Asian Drama

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ASIAN DRAMAHistory and Development By: Group 3

What is Drama? DRAMA is the specific mode of fiction represented live in performance. The word DRAMA comes from the Greek word (pronounced as drama) which means action. The enactment of a drama in a theatre is performed by actors on a stage before the audience.

Some characteristics of Asian Drama are:1. They originated from animalistic and spiritual powers

within their natural environment and therefore sourced from myths and folklores. 2. When great religions were incorporated in their cultures, themes centered on the divinity and powers of gods. 3. Later on, plots reverted to stories of bravery/heroism/nationalism, petty crimes, sex escapades, and to the daily lives of royalty and commoners, all done with humor to entertain the audience. 4. At first, dramas and plays were staged in theaters which only the upper and middle classes could afford. Later on, these were staged in public plazas, open fields, and backyards

India, China, and Japan were the first to emerge their dramatic forms.

Indian DramaAncient Indian Drama were divided into four types. a. Natakab. Prakaranas c. Prasanas d. Yatra

Nataka

Nataka is considered the highest dranatic type that emerged from the epics Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Pauranas the poetic tales about the gods Vishnu and Shiva.

Prakaranas Prakaranas are the plays about the domestic life of mortals, their virtues, and errors.

Prasanas

Prasanas are vulgar comedies by the lower caste citizens. This is also the opposite of Nataka and Prakaranas in which those are for upper class citizens.

Yatra

Yatra were plays which originated from Eastern India and began as a form of religious entertainment and later on, were adapted by the travelers who dramatized the amorous escapades of the god Krishna.

Sanskrit Drama

This kind of drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit Literature. It started from as early as the 1st Century BCE and it waned upon the introduction of Shakespeares plays during the colonization of the Britons in the 18th Century.

Sanskrit Drama used stock characters such as the hero (nayaka), the heroine (nayika), or the clown (vidusaka). During the 3rd 4th Century, K lid sa was one of the greatest Sanskrit writer and dramatist of ancient India.

Major Plays in Sanskrit Drama

M

cchaka ika (The Little Clay Cart) Bh sa Vikram rva yam M lavik gnimitram Abhij na kuntalam

M cchaka ika (The Little Clay Cart)M cchaka ika (The Little Clay Cart) is the name of a ten act Sanskrit play written by draka in the 2nd century BC. The story of the play is about a man who is in love with a rich woman and the love affair complicated by a royal courtier, who is also attracted to her.

Bh saBh sa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him. The most popular play of Bh sa is the Kutiyattam. Kutiyattam, meaning "combined acting," signifies Sanskrit drama presented in the traditional style in temple theatres of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is the only surviving specimen of the ancient Sanskrit theatre.

Abhij nash kuntalaAbhij nash kuntala is a play written by K lid sa between the 1st and 4th Century BCE. The story is about an abandoned child who was raised by a sage. The child grew into a beautiful girl and met a king in the forest. Captivated, the king courted her and soon married her. The sage then curses her by bewitching the king by not knowing her, and the cure is to show the ring the king gave her to himself. She lost the ring and the king does not recognize her. The ring was found by a fisherman and the king realizes his mistake. The newly wise king fought in a war and is rewarded by Indra a journey to Hindu heaven. He returned to Earth year later and finds his wife and son by chance, and recognizes them.

Vikram rva yamVikram rva yam is a Sanskrit play by medieval Indian poet Kalidasa who fluorished in the 4th Century CE, on the Vedic love story of king Pururavas and celestial nymph Urvashi. The story starts when King Pururavas falls in love with a celestial nymph named Urvashi. After writing her mortal suitor a love letter on a birch leaf, Urvashi returns to the heavens to perform in a celestial play. However, she is so smitten that she misses her cue and pronounces her lover's name during the performance. As a punishment for ruining the play, Urvashi is banished from heaven, but cursed to return the moment her human lover lays eyes on the child that she will bear him. After a series of mishaps, including Urvashi's temporary transformation into a vine, the curse is eventually lifted, and the lovers are allowed to remain together on Earth.

M lavik gnimitramM lavik gnimitram is a Sanskrit play by K lid sa. It is the first play written by him. The play tells the story of the love of King Agnimitra, the Shunga king of Vidisha, for the beautiful handmaiden of his chief queen. He falls in love with the picture of an exiled servant girl named M lavik . When the queen discovers her husband's passion for this girl, she becomes infuriated and has M lavik imprisoned, but as fate would have it, in the end she is discovered to be of royal birth and is accepted as one of his queens.

