Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
new play 4 drama
Something new for Dramatic Impact, an audio documentary. This is also our first episode about a play that was researched and created outside the traditional theatre community. The Invisible Project is a play that was created collectively and researched in Calgary’s homeless shelters. The performances of the play that I recorded last January were at Calgary City Hall and at the Calgary Drop-In Centre, a shelter that can house up to 1250 men and women per night and that serves up to 3500 meals per day. The Drop-In Centre was also where the play’s director and facilitator, David van Belle, assistant director, Aviva Zimmerman, stage manager, Paisley Sim, mask maker, Douglas R. Witt, mask assistant, Carla Ritchie, set and lighting designer, Terry Gunvordahl, and actors Molly Flood, Richard Lee Hsi, and Jed Tomlinson rehearsed and researched the show.
The music in the play was captured from adhoc “performances” given by clients at the Drop-In Centre. I also used snippets of this music for segues in the documentary.
The music in the play was captured from adhoc “performances” given by clients at the Drop-In Centre. I also used snippets of this music for segues in the documentary.
Next Month
- An edited stereo recording of the performance of the play at the Drop-In Centre shelter.
- Recordings of the parts of the interviews not included in Episode 16. The interviews, which you’ll hear in Episode 16 and in later episodes, were with (in order of presentation) Linda Coleman, Drop-In Centre client and volunteer, David van Belle, director and facilitator, and Richard Lee Hsi, actor.
acting
Dramatic Impact: Acting and Theatre in Alberta is two and 1/3 years old now, and we have had 25 episodes in total. In all that time I have not been tempted to mouth off about anything in this podcast blog. But today I discovered something that I am passionate about, which I suspect that many engaged in the pursuit of acting are prone to take less than seriously.
I believe that the core of acting depends on developing our capacity for play and imagination. I take this belief for granted because it has been confirmed by so many directors, teachers, and actors that I respect. But I think there is a disdain for that approach out there, possibly because it is hard enough to gain respect for what we do as actors and to be regarded as professional. And even those of us who are not full-blown professional actors want to be regarded as professional in our approach. It makes it that much less appealing to openly legitimize the role of play and imagination in what we do.
In True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor, a book that has generated much controversy, David Mamet acknowledges an actor’s fear of being perceived as childish:
I believe that the core of acting depends on developing our capacity for play and imagination. I take this belief for granted because it has been confirmed by so many directors, teachers, and actors that I respect. But I think there is a disdain for that approach out there, possibly because it is hard enough to gain respect for what we do as actors and to be regarded as professional. And even those of us who are not full-blown professional actors want to be regarded as professional in our approach. It makes it that much less appealing to openly legitimize the role of play and imagination in what we do.
In True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor, a book that has generated much controversy, David Mamet acknowledges an actor’s fear of being perceived as childish:
a landmake teilogy in theatre
Much like August Wilson’s ten-play Pittsburgh cycle which explored the history of African Americans throughout the twentieth century, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays, delves into the African American experience, albeit from a twenty-first century point of view. Since the premiere of The Brothers Size in 2008, The Studio Theatre’s commitment to McCraMuch like August Wilson’s ten-play Pittsburgh cycle which explored the history of African Americans throughout the twentieth century, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays, delves into the African American experience, albeit from a twenty-first century point of view. Since the premiere of The Brothers Size in 2008, The Studio Theatre’s commitment to McCraney’s astounding series of plays has manifested in two memorable productions.
ney’s astounding series of plays has manifested in two memorable productions.
ney’s astounding series of plays has manifested in two memorable productions.
darkness 2 light
The New York Times described Tracy Letts as “a recovering alcoholic and former pack-a-day smoker who could have majored in profanity had he not dropped out of college,” but also observed his “surprising sweetness and exuberant humor.” This mixture of darkness and light reflects Letts’s own background. He was born in 1965 to an artistic Southern family in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His mother Billie was a successful professor and writer who went on to author the best-selling novel Where the Heart Is, among others. His father Dennis was an academic-turned-actor. Letts’s parents were extremely supportive of the arts, taking him to see films like Serpico when he was only six years old. He recalls writing a story in his youth called “The Psychopath,” explaining, “The cover showed a man hanging in the closet, and he had also shot himself in the head.” His first-grade teacher gave him an A+. Another major figure was his grandmother, whose husband’s suicide sent her into depression and drug addiction. The combination of love and support, mixed with darkness and instability, is one that informs his writing.
