Japanese Drama

1
Japanese Drama

• Noh More Kabuki for Us!

2
What you dont NOH

• originated from religious rituals
• dramatic devices were used as teaching tools by
  Buddhist monks
• dramatizing of religious ritual in Buddhism
  slowly became more and more secularized
• found its way out of the sanctuary
• gained in popularity
• performed in markets as well as temples

3
NOH duh?

• Hmm weve seen the religious-to-secular shift
  before...
• Wont you be my neighbor? (List with your
  neighbor.)

4
Noh Drama

• 14th century
• simple dramas based on symbolic dances performed
  to music at the imperial court,
• and similar mimetic performances popular with the
  common people
• still performed today
• approximately 240 scripts
• most from the fourteenth century

5
NOH duh?

• Fourteenth century ______________

6
NOH duh?

• Fourteenth century 1300s
• Thats even older than Shakespeare!
• (What if today we only watched Shakespeares
  plays?)

7
Its NOH trouble to stage

• on a simple, almost bare stage
• uses only two actors
• actors wear elaborate masks
• a chorus functions as a narrator
• actors chant poetic dialogue to orchestral,
  musical accompaniment
• actions suggest rather than depict

8
NOH any good acting styles?

• symbolism and restraint
• tone of the plays tends to be serious
• appealing to the intellect

9
NOH Subject

• subjects from gods to secular history
• focus on the spirit of some historical person who
  wishes salvation but is tied to this earth by
  worldly desires
• plays about the gods, warriors, women, spirits or
  mad persons, and demons

10
The Night of NOH

• plays are usually short
• several plays interspersed with comic scenes
  called Kyogen (crazy words)
• an evenings performance included all five types
• performed in the order noted
• contemporary practice has shortened the program
  to two or three

11
NOH duh?

• Why would organizers include kyogen between
  plays?
• (Wont you be my neighbor? Discuss the answer
  with your neighbor)

12
Kabuki Drama

• Developed around late 16th century
• has changed significantly over the centuries
  because of its ability to adapt and adopt aspects
  of other theatre traditions
• borrowed freely from Noh drama and from popular
  Japanese puppet theatre
• began as a middle-class theatre

13
KABUKI growth

• earliest Kabuki plays were simple sketches
• two-act plays appeared in the 1600s
• By mid-1700s, some plays were 11 acts!

14
KABUKI style

• tend to be melodramas
• three types
• historical background
• domesticity
• dance plays
• connections between scenes in Kabuki plays tend
  to be rather vague
• (not causal)

15
KABUKI style, part 2

• actors do not speak
• narrator and chorus play predominant roles
• narrator describes the scene, comments on the
  action, and even speaks portions of the dialogue
• every location is portrayed scenically
• scenery is changed in full view of the audience

16
KABUKI today

• two five-hour performances per day
• Still very traditional