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The final act in a traditional Kabuki play. The ground spider (tsuchigumo) captures the main characters.

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*Natyasastra
- The most complete source for info on Sanskrit theatre.
- Covers styles of acting, dancing, music, costumes, set design, as well as the mythical origins of theatre.
- Authored by Bharata Muni

*Rasa
- means "essense" or "flavor"
-used to describe the vibe of Indian art forms, but was first applied as a theory in the Natyasastra

* Sanskrit theatre was performed on sacred grounds by theatrically trained priests.
* Royal courts had their own professional companies
-These companies were run by stage managers called sutradhara, which translates to "holder of strings" or "puppet master"
- There were no gender restrictions in these companies.
*Sanskrit theaters were generally 96' x 46'
- divided equally for performance space and audience
- There were four pillars to signify where people of each class were to sit.
- There was no scenery, but very eloborate costumes.
- The Koodiyattam in Kerala is the last surviving Sanskrit theater space.
*Plays
- About 50-60 major plays
- Sanskrit was the language of the upper class, so drama did not become very popular withe the common people.
- Most were based on epic literature or myths
- Oldest known play is Mricchakatika (The Little Clay Cart)
- Two major playwrights of ancient Sanskrit drama:
- Bhasa
- Kalidasa (Sanskrit Shakespeare)

* Used three main types of characters:
- Nayaka- the hero
- Nayika-the heroine
- Vidusaka- the clown
- Actors were trained for the specific types of roles.

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(Sarah)

- Became the most popular form of Japanese theater in the Seventeenth Century.
- Combined elements from no, bunraku and folk theatre
- Less distant and formal than no theater
- Kabuki has a wide range from the fantastical to the realistic
- Still performed today

Origin
- Developed, according to legend, by a Shinto priestess named Okuni of Izumo. It is said that she first began by performing on a temporary stage set up in a dry riverbed in 1603.
- Her dances became so popular that she and her troupe performed for the Shogun in 1607, and due to the rise in popularity by 1616 there were seven licensed kabuki theaters in Kyoto.
- Early kabuki was based around dance and often portrayed stories that were romantic or even erotic in nature.  The performers were originally mostly women but because of disputes over social disruption women were banned from performing kabuki.  Young men's troupes were banned shortly after because of similar problems with relationships between the performers and the audience members.
- After 1652 only men were allowed to perform kabuki, with a deemphasis on sexual glamour.
- Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo (modern day Tokyo) were the main centers for kabuki theater, each city helping to influence kabuki with their own regional differences.
- kabuki grew side by side with puppet theater and they became rivals for the audiences attention in the seventeenth century.  By the 1760s however kabuki took its place as number one.  Kabuki still owed a lot to the puppet theatre, at least half their current scenes came from puppet theatre originally.
- The Forty-Seven Ronin  or Chushingura, is one of Japans most popular history plays and it was originally written for the puppet theater.  Now many kabuki actors become famous after performing in it.
- Samurai, while being restricted from doing so, would secretly attend kabuki performances because of the action, spectacles and rhetoric that the solemnities of no theater lacked.

Producing Kabuki
- From childhood kabuki actors are trained in vocal techniques, dancing, acting, and physical versatility.
- Onnagata are male actors who are highly skilled in the impersonation and imitation of the feminine nature of women.
- Costumes and makeup are elegant and gorgeous, but can also be gritty and realistic
- Kabuki stage is wide with a low proscenium, sometimes with a place onstage for the musicians who accompany the stage action.
- The revolving stage, used in many kabuki performances, was developed in Japan before being used in the west
- The hanamachi ("flower way") was a raised narrow platform that would connect the back of the auditorium to the stage. It was used by actors to enter and exit, and sometimes for small scenes.