As Letts grew, “from an eager-to-please kid into a tortured teenager,” he began acting. Encouraged by his parents, he dropped out of college and moved to Dallas to become an actor, waiting tables and telemarketing to scrape together a living. By the age of twenty, Letts moved to Chicago. Soon after, he began acting with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he is still an active member. Today, the displaced Southerner calls Chicago his home, describing Superior Donuts as a love letter to his chosen hometown.
In 1991, Letts was struggling with drug addiction. He was “ripped most of the time” when he wrote his first play Killer Joe, about a man who plans to murder his mother to buy drugs with her insurance money. After the play’s premiere Letts ceased using drugs, and has been sober ever since. His next play, Bug, premiered in London in 1996. Bug depicts the destructive relationship between a lonely cocktail waitress and a psychotic war veteran. Man from Nebraska (2003) portrayed a religious couple undergoing a crisis of faith. Man from Nebraska was a Pulitzer-Prize finalist in 2004. It was August: Osage County (2007), however, that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. This portrayal of a Southern family straining to deal with death, drug addiction, and incest firmly established Letts as a master of dark humor and comic pathos. Letts acknowledges the autobiographical impact of his work: “the characters are all representative of me – what I’m capable of at my best and at my absolute worst.” He also cites Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Jim Thompson, and friend Martin McDonagh as influences.
Letts continues to act and write, recently beginning work on the screenplay of August: Osage County, as well as adapting Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. He lives with his girlfriend, and has no children, remarking, “Families are wonderful things, but we’re all flawed by design.” This ability to see flaws, and yet still feel wonder, so clear in his writing, is part of what makes Letts’s drama so compelling.
As Letts grew, “from an eager-to-please kid into a tortured teenager,” he began acting. Encouraged by his parents, he dropped out of college and moved to Dallas to become an actor, waiting tables and telemarketing to scrape together a living. By the age of twenty, Letts moved to Chicago. Soon after, he began acting with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he is still an active member. Today, the displaced Southerner calls Chicago his home, describing Superior Donuts as a love letter to his chosen hometown.
In 1991, Letts was struggling with drug addiction. He was “ripped most of the time” when he wrote his first play Killer Joe, about a man who plans to murder his mother to buy drugs with her insurance money. After the play’s premiere Letts ceased using drugs, and has been sober ever since. His next play, Bug, premiered in London in 1996. Bug depicts the destructive relationship between a lonely cocktail waitress and a psychotic war veteran. Man from Nebraska (2003) portrayed a religious couple undergoing a crisis of faith. Man from Nebraska was a Pulitzer-Prize finalist in 2004. It was August: Osage County (2007), however, that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. This portrayal of a Southern family straining to deal with death, drug addiction, and incest firmly established Letts as a master of dark humor and comic pathos. Letts acknowledges the autobiographical impact of his work: “the characters are all representative of me – what I’m capable of at my best and at my absolute worst.” He also cites Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Jim Thompson, and friend Martin McDonagh as influences.
Letts continues to act and write, recently beginning work on the screenplay of August: Osage County, as well as adapting Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. He lives with his girlfriend, and has no children, remarking, “Families are wonderful things, but we’re all flawed by design.” This ability to see flaws, and yet still feel wonder, so clear in his writing, is part of what makes Letts’s drama so compelling.
playwright
by storm in 1995 with his break-out hit Mojo, carving a name for himself among the edgiest playwrights. The writer-centric Royal Court Theatre first took an interest in Butterworth and produced his play about underground rock ‘n roll in late 1950s Soho, London. Butterworth explains, "I was interested in that historical moment: rock'n'roll landing like a spaceship on postwar, just-out-of-rationing Britain." Lauded by critics and presented with numerous awards for his sensational Mojo, Butterworth was among the hottest British playwrights.
