not broken down along national/linguistic lines (and how lovely a thing that sounds as I write). The group overall has five Chinese students and three English. Apparently, in previous years, groups have tended to form around, as it were, language groups. But not this year! I’m delighted to have been asked to join a group that comprises three fine musicians (and, well, me): Yi Zhang (a classical singer); Zhang Chaoran (a pianist); and Jingyi Zhang (a pop singer, with strong musical theatre inclinations). Also, we’ve broken up the men (me and Max), too. So we’ve achieved maximum possible diversity within the group the get-go!
I knew from my invitation that the group had already decided on musical theatre as a direction. I can live with that. The whole point of this exercise is to get outside our comfort zone; friends and regular readers (if there's a difference) will know that musical theatre certainly puts me beyond mine. Still, while capital M-capital T “Musical Theatre” is pretty much a genre with its own modus operandi (albeit one that’s regularly disrupted, pace “Hamilton”), “music(al) theatre” can be, I think, many different things, and without trying to be the group weirdo/know-it-all (see below) I hope to be able to nudge us in, shall we say, non-Broadway directions.
Some ideas are already on the table. Musical theatre, for a start, requires at least the semblance of a story. At the moment we're going with the traditional Chinese tale "The Butterfly Lovers" - a boy-meets-girl love/boy-and-girl-die tragedy, I gather. Let's face it, it's a cross-cultural archetypal story. I understand that the story has already been told as traditional Chinese Opera and as more pop/musical fare. Let's see what we can add to it. (Aside: about that "archetype" thing... From what I can tell, the story is pretty much Romeo and Juliette. But I'm wondering about a whole Tristan and Isolde thing, especially after reading - and being rather moved by - Robert Johnson's Jungian exploration of the T&I myth, "We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love" a couple of years back.)
But, but... let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're not expected to be too settled on an idea yet - indeed, quite the opposite. So who knows where this can go?
So, briefly, some issues that might arise.
Firstly (as trailed above), I'm really concerned not to "take over", or at least, if not take over, to not push too much of an agenda. I'm already hearing the whole thing in my head as Chinese Opera-meets-Robert Ashley/Laurie Anderson. Which sounds great in my head, but it's hardly the point of the exercise...
The language issue will be interesting. Yi, Chaoran and Zhang Yi have good English. My Mandarin, well not so much. It's certainly understandable that they have side conversations in their shared language. Who wouldn't? But, well, it's a thing to be mindful of (and also makes me realise how appalling my own non-native linguistic ability is).
And then there's another cultural gap: age. This might not seem so great as the language issue, but actually, in a globalised era, it might be greater. The "control group" here is Max and Natalie, who I think share more in common culturally (or at least as much) with the Chinese students as with me. I can't shy away from the fact that everyone in my cohort is younger than my youngest child after all. Or that I'm closer in age to my dad, a Year Zero baby boomer, than I am to them!
Anyway, I'm really excited about this. Let's see where it goes!
Some important issues and concerns raised here. I will be interested to read in later posts how well you feel you have transcended the linguistic and generational differences you mention. This could, of course, all bode well for collaboration and I think you shouldn't be too backwards about coming forwards about the whole age and wisdom thing - you're older, more experienced, you know more (about life or course but also, importantly for this project, about music). Do use your knowledge to push and keep pushing the group - in my observations I think you are doing this but it's important to keep it up.
Posted by: Tom Armstrong | May 09, 2022 at 07:46 PM