{{Short description|English writer and theatre actor}} {{Similar names|Joe Riley (disambiguation){{!}}Joe Riley}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2014}} {{Infobox writer | name = Jo Riley | image = | imagesize = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Josephine Riley | birth_date = (20th century)<!--{{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}}--> | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = writer, translator, theatre actor, schoolteacher | nationality = <!--old stub alleged English but no source/proof--> | citizenship = British | education = PhD | alma_mater = University of Cambridge | period = <!--dates from first to last publication--> | subject = Chinese theatre, theatre arts | notableworks = ''Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance'' (1997) | spouse = <!--only if blue link--> | partner = <!--only if blue link--> | children = <!--only if blue link--> | relatives = <!--only if blue link--> | awards = | signature = | website = }} [[File:HuangmeiOpera.jpg|thumb|An example of Huangmei opera performance.]] '''Josephine Riley''' is a British writer, translator, theatre actor, and schoolteacher. Dr. Riley has written and translated several books about theatre arts, especially Chinese theatre. She currently teaches film and drama at Munich International School in Germany.
<!--WP:NOTABILITY paragraph-->Riley reads, writes, and speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is better known for having in the early 1980s widely traveled in China and learned to act in the Chinese theatre<ref name=Mackerras1999/> as one of the first foreign students at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing,<ref name=ISTA2008/> eventually writing ''Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance'' (1997, Cambridge University Press), a reference book that "gives an 'inside' view of Chinese theatre and the actor in performance for the first time [...] from her personal observations of, and dialogue with, Chinese actors and her first-hand experiences of the theatre world of China in general, none of which was possible before 1980."<ref name=pubdesc>[http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/description/cam028/96031554.html Publisher description for the book], archived at the Library of Congress, catdir.loc.gov.</ref> She also made the first English translation of ''The Other Shore'' by Nobel Laureate in Literature playwright Gao Xingjian.
==Biography==
===Life=== thumb|An example of Chinese theater. Jo Riley graduated from the University of Cambridge.<ref name=ISTA2008>ISTA 2008.</ref> After working for a number of small touring companies, she went to Asia to explore a different kind of theatre. In the early 1980s, after learning Mandarin Chinese, she was one of the first foreign students at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing,<ref name=ISTA2008/> where she learned to act in the Chinese theatre (''example pictured at right'').<ref name=Mackerras1999/>
She has since then helped teach and direct traditional Chinese theatre in Salzburg, Mainz, and Bayreuth.<ref name=ISTA2008/> She's also been at intercultural workshops with Cardiff Laboratory Theatre and Pan Projects at Goldsmiths College, London.<ref name=ISTA2008/> In addition, she has written articles and books on Chinese theatre, especially ''Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance'' (1997, see Works section), and has edited or translated several plays or books on European and intercultural theatre.
She currently teaches film at Munich International School<ref name=ISTA2008/> in Germany.
===Works=== [[File:Beijing-Opera2.jpg|thumb|An example of male performer of ''jingju'', the Beijing opera.]] In 1997, Cambridge University Press published Riley's ''Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance'', a book often cited on the topic of Chinese theatre. It covers not only ''jingju'' (Beijing opera or Peking opera, ''example pictured at right'') but also Chinese puppet theatre and shadow play, as well as Chinese exorcism and ancient animation rites at the tomb, to explore how the Chinese create presence on a stage.<ref name=pubdesc/> In a 1999 review for the ''Asian Theatre Journal'', China specialist Prof. Colin Mackerras (author of ''The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China'', brother of Malcolm Mackerras) noted how the book "looks at the skills of the Chinese actor from the insider's point of view – not that of the Westerner or the student of China."<ref name=Mackerras1999>Mackerras 1999.</ref> Indeed:
{{blockquote|Jo Riley is one of the few people in the West qualified to undertake such a study because she not only knows Chinese but has learned to act in the Chinese theatre. She has traveled widely in China and examined the various styles of regional theatre that are so abundant and important in China. Although nobody can really divorce himself from his own culture, nor is it sensible to try, Jo Riley does speak as an insider of the Chinese theatre in a way few non-Chinese can match.<ref name=Mackerras1999/>}}
Riley also made, under the title ''The Other Side'' (1997), the first English translation of the controversial play ''The Other Shore'' (1986) by Nobel Laureate in Literature playwright Gao Xingjian.