After Mojo’s whirlwind success, Butterworth turned his gage towards the silver screen. He was commissioned to adapt Mojo into a screenplay and made his directorial debut with this film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival featuring playwriting legend, Harold Pinter. In 2001, he directed another self-penned screenplay, Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman. A year later, Butterworth premiered his newest play, The Night Heron.
A master of both playwriting and screenwriting, Butterworth explains that the two are very different crafts for him: “Screenwriting and playwriting always strike me as like different sports that I can play. It’s like cricket and football; they don’t really have much to do with each other except a lot of strenuous activity.” He confesses that screenwriting comes easier to him but that he is fascinated by the stage because it poses more of a challenge to him as a writer.
In 2005, Butterworth moved his young family from fast-paced London to the fresh air of the English country side. Butterworth found respite his new rural environment. He also prides himself on raising pigs on his humble farm, which he and his family eat.
Fresh air did this now middle-aged playwright well. A few years after his move, he pumped out two major hits in one year. Butterworth premiered Parlour Song in 2008 at the Atlantic Theatre, which transferred to the Almeida for its English debut. In the fall of that same year, he opened Jerusalem at The Royal Court Theatre, which received extraordinary praise before a successful transfer to the West End. Long-time collaborator Ian Rickson, who has directed most of Butterworth stage plays, notices, “Having children and animals has had a really powerful effect on [Butterworth’s] work
After Mojo’s whirlwind success, Butterworth turned his gage towards the silver screen. He was commissioned to adapt Mojo into a screenplay and made his directorial debut with this film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival featuring playwriting legend, Harold Pinter. In 2001, he directed another self-penned screenplay, Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman. A year later, Butterworth premiered his newest play, The Night Heron.
A master of both playwriting and screenwriting, Butterworth explains that the two are very different crafts for him: “Screenwriting and playwriting always strike me as like different sports that I can play. It’s like cricket and football; they don’t really have much to do with each other except a lot of strenuous activity.” He confesses that screenwriting comes easier to him but that he is fascinated by the stage because it poses more of a challenge to him as a writer.
In 2005, Butterworth moved his young family from fast-paced London to the fresh air of the English country side. Butterworth found respite his new rural environment. He also prides himself on raising pigs on his humble farm, which he and his family eat.
Fresh air did this now middle-aged playwright well. A few years after his move, he pumped out two major hits in one year. Butterworth premiered Parlour Song in 2008 at the Atlantic Theatre, which transferred to the Almeida for its English debut. In the fall of that same year, he opened Jerusalem at The Royal Court Theatre, which received extraordinary praise before a successful transfer to the West End. Long-time collaborator Ian Rickson, who has directed most of Butterworth stage plays, notices, “Having children and animals has had a really powerful effect on [Butterworth’s] work
dramatic impact
Commedia dell'Arte troupes performed lively improvisational playlets across Europe for centuries. It originated in Italy in the 1560s, and differed from conventional theatre in that it was neither professional nor open to the public. Commedia dell'Arte required only actors at its heart, no scene and very few props were considered absolutely essential. Plays did not originate from scripts but scenarios, which were loose frameworks of productions providing only the situations, complications, and outcome of the work. The actors improvised most dialogue and comedic interludes(called lazzi). The plays were based around a few stock characters, which could be divided into three groups: the lovers, masters, and servants. The lovers had different names and characteristics in most plays and often were the children of the master's character. The role of master was normally based on one of three stereotypes: Pantalone, an eldery Venetian merchant who wore his pajamas most often; Dottore, Pantalone's friend or rival, a doctor or lawyer who acted far more intelligent than he really was; and Capitano, who was once a lover's character, but evolved into a man who bragged about his exploits in love and war, but was often terrifically unskilled in both. He normally carried a sword and wore a cape and feathered headdress. The servant character type (called zanni) had only one recurring role: Arlecchino (also called Harlequin). He was both cunning and ignorant, but an accomplished dancer. He typically carried a wooden stick with a split in the middle so it made a loud noise when striking something. This "weapon" gave us the term "slapstick." A troupe typically consisted of 13 to 14 members. No women were allowed to act in theater at this time. So there were absolutely no female performers. Most actors were paid by taking a share of the play's profits roughly equivalent to the size of their role. The style of theatre was in its peak from 1575–1650, but even after that time new scenarios were written and performed. Carlo Goldoni wrote a few scenarios starting in 1734, but since he considered the genre too vulgar, he refined the topics of his own to be more sophisticated. He also wrote several true plays starring Commedia characters. By 1775, however, the genre of Commedia dell'Arte had lost public interest and died out. Improvisation today is very close to the Commedia