Chinese DramaAt first, Chinese drama were sacred plays, performed to adore the gods of agriculture, where singing and dancing were major parts. From this tradition, three types of Chinese plays evolved: Fun Pan Hsi dealt with patroitism and filial devotion Jin Pan Hsi differed in singing and dancing techniques from Fun Pan Hsi. Fun Min Hsi the only type which utilized dialects other than Mandarin.

Chinese OperaChinese opera, the national drama, combined music, dance, and strenuous acrobatics in their battle scenes. It is a spectacle in colorful costumes, dances, movements, and ethnic music. Plots are focused on the philosophical teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, royalty, wars, and romance.

Japanese DramaJapanese Drama evolved from a Buddhist monk named Kwanami (1333-1384). He drew dramatic materials from secular sources and used them as a means of expounding Buddhist doctrines. His son Zeami wrote the first Japanese treatise on drama which resulted to the production of the Noh plays.

Noh PlaysNoh ( ), or Nogaku ( ) is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and consists of five Noh plays interspersed with shorter, humorous ky gen pieces. However, present-day Noh performances often consist of two Noh plays with one Ky gen play in between.

The current repertoire consist of approximately 250 plays, which can be divided according to a variety of schemes. The most common is according to content, but there are several other methods of organization. They are organized into: theme, mood, and style.

Noh plays are divided by theme into the following 5 categories.1. Kami mono (

) or waki n ( ) typically feature the shite in the role of a human in the first act and a deity in the second and tell the mythic story of a shrine or praise a particular spirit. 2. Shura mono ( ) or ashura n ( , warrior plays) have the shite often appearing as a ghost in the first act and a warrior in full battle regalia in the second, re-enacting the scene of his death.

3. Katsura mono (

, wig plays) or onna mono ( , woman plays) depict the shite in a female role and feature some of the most refined songs and dances in all of Noh. 4. There are about 94 "miscellaneous" plays, including ky ran mono ( ) or madness plays, onry mono ( ) or vengeful ghost plays, and genzai mono ( ), plays which depict the present time, and which do not fit into the other categories. 5. Kiri n ( , final plays) or oni mono ( , demon plays) usually feature the shite in the role of monsters, goblins, or demons, and are often selected for their bright colors and fastpaced, tense finale movements.

There are four major categories of Noh performers: shite, waki, ky gen, and hayashi. Shite ( , ). In plays where the shite appears first as a human and then as a ghost, the first role is known as the maeshite and the later as the nochishite. Shitetsure ( , ). The shite's companion. K ken ( ) are stage hands, usually one to three people. Jiutai ( ) is the chorus, usually comprising six to eight people. 2. Waki ( , ) performs the role that is the counterpart or foil of the shite. Wakitsure ( , ) or Waki-tsure is the companion of the waki.1.

) perform the aiky gen ( ) interludes during plays. Ky gen actors also perform in separate plays between individual noh plays. 4. Hayashi ( ) or hayashi-kata ( ) are the instrumentalists who play the four instruments used in Noh theater: the transverse flute ( fue?), hip drum ( tsuzumi) or kawa ( ?), the shoulder-drum ( kotsuzumi?), and the stick-drum ( taiko ). The flute used for noh is specifically called n kan or nohkan ( ). And also, a typical Noh play always includes the chorus, the orchestra, and at least one shite and one waki.

3. Ky gen (

Noh plays divided by mood fall into two types.1. Mugen n (

) usually deals with spirits, ghosts, phantasms, and supernatural worlds. Time is often depicted as passing in a nonlinear fashion, and action may switch between two or more timeframes from moment to moment. 2. Genzai n ( ), as mentioned above, depicts normal events of the everyday world. However, when contrasted with mugen instead of with the other four categories, the term encompasses a somewhat broader range of plays.

Noh plays divided by style fall into two groups.1. Geki n (

) or drama plays are based around the advancement of plot and the narration of action. 2. Fury n ( ) or dance plays focus rather on the aesthetic qualities of the dances and songs which are performed.