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Wayang kulit:
best known Indonesian puppet theatre  that employed light and shadow

Wayang Golek:
a wooden doll puppet controlled by rods connected to hands and another rod that runs through its body to its hands
-may have been used to dramatize stories from Islam
-used to tell stories such as Ramayana and Mahabarata

Wayang Wong:
means "human wayang"
-masked male and female dancers
-was orginally performed for the aristocrats
-became popular folk art using traditional movement patterns and costumes

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*In Burma, Cambodia,Laos,Indonesia,Malaysia,Thailand and Vietnam, their theatres share the same characteristics
*Influenced by Indian and Chinese theatre
*Shadow plays were performed in Thailand,Malaysia,and Indonesia
*Came into prominence in the 11th century
*The puppet tradition did not come into play until the first century C.E.
*Wayang:
-traditional theatre in Indonesia
-various types of puppet theatres and live performances
-Influenced by Wayang beber (performances by storytellers)
-first performance believed to have taken place in 930 C.E.

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*Four levels of song: songs with music, verse recitation, prose dialogue, and non-verbal vocalizations
*There are also three basic categories of vocal production technique: use of breath, pronunciation, and special Peking-opera pronunciation (shangkouzi).
*Most non-singing speech are in traditional monologue or dialogue format.
- Though spoken, these speeches tend to be melodic or have musical cadence
*When a character enters for the first time, an "entrance speech" (shangchang) is given.        - includes a prelude poem, a set-the-scene poem, and a prose set-the-scene speech.
- The order of theses poems is strictly enforced.
*The social position of the character being played determines the type of language that he or she uses (proper vs. colloquial)
* Song lyrics are written in coulets
* The preferred vocal pitch is generally as high as the actor can reach.
- HEAVY vibrato
*The lead melodic instrument in jingju is the jinghu, a small, high-pitched, two-string spike fiddle.
- Imperative that jinghu player can improv
* Other traditional instruments include the yuechin (a circular lute-type instrument), as well as daluo, xiaoluo, and naobo which are all percussion instruments.
*Xipi style is generally disjointed in melody
-Usually tells happy tales
*Erhuang style is more low and soft
- For more lyrical stories

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The art of Joruri is where a single person recites a story in collaboration with shamisen music, this merged with the art of doll manipulation around the 1600s forming Ningyo joruri. Ningyo jorui became very popular in Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo.

Takemoto Gidayu was a popular narrator of Ningyo jouri. Gidayu eventually opened a theatre(Takemoto-za) in Dotonbori, Osaka. The first new work that was performed at Takemoto-za was called “Shusse Kagekiyo.” This work was written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Chikamatsu went onto create many more joruri at Takemoto-za.

“Sonezaki shinju” was a Jorui play written by Monzaemon that debuted at the Takemoto-za theatre. Sonezaki shinju created a new category of joruri plays called sewa-mono because it was based on the actual suicide of a couple in Osaka. Up until this point, joruri plays were based on historical events.

Sewa-mono joruri plays contained events featuring common people as the main characters and set in common locations such as streets and markets. Sewa-mono was extremely popular amongst common people. There was even a string of “love suicides” due to Sonezaki shinju, which caused the ban of works dealing with love suicides.

As Ningyo joruri became more popular, the dolls went through significant changes. The dolls increased in complexity, gaining detailed movement capabilities of their eyes, mouths, and fingers. With this transformation, the puppets needed more than one puppeteer and they began to be manipulated by three different puppeteers per puppet.

By the late 18 th century joruri’s popularity was waning. Around this time Uemura Bunrakuken opened a joruri training school in Osaka. Bunrakuken’s performances drew popularity and their troupe began to be known as Bunrakuza. It was around this time that Ningyo joruri began to be known as “Bunraku”.

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The Bunkaru dolls are usually between 4 and 5 feet in size and can weight over to 20 pounds. Control for the main puppets was often done by three puppeteers. There was more basic puppets used for “Ozei” roles and would only be manipulated by one puppeteer.

For the puppets in the lead role:

The main puppeteer was called the Omozukai. The Omozukai would control the head and the right hand of the puppet.
The second puppeteer (also known as the left puppeteer) was called the Hidarizukai or Sashizukai. The Hidarizukai would control the left hand of the puppet.
The third puppeteer was called the ashizukai. The Ashizukai would operate the feet and legs.

The head was one of the most important features of the dolls often being very sophisticated and hand carved by a specialist. The heads could have moving eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and some could even create facial expressions. Heads for secondary characters were often times smaller so that leading characters would stand out.