commedia dell art
Commedia dell'Arte troupes performed lively improvisational playlets across Europe for centuries. It originated in Italy in the 1560s, and differed from conventional theatre in that it was neither professional nor open to the public. Commedia dell'Arte required only actors at its heart, no scene and very few props were considered absolutely essential. Plays did not originate from scripts but scenarios, which were loose frameworks of productions providing only the situations, complications, and outcome of the work. The actors improvised most dialogue and comedic interludes(called lazzi). The plays were based around a few stock characters, which could be divided into three groups: the lovers, masters, and servants. The lovers had different names and characteristics in most plays and often were the children of the master's character. The role of master was normally based on one of three stereotypes: Pantalone, an eldery Venetian merchant who wore his pajamas most often; Dottore, Pantalone's friend or rival, a doctor or lawyer who acted far more intelligent than he really was; and Capitano, who was once a lover's character, but evolved into a man who bragged about his exploits in love and war, but was often terrifically unskilled in both. He normally carried a sword and wore a cape and feathered headdress. The servant character type (called zanni) had only one recurring role: Arlecchino (also called Harlequin). He was both cunning and ignorant, but an accomplished dancer. He typically carried a wooden stick with a split in the middle so it made a loud noise when striking something. This "weapon" gave us the term "slapstick." A troupe typically consisted of 13 to 14 members. No women were allowed to act in theater at this time. So there were absolutely no female performers. Most actors were paid by taking a share of the play's profits roughly equivalent to the size of their role. The style of theatre was in its peak from 1575–1650, but even after that time new scenarios were written and performed. Carlo Goldoni wrote a few scenarios starting in 1734, but since he considered the genre too vulgar, he refined the topics of his own to be more sophisticated. He also wrote several true plays starring Commedia characters. By 1775, however, the genre of Commedia dell'Arte had lost public interest and died out. Improvisation today is very close to the Commedia
indina classical theatre
Kālidāsa in the 1st century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India's greatest Sanskrit dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram (Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramuurvashiiya (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. In comparison to Bhasa, who drew heavily from the epics, Kālidāsa can be considered an original playwright
[edit] Medieval Indian theatre
The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606-648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda. Many other dramatists followed during the Middle Agesafrican theatre
Further information: Yoruba literature
In his pioneering study of Yoruba theatre, Joel Adedeji traced its origins to the masquerade of the Egun or Egungunoud and red, rarely applauding the actors, but always shouting insults and booing. Because the audience was so loud, much, the “cult of the ancestor.”[1] The traditional Egun rite, which is controlled exclusively by men, culminates in a masquerade in which ancestors return to the world of the living to visit their descendants.[2] In addition to a basis in ritual, Yoruba theatre can be “traced to the ‘theatrogenic’ nature of a number of the deities in the Yoruba pantheon, such as Obatala the god of creation, Ogun the god of creativeness and Sango the god of lightning” whose worship is imbricated “with drama and theatre and their symbolic and psychological uses.”[3]The Aláàrìnjó theatrical tradition sprang from the egun masquerade. The Aláàrìnjó was composed of a troupe of traveling performers, who, like the performers in the egun rite, were masked. The Aláàrìnjó performers created satirical skits by drawing on a number of established stereotypical characters and incorporating mime, music and acrobatics. The Aláàrìnjó tradition in turn deeply influenced the Yoruba traveling theatre, which, from the 1950s to the 1980s was the most prevalent and highly developed form of theatre in Nigeria. From the 1990s on the Yoruba traveling theatre began working with television and film and now rarely gives live performances.[4]
‘Total theater’ also developed in Nigeria in the 1950s and was characterized by surrealist physical imagery, non-naturalistic idioms and linguistic flexibility. Later playwrights writing in the mid 1970’s valued ‘total theater’ but included “a radical appreciation of the problems of society.”[5]
Major figures in contemporary Nigerian theatre continue to be deeply influenced by traditional performance modes. Chief Hubert Ogunde, sometimes referred to as the “father of contemporary Yoruban theatre,” was informed by the Aláàrìnjó tradition and egun masquerades.[6] Wole Soyinka, who is “generally recognized as Africa’s greatest living playwright” gives egun a complex metaphysical significance in his work.[7] Further in his essay, "The Fourth Stage: Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy," originally published in 1973, Soyinka suggests that “no matter how strongly African authors call for an indigenous tragic art form, they smuggle into their dramas, through the back door of formalistic and ideological predilections, typically conventional Western notions and practices of rendering historical events into tragedy.” Soyinka then contrasts Yoruban drama with Greek drama, as discussed by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy, establishing an aesthetic of Yoruban tragedy based, in part, on the Yoruban pantheon, including Ogun and Obatala.