Noh plays have important performance elements. These are:1. Stage 2. Costumes 3. Masks 4. Props 5. Chant and Music 6. Jo, Ha, Ky

The Stage The traditional Noh stage consists of a pavilion whose

architectural style is derived from that of the traditional kagura stage of Shinto shrines, and is normally composed almost entirely of hinoki (Japanese cypress) wood. The four pillars are named for their orientation to the prominent actions during the course of the play: the waki-bashira in the front, right corner near the waki's standing point and sitting point; the shite-bashira in the rear, left corner, next to which the shite normally performs; the fue-bashira in the rear, right corner, closest to the flute player; and the metsuke-bashira, or "looking-pillar", so called because the shite is typically faced toward the vicinity of the pillar. The floor is polished to enable the actors to move in a gliding fashion, and beneath this floor are buried giant pots or bowl-shaped concrete structures to enhance the resonant properties of the wood floors when the actors stomp heavily on the floor (compare nightingale floor). As a result, the stage is elevated approximately three feet above the ground level of the audience.

The only ornamentation on the stage is the kagami-ita, a

painting of a pine-tree at the back of the stage. The two most common beliefs are that it represents either a famous pine tree of significance in Shinto at the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, or that it is a token of Noh's artistic predecessors which were often performed to a natural backdrop. Another unique feature of the stage is the hashigakari, the narrow bridge to the right of the stage that the principal actors use to enter the stage. This would later evolve into the hanamichi in kabuki. All stages which are solely dedicated to Noh performances also have a hook or loop in ceiling, which exists only to lift and drop the bell for the play D j ji. When that play is being performed in another location, the loop or hook will be added as a temporary fixture.

Costumes The garb worn by actors is typically adorned quite richly and steeped

in symbolic meaning for the type of role (e.g. thunder gods will have hexagons on their clothes while serpents have triangles to convey scales). Costumes for the shite in particular are extravagant, shimmering silk brocades, but are progressively less sumptuous for the tsure, the wakizure, and the aiky gen. For centuries, in accordance with the vision of Zeami, Noh costumes emulated the clothing that the characters would genuinely wear, whether that be the formal robes of a courtier or the street clothing of a peasant or commoner. It was not until the late sixteenth century that stylized Noh costumes following certain symbolic and stylistic conventions became the norm. The musicians and chorus typically wear formal montsuki kimono (black and adorned with five family crests) accompanied by either hakama (a skirt-like garment) or kami-shimo, a combination of hakama and a waist-coat with exaggerated shoulders (see illustrations). Finally, the stage attendants are garbed in virtually unadorned black garments, much in the same way as stagehands in contemporary Western theater.

Masks Noh masks (

n -men or omote) all have names. They are carved from blocks of Japanese cypress ( "hinoki"), and painted with natural pigments on a neutral base of glue and crunched seashell. Usually only the shite, the main actor, wears a mask. However, in some cases, the tsure may also wear a mask, particularly in the case of female roles. Noh masks portray female or nonhuman (divine, demonic, or animal) characters. There are also Noh masks to represent youngsters or old men. On the other hand, a Noh actor who wears no mask plays a role of an adult man in his twenties, thirties, or forties. The side player, the waki, wears no mask either.

Several types of masks, in particular those for female

roles, are designed so that slight adjustments in the position of the head can express a number of emotions such as fear or sadness due to the variance in lighting and the angle shown towards the audience. With some of the more extravagant masks for deities and monsters, however, it is not always possible to convey emotion. Usually, however, these characters are not frequently called to change emotional expression during the course of the scene, or show emotion through larger body language. The rarest and most valuable Noh masks are not held in museums even in Japan, but rather in the private collections of the various "heads" of Noh schools; these treasures are usually only shown to a select few and only taken out for performance on the rarest occasions. This does no substantial harm to the study and appreciation of Noh masks, as tradition has established a few hundred standard mask designs, which can further be categorized as being one of about a dozen different types.

Props The most commonly used prop in Noh is the fan, as it

is carried by all performers regardless of role. Chorus singers and musicians may carry their fan in hand when entering the stage, or carry it tucked into the obi. In either case, the fan is usually placed at the performer's side when he or she takes position, and is often not taken up again until leaving the stage. Several plays have characters who wield mallets, swords, and other implements. Nevertheless, during dance sequences, the fan is typically used to represent any and all hand-held props, including one such as a sword which the actor may have tucked in his sash or ready at hand nearby.

