Wednesday, March 7th 2012

Today in class, we had to research on different Asian forms of theatre in order to decide what form we would choose as a group to do a theatre research on.

Kathakalli

Kathakali is one of the oldest theatre forms in the world. It originated in the area of southwestern India now known as the state of Kerala. It consists of a group presentation, in which dancers take various roles in performances traditionally based on themes from Hindu mythology.

One of the most interesting aspects of Kathakali I thought is its elaborate make-up code. The faces of noble male characters, such as virtuous kings, the divine hero Rama, etc., determine the color and style they will wear. Characters , such as the demon king Ravana, are allotted a green make-up, with red marks on the cheeks. Extremely angry or excessively evil characters wear predominantly red make-up and a flowing red beard. Forest dwellers such as hunters wear a black make-up base while women and ascetics have lustrous, yellowish faces.

As i studied in the video, the technique of Kathakali includes a highly developed language of gesture, through which the artist can convey whole sentences and stories. The body movements and footwork are very rigourous. To attain the high degree of flexibility and muscle control required for this art, i found out that a Kathakali dancer was trained since the age of 5. I noticed that the dancers in the video moved a lot the muscles of their foreheads and used stronger facial expressions that the dancers from Kecak. Also, although their movements are much stiffer, they twitched their fingers a lot and it was very sophisticated to watch the way their facial muscular movements accompanied their hand gestures. Kathically performances also trait with chants, and they use instruments swell to add beat to their actions.

The dancers wear large head and elaborated dresses, different from the balinese form of Kecak, and maybe this has something to do with the tradition or other influences in the region. The extraordinary costumes and make-up serve to raise the participants above the level of mere mortals, so that they may transport the audience to a world of wonders.

This is an online source I found of the types of dresses they wore! As we can see, it is very elaborate, with a lot of layers of textiles and colors, pompons and golden jewelry, showing that this theatre form is very proud of its richness and color

Kecak

Kecak is one of the best known Balinese Performing Arts, a mix between a religious choral piece, a theatre play and a choreographed dance. I was told by my teacher that it originated from Kathically theatrical influences, however it is mainly performed in Bali, Indonesia.

At first, I was a bit scared and shocked when watching the video, by the strong  aggressive chants, as the voices of the community of men and their vocal projections sub divide into groups to get more sounds and over laps of noise (nice use of pacing, pauses, tones, voice) which as an ensemble gave an overpowering effect over the audience. Their faces seemed possessed, as their eyes would grow big and their body gestures, even when they were sitting down were powerful as they moved their body using their abdomens and arms and swayed it from side to side, as if entering in a trance.

 The middle part showed influences from the Kathackali style of theatre, a sit was a performance of a story they where trying to convey which was much more naturalistic. I specially admire the delicate hand movements, and although their facial expressions where insipid, I think this was to not retract emphasis on the hand movements as well as on the ritual as the back ground. The dresses this time where much more elaborate compared to the men in the ritual, and I believe this is because in the ritual, the men are trying to connect spiritually with an external force, and not having clothes on symbolized how they are ready to create that connection and that there is no layer to interfere the explosion between their bodies (mind, soul and heart) with nature.

By the end, the chants turned into nice, calm, soft songs, representing the coming out of the trance for me.

A picture of the ritual being performed, with the fire in the center and the artists/performers  surrounding it and chanting

I thought it  was a powerful and energetic performance, full of life and interesting visual and vocal images. The voice of those a hundred men chanting and their sound provoked to my whole body a vibration. It was a very unique experience watching this also very unique theatrical form, and I thought it would be very interesting to explore it futher.

Kabuki

Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theater with its origins in 16^th centaury, in the Edo Period. Kabuki was initially popular only among the common townspeople and not among the higher social classes.

Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts and the affairs of the heart. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people, and that is one of the things I found the most challenging if I were to do it myself!

 Actors speak in somewhat monotonous voices accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments. It takes place on a rotating stage (kabuki no butai). The stage is further equipped with several gadgets like trapdoors through which the actors can appear and disappear. Another specialty of the kabuki stage is a footbridge (hanamichi) that leads through the audience.

In the early years, both men and women acted in kabuki plays. However, later during the Edo Period, the Tokugawa Shogunate forbade women from acting, a restriction that survives to the present day. Several male kabuki actors are therefore specialists in playing female roles, like the ones in the video, and this was astonishing to watch, specially how make up and the control of facial expressions as shown in the video could change the image of a person to such a point, where I thought he was a woman!