[edit] Asian theatre
[edit] Indian theatre
Main articles: Theatre in India and Sanskrit drama
Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd millennium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. It was the last element which made it the origin of the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters.In such a very simple and crude manner did the theatre originate in India during Rig Vedic times. There also must have existed a theatrical tradition in the Harappan cities, but of this we lack material proof.
[edit] Natya Shastra
Further information: Natya Shastra and Natya Shastra of Bharata
Bharata Muni (fl. 5th– was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle's Poetics. Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term roopaka which means portrayal...The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope. It consists of minutely detailed precepts for both playwrights and actors. Bharata describes ten types of drama ranging from one to ten acts. In addition, he lays down principles for stage design, makeup, costume, dance (various movements and gestures), a theory of aesthetics (rasas and bhavas), acting, directing and music, each in individual chapters.
Bharata sets out a detailed theory of drama comparable to the Poetics of Aristotle. He refers to bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform, and the rasas (emotional responses) that they inspire in the audience. He argues that there are eight principal rasas: love, pity, anger, disgust, heroism, awe, terror and comedy, and that plays should mix different rasas but be dominated by one. According to the Natya Shastra, all the modes of expression employed by an individual viz. speech, gestures, movements and intonation must be used. The representation of these expressions can have different modes (vritti) according to the predominance and emphasis on one mode or another. Bharata Muni recognises four main modes: speech and poetry (bharati vritti), dance and music (kaishiki vritti), action (arabhatti vritti) and emotions (sattvatti vritti
Further information: Yoruba literature
In his pioneering study of Yoruba theatre, Joel Adedeji traced its origins to the masquerade of the Egun or Egungunoud and red, rarely applauding the actors, but always shouting insults and booing. Because the audience was so loud, much, the “cult of the ancestor.”[1] The traditional Egun rite, which is controlled exclusively by men, culminates in a masquerade in which ancestors return to the world of the living to visit their descendants.[2] In addition to a basis in ritual, Yoruba theatre can be “traced to the ‘theatrogenic’ nature of a number of the deities in the Yoruba pantheon, such as Obatala the god of creation, Ogun the god of creativeness and Sango the god of lightning” whose worship is imbricated “with drama and theatre and their symbolic and psychological uses.”[3]The Aláàrìnjó theatrical tradition sprang from the egun masquerade. The Aláàrìnjó was composed of a troupe of traveling performers, who, like the performers in the egun rite, were masked. The Aláàrìnjó performers created satirical skits by drawing on a number of established stereotypical characters and incorporating mime, music and acrobatics. The Aláàrìnjó tradition in turn deeply influenced the Yoruba traveling theatre, which, from the 1950s to the 1980s was the most prevalent and highly developed form of theatre in Nigeria. From the 1990s on the Yoruba traveling theatre began working with television and film and now rarely gives live performances.[4]
‘Total theater’ also developed in Nigeria in the 1950s and was characterized by surrealist physical imagery, non-naturalistic idioms and linguistic flexibility. Later playwrights writing in the mid 1970’s valued ‘total theater’ but included “a radical appreciation of the problems of society.”[5]
Major figures in contemporary Nigerian theatre continue to be deeply influenced by traditional performance modes. Chief Hubert Ogunde, sometimes referred to as the “father of contemporary Yoruban theatre,” was informed by the Aláàrìnjó tradition and egun masquerades.[6] Wole Soyinka, who is “generally recognized as Africa’s greatest living playwright” gives egun a complex metaphysical significance in his work.[7] Further in his essay, "The Fourth Stage: Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy," originally published in 1973, Soyinka suggests that “no matter how strongly African authors call for an indigenous tragic art form, they smuggle into their dramas, through the back door of formalistic and ideological predilections, typically conventional Western notions and practices of rendering historical events into tragedy.” Soyinka then contrasts Yoruban drama with Greek drama, as discussed by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy, establishing an aesthetic of Yoruban tragedy based, in part, on the Yoruban pantheon, including Ogun and Obatala.