When hand props other than fans are used, they are usually

introduced or retrieved by stage attendants who fulfill a similar role to stage crew in contemporary theater. Like their Western counterparts, stage attendants for Noh traditionally dress in black, but unlike in Western theater they may appear on stage during a scene, or may remain on stage during an entire performance, in both cases in plain view of the audience. Stage properties in Noh including the boats, wells, altars, and the aforementioned bell from D j ji, are typically carried onto the stage before the beginning of the act in which they are needed. These props normally are only outlines to suggest actual objects, although the great bell, a perennial exception to most Noh rules for props, is designed to conceal the actor and to allow a costume change during the aikyogen interlude.

Chant and Music(Noh-bayashi ). Noh is a chanted drama, and a few commentators have dubbed it "Japanese opera." However, the singing in Noh involves a limited tonal range, with lengthy, repetitive passages in a narrow dynamic range. Clearly, melody is not at the center of Noh singing. Still, texts are poetic, relying heavily on the Japanese seven-five rhythm common to nearly all forms of Japanese poetry, with an economy of expression, and an abundance of allusion. It is important to note that the chant is not always performed "in character"; that is, sometimes the actor will speak lines or describe events from the perspective of another character or even a disinterested narrator. Far from breaking the rhythm of the performance, this is actually in keeping with the other-worldy feel of many Noh plays, especially those characterized as mugen. Noh hayashi ensemble consists of four musicians, also known as the "hayashi-kata". There are three drummers, which play the shime-daiko, tsuzumi (hip drum), and kotsuzumi (shoulder drum) respectively, and a shinobue flautist. Noh theatre is accompanied by a chorus and a hayashi ensemble

Jo, Ha, Ky One of the most subtle performance elements of Noh is

that of Jo-ha-ky , which originated as the three movements of courtly gagaku. However, rather than simply dividing a whole into three parts, within Noh the concept incorporates not only the play itself, but the songs and dances within the play, and even the individual steps, motions, and sounds that actors and musicians make. Furthermore, from a higher perspective, the entire traditional Noh program of five plays also manifests this concept, with the first type play being the jo, the second, third, and fourth plays the ha, and finally the fifth play the ky . In general, the jo component is slow and evocative, the ha component or components detail transgression or the disordering of the natural way and the natural world, and the ky resolves the element with haste or suddenness.

KabukiKabuki ( ) is classical Japanese dancedrama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing ( ), dance ( ), and skill ( ). Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing.

BunrakuThe Bunraku is a puppet theater which originated from Osakas entertainment district in the early 1600s. It is a sophisticated puppet play for adult audiences, performed by a pair of musicians, a narrator-singer who speaks all the different roles, and the manipulators of the three stringed puppets.

Wayang KulitWayang kulit, shadow puppets prevalent in Java and Bali in Indonesia, are without a doubt the best known of the Indonesian wayang. Wayang means theatre, kulit means skin, and refers to the leather construction of the puppets that are carefully chiselled with very fine tools and supported with carefully shaped buffalo horn handles and control rods.

Though less elaborate compared to Japans Bunraku, Wayang is performed in any backyard to serve as a crowd drawer in occasions, such as weddings, rites of passage, and other celebrations. A company of five to seven performers, including the gamelan orchestra, narrators/handlers of the puppet called dalang, are enough for each presentation behind a white blanket. Lighted from behind the blanket, puppets and puppeteers shadows are reflected on the blanket which the audience sees.

During the colonization of the Philippines, the Spanish friars introduced the following: Cenaculo a public play on the passion of Jesus Christ which ends with the crucifixion of the lead actor. Moriones a street play on the hunting and eventual beheading of Longinus, a Roman Centurion who believed in the divinity of the crucified Christ.

Spanish Influenced Drama

Moro-Moro a simple commemoration which later became a form of entertainment in the entire archipelago during town fiestas. This was the story of a Spanish general who attacked and defeated the moro rebellion in Mindanao. Panunuluyan an annual Christmas commemoration of the search of Joseph and Mary for a place where she could give birth to Jesus. Played in public it ends upon the arrival of the three kings from the East. Zarzuela a heavy drama performed by real actors/actresses in theaters, and which later on were performed in town plazas during fiestas. Most of the original storylines and plots were borrowed from Spain and other European theaters. It became the main form of entertainment for the upper and middle class societies, as the musical scorings were done by the live orchestra. Later on, themes centered on nationalism at the height of discontent against the Spanish rule and clamor for independence form American imperialism.