The body was more simple and was often a type of bamboo "skeleton" covered with fabric to hide the puppeteers manipulating the puppet.
The hands were a little more complicated. Each arm was operated by a different puppeteer and the fingers could move but usually only in unison. Sometimes the play would call for a more complicated hand and a special hand would be used where the fingers can move separately.
The legs were simple as well and often times absent on female characters. Female characters usually wore robes and the puppeteer would push against the robe making it appear as though the puppet was walking.

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Bunraku Theatre is a form of Japanese puppet theatre performed by a Tayu(narrator/chanter), a shamisen player(musician), and puppeteers. The shamisen plays music while the narrator recites the story forming what is called joruri. The puppeteers then move in unison with the joruri creating the visual elements of the play.

The Tayu or Narrator drives the story and sits to the side of the audience and stage space. A Tayu might describe the scene and setting, give the audience background information, sing with the music, or recite lines of characters. It is the narrator's job to talk for, and express the emotions of all the characters, and often will exaggerate the voices each character has to help the audience better differentiate them.

The Shamisen player works closely with the narrator and adds depth and atmosphere to the experience. A Shamisen would sit next to the Tayu playing an instrument similar to a guitar that has three strings. A Shamisen player uses a variety of techniques to create the proper setting and evoke the desired emotional response from the audience even making percussive like sounds.

The Puppeteers have the task of working seamlessly with each other on stage. This is harder than it seems as one puppet is often operated by three different puppeteers. These puppeteers are also in full view of the audience. They wear a kurogo, an all black costume that covers their faces. The color black symbolizes invisibility in traditional Japanese performing arts and would not have been distracting to the audience.

The Yuka is a revolving platform stage left where the narrator and shamisen player sit and perform. This revolving platform allows the narrator and shamisen player to be seated backstage and then rotated to face the audience. It also allows alternate performers to be rotated in and out seamlessly.

Bunraku Resource:
http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/index.html

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*Aims to capture the beauty rather than the accuracy of everything.
* Relies heavily on costumes and makeup in addition to the performers' voice and movement
* Staging
-Jingju stages are generally square platforms with the action on satge being visible from three sides
- The stage is divided into two parts by an embroidered curtain called a shoujiu.
- Has an orchestra where the musicians are visible to the audience

*Props/ Qimo
-Minimal props
- Smaller objects are commonly used to signify larger ones
-  Used cloth for backdrops
- Flags were commonly used to represent the elements, as well as location

*Costumes
- First and foremost to establish the rank of character
-  Emperors and their families, as well as high-ranking officials wore mang, which means "python robe" often with intricate and bold designs
-Royals wore yellow
- High-ranking officials wore purple
- All other characteers wear the chezi, a simple gown with varying levels of embroidery to signify rank
-  Persons of high rank or virtue wear red
-   Lower ranking people wear blue
-   Young characters wear white
- Older characters wear white, brown, or olive
- All others wear black
- All of these robes/gowns have water sleeves to help show emotions

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* Jingju requires four main skills
-Speech
-Song
-Dance- also includes pantomime and the like.
-Combat- not only acrobatics, knowledge of combat with weapons as well
* Every movement and pantomime is intentional and has a traditional meaning that the audience is trained to understand.

*Classification of Roles
- Four major roles: Sheng, Dan, Jing, and Chou

* Sheng : refer to men.
- This category is divided into Laosheng, Xiaosheng, and Wusheng
- Laosheng: older and more dignified characters. Generally have more sensible costumes than the other characters.
- A sub-type of laosheng is hongsheng, the " red-faced" older male.
- Only two honsheng:  Guan Gong, the Chinese god of brotherhood and loyalty, and  Zhao Kuang-yin, the first emperor of the Song Dynasty.
- Xiaosheng: younger male characters
- Sing in shrill voices, sometimes cracking on purpose to illustrate adolescence.
- Costumes could be elaborate or simple, depending on the characters' rank.
- Wusheng: male combat roles
-Highly trained acrobats
- Sing with a more natural voice.