[edit] Asian theatre
[edit] Indian theatre
Main articles: Theatre in India and Sanskrit drama
Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd millennium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. It was the last element which made it the origin of the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters.In such a very simple and crude manner did the theatre originate in India during Rig Vedic times. There also must have existed a theatrical tradition in the Harappan cities, but of this we lack material proof.
[edit] Natya Shastra
Further information: Natya Shastra and Natya Shastra of Bharata
Bharata Muni (fl. 5th– was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle's Poetics. Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term roopaka which means portrayal...The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope. It consists of minutely detailed precepts for both playwrights and actors. Bharata describes ten types of drama ranging from one to ten acts. In addition, he lays down principles for stage design, makeup, costume, dance (various movements and gestures), a theory of aesthetics (rasas and bhavas), acting, directing and music, each in individual chapters.
Bharata sets out a detailed theory of drama comparable to the Poetics of Aristotle. He refers to bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform, and the rasas (emotional responses) that they inspire in the audience. He argues that there are eight principal rasas: love, pity, anger, disgust, heroism, awe, terror and comedy, and that plays should mix different rasas but be dominated by one. According to the Natya Shastra, all the modes of expression employed by an individual viz. speech, gestures, movements and intonation must be used. The representation of these expressions can have different modes (vritti) according to the predominance and emphasis on one mode or another. Bharata Muni recognises four main modes: speech and poetry (bharati vritti), dance and music (kaishiki vritti), action (arabhatti vritti) and emotions (sattvatti vritti
kabuki history
Shogunate (1338-1573), Kyoto was the centre of luxury and effeminate culture among the wealthy, and of increasingly licentious revelry among high and low alike. The first half of this era, known as the Muromachi Period (1338-1443), was characterized by an influx of Chinese influence, an increase of education among the priesthood, and of such gentle arts as Cha-no-yu (tea ceremony), Ko-awase (incense judging), and Ikebana (flower arrangement), among the leisured. Noh, also, during this period, was brought to its perfection and exercised a refining influence over the military class in particular. None of these apparently noble arts, however, was able to check the social evils which grew up, especially during the later years of that Shogunate (1444-1573), in part because of the strict isolation of the sexes demanded by Buddhist ethics and Buddhism's failure to bring matters of sex under the ennobling sanctions of religion.
While the upper classes found their recognized amusements in cultured ways on the one hand, and their secret delights in the practices of exclusively male society on the other, the great mass of the people were entertaining themselves upon the dry river-beds or in vacant lots within the city with popular Dengaku, Sarugaku, and other sports of rude promiscuity, wherein not infrequently men of rank also found relaxation.
Into the arena of popular sport, somewhere about the end of the sixteenth century, when England's Shakespeare was in his prime, came a dancing-girl, known to us as Okuni of Izumo. She seems to have been the daughter of an iron-worker, and a skilled Maiko in the service of the shrine at Izumo, which, though Shinto, was at the time in the charge of a Buddhist priest. Her presence in Kyoto is traditionally explained by the supposition that she may have been on a tour seeking contributions for the shrine. However that may have been, she met with such welcome in Kyoto that she remained, to be identified with a new dramatic movement rising from the midst of the common people.