What I found truly amusing about Kabuki is that the characters use a pose to establish their character. I found this a very interesting technique to introduce the characters in a play, and also very comical. I liked how the characters where also treated like puppets, and how their movement where adapted to that form as well. The make up wasn’t as extravagant as Kathically’s version, however it is also a recognizable element to the theatre form. I thought this was a good theatre form to explore as it looks very enjoyable to rehearse, and also because, for me it is much more light hearted but at the same time very deep.

In this picture I found as an online resource from google,  I liked how the characters hold their pose, also known as Mie, to represent their characteristics as a character

Noh theatre

Focusing in character, masks and costume

 Form of Japanese drama. This theatre form goes back for over 600 years. The stage is known to be very sacred, where it is said that spiritual forces of nature are encountered. The stage is supported by 4 pillars and the roof is visual to the audience. I was drawn in by one of the rules for Noh theatre, as one of the main traditions was that nothing is allowed to separate the audience from the stage, not even a curtain, which I liked as it shows truth and reality, and the emotion is transmitted better.
the use of mask, when skillfully used can be extremely dramatic form of expressions, as In Noh theater, the “living” expressions of the characters were expressed by the external expressions of the masks. This I thought was a skill very interesting to learn about, being able to work with things that are already set in your face, as the mast cant change form and it will only transmit to the audience what you as an actor are able to manipulate in it and change. I thought of it as having a permanent face, that could be worked around and changed. I thought of someone been given a paper face, but of course characters feel and their emotions change all the time, just like mine do and therefore, I want to learn as an actor how to depend on this element of drama and to learn how to work with it to be able to convey strong feelings. The way you angle your mask changes the emotions of the character, and the movement you use to accompany it has to be very descriptive. The costume as well, I found was the physical identity of the character.

I liked Noh theatre since the minute I watched the video, as I thought it was a theatre form that was very involved in the detail and very concentrated in the characterization techniques and images of the character.

www.google.com/Noh theatre masks

In this photo from an online source, we can see that, the full- faced mask, when worn by skilled actors, can induce a variety of perceives expressions with changes in head orientation. Rotation of the head out of the visual plane changes the two dimensional image characteristics of the Noh mask which audience members may misinterpret as non-rigid changes due to facial muscle action. These figures show the same Edo-period Noh mask, Magojiro, at three different inclinations.

Butoh

Butoh was a movement that began in Japan in the late 1950’s. It was actually a rebellion against Western and Japanese Traditional dance, and it also has it's roots in German Expressionism.

It was Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh. He was inspired by the writings of the Marquis De Sade, Jean Genet, and Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. Butoh was born out of Post war Japan. It was a movement that was a search for a new identity for the country, explored to establish meaning for a society after defeat. Butoh the dance of darkness is an exploration into the unconscious, it is the realm of the imagination, and shadows. It also investigates the pre-history of man; the primordial, and philosophical questions from the Zen koan of what you face after death.

What I noticed

My personal impressions of Butoh at first of it giving me a sense of danger, and evil forces arriving. I think this feeling in me could have been conveyed due to the grotesque facial expressions used by the dancers and the white powder make up that gave a sense of sickness. Form the video I noticed that it takes a lot of body discipline to control the muscle movements required and to stay concentrated for the whole piece, and this is something that made me really curios. Also, more questions came up to my mind which I would like to explore further, being :

·      What is the actors motif for the pieces?

·      What are the emotions, inner feeling that are felt or needed to convey a powerful Butoh performance?

·      What are the pieces inspired by?

·      What is the fundamental element of Butoh?

External experience of Butoh : IASAS Cultural Convenction 2012

For Iasas, I got the opportunity of watching a original butoh show performed by children my age called “We are lucky to have a Turkey”.

Personal Memories: I remember that when the actors first appeared on stage, with their bodies covered in white and with bold heads,  my first impressions where of SHOCK, and FRIGHTT. The performance I saw of Butoh was of an apocalypses interpretation, of a group of people living in the ending of the world. The atmosphere created by the heavy breathing and the “possessed like” facial expressions was very dark and creepy, and I didn’t understand what was going on as the script was structured unexpectedly with people suddenly bursting in laughter and in tears. After, what I earned from my teacher is that Butoh, isn’t a performance in which you have to ook for a meaning, and you are wrong in doing so. Butoh is a performance to appreciate its confidingness and above all its body control, coordination and movement, which looking back at is something that did catch my attention, as I observed the dances were very mysterious, with contractions of the body and grips of the hands, in no apparent direction but to cause discomfort, as it is normally negative feelings and emotions what the actors are trying to feel and convey.


Videos:
Kabuki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-bgSFJiKc


Kecak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-b895UdLzc&feature=related


Kathakali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfRmHuflBb0


Butoh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxT-v9cxf7g


Noh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxd8wPGazJ4&feature=related