*Dan: refer to women.
- Divided into Zhengdan, Laodan, Huadan, Wudan, Daomadan.
-Zhengdan (qingyi)- virtuous women of the elite class.
- Laodan: older women; similar to laosheng, they have simpler costumes and are generally more reserved.
- Huadan: women who were vivacious and usually unmarried.
- Daomadan: young female warriors
- Wudan:  the major acrobats
*Always played by men

*Jing : refer to painted-face role, known popularly as Hualian
-Forceful male characters
- Needed very  strong singing voices as well as be able to perform wild gestures.
- Mastery of the 15 basic facial expressions (there are over 1,000 variations of the basic 15)

*Chou : refer to painted-face role, know popularly as Xiao hualian.
-Male clown role; generally a secondary or minor character
- Costumes are generally exaggerated for comedic effect.
-The character most connected to the guban, the drums and clapper commonly used for musically accompaniment during performances.

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* The first record of Jingju was when the 'Four Great Anhui Troupes' brought Anhui opera, or what is now called Huiju, in 1790 to Beijing, for the eightieth birthday of the Qianlong Emperor.
* In 1828, several Hubei troupes performed jointly with Anhui troupes in Beijing. This combination of musical performance styles are the basis of Peking opera's melodies.
*Peking opera's two main melodies are Xipi and Erhuang.
- Was heavily influenced by Han Opera after about 1750.
-Xipi literally means 'Skin Puppet Show'
* The art form reached its peak in the the mid-18th century
- Its status became cemented when Dowager Empress Cixi became a regular patron in the 1880's

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* A style of opera that began in the late 18th century in Peking (modern-day Beijing)
* Combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics.
* Major performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the south.
* Its name became "Jingju" or "Jingxi" because of its start in the capital city, Jing, and the form of the performance, Xi.
-Known in Taiwan as “Guójù”, which literally translates to “National Theatre”.
* Over 1,400 operas have been written in this style
- Generally taking from Chinese history and myths
- Civil vs. Martial

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*Obscure, but there have been artifacts found suggesting migrations from Siberia,Korea, south China and southeast Asia
*Shinto: Way of the Gods (nature reliance and spirit worship)
*Buddhism: became prevailing religion as well as influence in theatre
*Earliest recording is court entertainments of the Heian period (794-1195 C.E.)
*Chinese Influence
*Juggling,skits,dancing

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*The shite- main character
*The waki- supporting
*The tsure- accompanying
*Kyogen- comic character, but optional
*No actresses
*Trained from childhood
*Language and content was sophisticated, formed around musical, psychological, mimetic movements

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*Noh plays reveal some working out of passions felt by a character, who often appears as a ghost or spirit
*2 types: phantasmal and present existence
-phantasmal divided into two parts: (ex.) a Buddhist priest on a pilgrimage might visit a tree or gravestone, related to life of the main character
chief character will appear revealing to priest he was a local person in disguise then describing a profound experience. Ends in a dance or in a powerful way
-present existence is more realistic

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*It is one of Japan's most revered and cerebral theatre
*Comes from Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent"
*Performed since the 14th century
*A Noh program includes 5 Noh plays with comedic kyogen plays in between
*Derived from tales from traditional literature
*Supernatural, tragic,ceremonial music-dance drama
*About 200 Noh texts

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*Born in 1363 Japan
*He and his father,Kan'ami, where the creators of Noh drama
*Kan'ami was a playwright known for his play Sotoba Komachi (Komachi at the Stupa)
*Credited with about 124 of the 200 plays in the present repertoire
*One of his important collections known as Fushi kaden "The Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style" explains how a Noh actor must perform
*3 basic roles must be mastered: the warrior, the woman, and the old person
*2 main elements of Noh were monomane "an imitation of things" and yugen, the symbolic and spiritual aspect

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*Simple space
*Noh was originally played in open fields
*Now it is designed indoors designed with roof,bridge with a handrail,and a pine tree painted on the back wall
*Various devices were used to amplify the natural sound
*18ft square platform
*A bridge called hashigakari which leads from dressing room to right corner
*6 to 10 member chorus of singer-chanters on actors left and musicians are in the rear