Okuni's Kagura seems to have been a form of Buddhist nembutsu, a dance of worship in praise of Amida; but her reception on the Kyoto river-beds may well have been due more to her physical beauty and grace of movement than to any appeal in the interests of religion. Here, in any case, about 1596, she was seen by Sanzaburo, who from Nagoya had been sent by his family to be trained for the priesthood in the Kennin Temple, one of the then famous Five Temples, in Kyoto.
This youth of a military family had no fondness for the austerities of religion, but led a life of social freedom, and was popularly known for excellence in social arts, including the Kyogen of Noh. He was attracted by Okuni, but found her graceful dancing too restrained to satisfy his taste. Apparently without difficulty, he influenced her to greater abandon, and taught her to dance the popular songs of the day to music of his own composition. This was Kabuki, a slang designation of the time later to be dignified by the use of written characters signifying the art of song and dance.
Two trained players thus broke from the bonds of dramatic custom, and, seizing upon material nearest to the popular mind, made another beginning which is now to be traced through developing forms unto the modern legitimate drama of Japan.
A few of Okuni's Kugara are extent, and the following Tenshi Wago Mae (Dance of Heaven and Earth Affinity) is significant in its blending of Buddhist repression with nature myths from Shinto, capable of most spiritual as well as most carnal interpretation. Interpreted spiritually, we cannot but be impressed with the beauty of its conception; but in an historic study we need to remind ourselves that the carnal interpretation was the most apparent in old Japan, where, under Buddhist influence, all love meant passion of illusion
While the upper classes found their recognized amusements in cultured ways on the one hand, and their secret delights in the practices of exclusively male society on the other, the great mass of the people were entertaining themselves upon the dry river-beds or in vacant lots within the city with popular Dengaku, Sarugaku, and other sports of rude promiscuity, wherein not infrequently men of rank also found relaxation.
Into the arena of popular sport, somewhere about the end of the sixteenth century, when England's Shakespeare was in his prime, came a dancing-girl, known to us as Okuni of Izumo. She seems to have been the daughter of an iron-worker, and a skilled Maiko in the service of the shrine at Izumo, which, though Shinto, was at the time in the charge of a Buddhist priest. Her presence in Kyoto is traditionally explained by the supposition that she may have been on a tour seeking contributions for the shrine. However that may have been, she met with such welcome in Kyoto that she remained, to be identified with a new dramatic movement rising from the midst of the common people.
Okuni's Kagura seems to have been a form of Buddhist nembutsu, a dance of worship in praise of Amida; but her reception on the Kyoto river-beds may well have been due more to her physical beauty and grace of movement than to any appeal in the interests of religion. Here, in any case, about 1596, she was seen by Sanzaburo, who from Nagoya had been sent by his family to be trained for the priesthood in the Kennin Temple, one of the then famous Five Temples, in Kyoto.
This youth of a military family had no fondness for the austerities of religion, but led a life of social freedom, and was popularly known for excellence in social arts, including the Kyogen of Noh. He was attracted by Okuni, but found her graceful dancing too restrained to satisfy his taste. Apparently without difficulty, he influenced her to greater abandon, and taught her to dance the popular songs of the day to music of his own composition. This was Kabuki, a slang designation of the time later to be dignified by the use of written characters signifying the art of song and dance.
Two trained players thus broke from the bonds of dramatic custom, and, seizing upon material nearest to the popular mind, made another beginning which is now to be traced through developing forms unto the modern legitimate drama of Japan.
A few of Okuni's Kugara are extent, and the following Tenshi Wago Mae (Dance of Heaven and Earth Affinity) is significant in its blending of Buddhist repression with nature myths from Shinto, capable of most spiritual as well as most carnal interpretation. Interpreted spiritually, we cannot but be impressed with the beauty of its conception; but in an historic study we need to remind ourselves that the carnal interpretation was the most apparent in old Japan, where, under Buddhist influence, all love meant passion of illusion
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