Noh theater in New York

[solypsist]

The Dia Center for the Arts will be featuring a Noh theater event from Wed. Oct 3 to Sat. Ot 6. The actors are flying in from Japan and the play is being produced by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. Tickets are $45 for general admission and $40 is you're a student, senior, etc.
Dia is located in New York City (Manhatten) 548 W. 22nd between 10th and 11th. Check thier webpage www.diacenter.org for more info. I work for the damn place, so I have to go, and maybe this might be of interest to others in the nearby area.

[Tenchimuyo]

Got free tickets?

------------------
A great warrior rarely reveal his true skills....

[solypsist]

yeah I can comp ya, for Fri or Sat. Let me know (email) and I'll put something together for ya.
BTW, I just saw the opening day (this evening) and I began to wonder: just what is the difference between Noh and Kabuki? I've never seen Kabuki, but Noh seems almost like opera. Can anyone fill me in on this info?


[This message has been edited by solypsist (edited 10-04-2001).]

[KukriKhan]

Basically, Noh:Kabuki as King Lear:Oklahoma!. Noh is more archaic, using scripts from specific 1300's playwrights, whereas Kabuki (begun in the 1600's) can be any subject matter.

That's a drastic over-simplification, but hopefully answered your question.

[NZ Tanuki]

Well, both No^ and Kabuki were popular forms of entertainment ... but for different classes. In order to understand the differences between No^ and Kabuki, it is important to understand their histories.

Prior to the mid 1300s, there were three forms of popular entertainment available to the Japanese: dengaku (lit.: 'music of the rice fields', common, course, and vibrant) and sarugaku (music of the 'gods', full of melodious beauty and eloquently sustained pauses), both being popular forms of music, mime, and dance for those who lived "below the clouds" (i.e.: peasants and commoners). The third, Gagaku (Court music based upon C7th Korean, and to a lesser extent, Chinese motifs) was exclusively the domain of the courtiers in Miyako (the capital).

With the ascendency of the buke to national power throughout the C13th and the establishment of the attendency system (whereby the buke resided in the capital), it was only natural that simple, rustic, countrymen found the refined Court entertainment a crashing bore On the other hand, the buke were especially captivated by the spectacle provided by dengaku and fanatically, and somewhat lavishly, supported its performance.

No^, however, traces its roots to sarugaku, and an obscure provincial acting troupe (Kanze^) who fused elements of sarugaku and kuse (a folk form of music full of wild, irregular rhythms, and unboundless energy) together in order to win a local subscription contest sponsered by the then powerful Kofuku temple. Zeami (as he would be later known) was, at the time, supposed to be an etherally-beautiful child actor (of 11 or 12) who caught the eye of the local abbot, and not unlike the stereotypical Hollywood casting-couch story, the Kanze troupe were eventually invited to perform in the capital (where Zeami also caught the eye of Ashikage Yoshimitsu). Despite the sordid way the Kanze attained their start, their first performance in the capital was wildly applauded, and the leader of the troupe was created a Companion in Arts (taking the name Kanami) there and then on the stage.

Once established in the capital, Kanami (and later Zeami) wrestled the emerging hybrid style into an art form, infusing the theatre with its own very strict rules (for example: yugen--the ultimate in serenity and elegance) and reperotire (the vast bulk of No^ plays were written by Kanami and Zeami and are still performed today with little or no change).

Kabuki, on the otherhand, reflects itself both in its name and its nature

Kabuki (from the verb: kabuku, deviating from the normal manner or custom, "eccentric") is the theatre of the cho^nin (townsman), a class who had risen in ascendency throughout the sengokujidai and who attained prominence in the late C17th. It's creation is credited to a Shrine dancer, O-Kuni, who, sometime around the early 1600s (some references quote 1603) dressed as a man and danced satirical dances in the grounds of the Kitano Shrine. Prostitutes saw an opportunity here, and copied O-Kuni's dances for the pleasure of their male cliental. The government, fearing a breakdown in public morality, banned women from performing these satirical, one-act sketches, and instead only allowed young boy actors to perform them (which led again to a further breakdown in public morality in the form of pedastry). In a last-ditch attempt to curb this behaviour, the government stipulated that it was only male actors who could perfom kabuki, and, this in turn, gave rise to the onagata (male actors specialising in female roles).

Whilst Kabuki was popular during the C17th, Bunraku (puppet theatre) drew the biggest crowds (and did so until the mid C18th). This fact is reflected in the Kabuki reperotiore, whereby a considerable number of plays were originally performed by the Bunraku before being adapted to the Kabuki stage.

Unlike No^ (which concerns itself with gods, ghosts, madmen, demons, and loss), Kabuki concerns itself more with the trials and tribulations of the common townsfolk rather than their betters (the buke), although a surprising number of samurai plays are in the Kabuki repertoire (posibly as a result of their adaptation from the Bunraku stage).

Well, I think I've pontificated long enough

Hope this is of some small assistance,

Regards,

NZ Tanuki



------------------
To keep silent and act wise/ Still not as good
as drinking sake/ Getting drunk and weeping. - Otomo no Tabito (665-731)

[solypsist]

nice.
thx!