==Bibliography==
===As editor=== Edited or co-edited publications include: * 1990: ''The Dramatic Touch of Difference: Theatre, Own and Foreign'', by various *: Collected essays edited by Erika Fischer-Lichte<sup><!--until blue link-->(in German)</sup>, Jo Riley, & Michael Gissenwehrer, Forum Modernes Theater, <!--"Schriftenreihe"=Series, "Band"=Volume-->vol. 2, Tübingen: <!--no umlaut on Gun-->Gunter Narr Verlag, 1990, {{ISBN|3-8233-4023-9}}, {{LCCN|90190502}}, {{OCLC|22509815}}, GBOOK [https://books.google.com/books?id=BoB6jbZqbhgC BoB6jbZqbhgC]; 287 p., illustrations, paperback – Co-credit was to "Josephine Riley". * 1997: ''The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective'', by Erika Fischer-Lichte<sup><!--until blue link-->(in German)</sup> *: Collected essays (1986–1995) edited (and some translated from the German into English) by Jo Riley, Studies in Theatre History and Culture, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, November 1997, {{ISBN|0-87745-608-9}}<!--pbk out before hbk-->, {{LCCN|97024047}}, {{OCLC|37392802}}, GBOOK [https://books.google.com/books?id=HF3wu1vVm2gC HF3wu1vVm2gC]; 426 (x, 412) p., illustrations, paperback. (Hardback: February 1998, {{ISBN|0-87745-607-0}}<!--same OCLC as pbk-->)
===As author=== Publications include: * 1997: ''Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance'' *: Cambridge studies in modern theatre, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, June 1997, {{ISBN|0-521-57090-5}}, {{LCCN|96031554}}, {{OCLC|35085033}}, GBOOK [https://books.google.com/books?id=OIAiYaIfFagC OIAiYaIfFagC]; 360 (xii, 348) p., illustrations, hardback. (Paperback: December 2006, {{ISBN|0-521-03523-6}}, {{OCLC|150387657}}.)
===As translator=== Translations include: * 1997: ''The Other Side: A Contemporary Drama Without Acts'', by Gao Xingjian *: Translated from the Chinese ''Bi An'' (1986; {{lang-zh|c=彼岸|p=bǐ'àn<!--bi3'an4-->}}) into English by Jo Riley, in Martha P. Y. Cheung & Jane C. C. Lai (eds.), ''An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama'', p. 149–184<!--Prose: 152-183-->, Hong Kong & New York: Oxford University Press, September 1997, {{ISBN|0-19-586880-3}}, {{LCCN|97005298}}, {{OCLC|36283949}}, GBOOK [https://books.google.com/books?id=XUFkAAAAMAAJ XUFkAAAAMAAJ]; 900 (xxvi, 873) p., hardback – Part of an anthology of 15 plays. This play was later retranslated by someone else as ''The Other Shore'' for a different collection of plays. * 2001: ''History of European Drama and Theatre'', by Erika Fischer-Lichte<sup><!--until blue link-->(in German)</sup> *: Translated from the German ''Geschichte des Dramas'' (1990) into English by Jo Riley, London, UK & New York: Routledge, December 2001, {{ISBN|0-415-18059-7}}, {{LCCN|2001034969}}, {{OCLC|48110496}}, GBOOK [https://books.google.com/books?id=5JWfX8mjX8AC 5JWfX8mjX8AC]; 432 (x, 396<!--sic-->) p., hardback. (Paperback: May 2004, {{ISBN|0-415-18060-0}}, {{OCLC|56222522}}.)
==References==
===Notes=== {{reflist}}
===Sources=== Main sources used for this article: * ISTA (2008). [http://www.ista.co.uk/files/London%201%20TAPS%20Teacher%20Information%20Pack.doc "Teacher Information Pack for the London 1 TAPS" (Theatre Arts Programmes Symposium)] (Word document), International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA), 2008 – Contains a self-bio. * {{cite journal |author-link=Colin Mackerras |last=Mackerras |first=Colin |title=Reviewed work: ''Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance'', Jo Riley |journal=Asian Theatre Journal |year=1999 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=127–129 |jstor=1124450}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Jo}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:English stage actresses Category:British theatre critics Category:20th-century English women writers Category:Chinese–English translators Category:German–English translators Category:English book editors Category:English women editors Category:British schoolteachers Category:British drama teachers Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:Central Academy of Drama alumni Category:British women theatre critics Category:20th-century English translators