Mojdara Rutnin Mattani

Mattani Mojdara Rutnin [Rattanin] มัทนี โมชดารา รัตนิน (b. 1st May 1937) is a former professor of drama and literature at Thammasat University, Bangkok, a former dancer trained in Thai classical dance, Western ballet, and modern dance from childhoo, an actress and theater director who worked with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London), BBC (London), NHK (Japan) and the Yale Drama School (USA), as well as adapting and translating Western plays for the Thai public, and a historian of Siamese and Thai dance who published in English and Thai.

Professor Dr. Mattani earned her Bachelor’s degree in French Language and Literature and Drama Studies from Wellesley College, her Master’s degree in French Literature and Drama from the Sorbonne University and Middlebury Graduate School in Paris, and received a British Council scholarship to study Shakespearean theatre, directing, and acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, as well as a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship to pursue and complete her Ph.D. in Literature and Drama at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, obtaining her Ph.D. in literaty history at SOAS with her doctoral dissertation titled “The Modernization of Thai Dance-Drama, with Special Reference to the Reign of King Chulalongkorn” (1978).

In December 1984, she was offered to pursue her research in the history of dance drama in Thailand by the Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco (CEACS). It resulted in her major published study, Dance, drama and theatre in Thailand: the process of development and modernisation (Tokyo, 1973).

Affectionately dubbed ‘ครูมัท’ (‘Kru Mat’ for Prof. Mat[tani]) by her students in Bangkok, Mattani Rattanin was the National Artist of Thailand 2017 in the section Performing Arts (Theatre). She has been a pioneer of modern theatre at Thammasat University since 1971.

1, 2) Mattani Rattanin’s archive images in the video dedicated to her in 2017 [*กรมส่งเสริมวัฒนธรรม (Department of Cultural Promotion DCP)*]. 3, 4) Poster and presentation of 2 of Prof. Mattani’s theater productions in Bangkok, including ‘This Love has a Tag Price’. *[FB post by Theatre Studies and News, 2019.]*

Selected Publications

The Siamese theatre a collection of reprints from the journals of the Siam Society edited by Mattani Rutnin, Bangkok, Journal of the Siam Society, 1975, 291 p., 43 plates. [ENG, TH]
Modern Thai Literature, 1988. [ENG, TH]
“Nang Talung and Thai Life”. Paper presented at the International Seminar on Southeast Asian Traditional Performing Arts: The State of the Art. 10 – 13 August 1992. Penang: University Sains Malaysia, 1992.
Dance, drama and theatre in Thailand: the process of development and modernisation, Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco (CEACS), the Toyo Bunko, 1993, 327 p., 28 plates. ISBN: 489656 197 4. | repr. Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2012, 327 p. ISBN: 9789743900068.

Screenwriting, adaptation, direction, and production in Thai language of various plays including *Death of a Salesman*, *A Street Car Named Desire*, *Antigone*, *My Fair Lady*, *The Threepenny Opera*, *The Importance of Being Earnest*, *Macbeth*, *Trojan Woman*, *Mary-Elizabeth*, *Romeo & Juliet*, *Cats*, *The Merchant of Venice*, *Mae Bia*, etc.