Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Noh Theatre
I was really excited to see that we were going to be reading/discussing a Noh play. I learned about it a few years ago in Theatre History but haven't had much to do with it since. I am intrigued by the discipline of Noh and by how long it takes to be trained to do a specific part for it. I love to watch the actors glide across the stage nearly effortlessly all while the body and head never seem to move. I remember learning that you had to begin training at a very young age and were beaten with a stick by your instructor, usally the veteran of the theatre, until you had the right kind of posture for the specific role you were playing. Everything about Noh seems so delicate and precise, which I look at as comforting as an actor. You usually tend to avoid playing "emotions" but in the Noh, an expression of emotion can be the critical point in a scene. I would love to experience more with this kind of Theatre because I don't think you can get the full effect of it unless you see it live.
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I agree with Jamesthat the Noh theatre seems delicate and precise. In fact, I recently posted a blog almost stating the same ideas of the Noh theatre. I didn't know however that they were beaten with a stick by their instructor. You could almost tell that the performers are not anywhere near making a mistake, not that we would notice, but I wonder is or was it out of a fear set in their mind as a child. You mess up you get popped or beaten; so they were scared into perfection so to speak. Even though it's not done as much these days, to experience a play within the noh theatre would really be an adventure. This is probably one of the few cases where playing emotions is permitted.
It's interesting that both James and Cecil talk about "playing the emotion" in the Noh theatre. Obviously, it's something that as actors who mainly work in modern realism, we look at as the wrong way to perform. However, I still don't feel that you can use the expression "playing the emotion" with Noh theatre. Maybe I'm just too much of a stickler with words but when I think of playing an emotion, I think of seeing in the face and forcing tears (for example). But when we watched the video, I noticed that they barely had any change in their faces throughout the entire play. They had gestures and poses that were symbolic of emotion--which I assume is what James and Cecil are referring to--and these symbols are a huge part of the theatre that had to be studied. Amy even showed us the book that had all of them written down.
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