As a result of my fellowship in the Yale National Institute 2006 Seminar, Stories around the World in Film I have created a theatre arts curriculum that could become a saving grace for the continuous study of theatre arts in the American classroom while reigniting passions for teaching theatre arts despite its challenges. The Delicate Marriage of Theatre and Film is a secondary theatre arts curriculum unit designed to introduce students to Classical Japanese Theatre and its representation in Japanese cinema. This celebration of Classical Japanese Theatre and film introduces students to the dramatic art forms of Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki Theatre alongside a critical study of notable films whose fundamental cinematic and artistic elements are embedded within the stylized structure of Classical Japanese Theatre.
The journey of creating this exciting curriculum is motivated by my desire as an actress and educator to empower students with the fundamental elements of theatre. I want my students to become the next generation of powerful artists in this magnificent art form who truly create a substantial body of groundbreaking and courageous work.
Through the serious study of classical theatre, I feel my students will definitely be empowered with the tools and confidence to consciously create, produce, and perform theatrical works which inspire and affirm both themselves and their greater world community. To ensure that my goal is realistically attainable, the immediate responsibility upon my shoulders is to guide and instruct my students in a direction in which they have no other recourse but to become respectfully conscious creators of this exciting art form.
I teach theatre arts at an inner-city high school in Houston, TX. The school is located in southwest Houston, which is regarded as one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in America. This diversity brings with it many challenges, not the least of which are the issues of socialized criminal behavior, gang violence, drugs, teen pregnancy, and drop-outs. Our school community has gallantly and courageously met the challenges of educating and socializing over 500 students who were traumatized and suddenly displaced by the negative effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I deliberately strive to have a classroom environment that is welcoming, affirming, and relaxed. I use the basic fundamental benefits of a theatre arts education to ensure the success of my students: cooperation, consideration, and communication.
Through my continual efforts of igniting a true love and sincere respect for theatre, I direct my theatre arts department as a young "professional" company. With this, I choose a theme to be studied through course lectures, discussions and classroom reading materials as well as performed for audiences through our productions. The department produces seven plays per academic year. Of these seven plays, one is classical, one is a musical, and the remaining are contemporary plays which reflect and reinforce our chosen theme.
As I create this curriculum study, I can not resist reflecting upon my own training as a young actress. Not unlike many of my students, I was introduced to theatre through the graceful beauty of the religious performances at church. It was my church community which initially identified my strength for communication and stage performance. I remember the nuns encouraging me to leave the safety of our isolated community to go and gain more in-depth study and technique at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). With their guidance and rehearsal, I auditioned and was one of only a mere handful of students admitted to this highly prestigious and competitive high school with no prior formal theatrical training. My years of study at HSPVA were rigorous and extremely intense. Yet, as I gained more technical expertise with each passing day I felt the energy and vitality of my performances at church slipping away from me. The vitality of spiritual performance was replaced by the intense demand for technical structure through a strict format. I felt my creative energy literally becoming stifled.
In an effort to reunite myself with my initial love of stage performance, I continued my education in theatre through college. To my delight, I did find the creative energy I was looking for. This came through my observations of the jazz musicians on my campus. I was continuously awed by their ability to instantly connect and create powerful, exciting music with other musicians literally on the spot. Through conversations, several musicians remarked that it was this immediate performance ability that kept them on the verge of creation. They were always "in the moment" of their music because it was always new. Though the standards may be memorized and well-known to all, the beautiful nature of jazz allowed and encouraged each musician to bring new interpretations to the stage. This newness kept the stage "hot" with creative energy flow.
- All of the years of passionate struggle to understand the elusive essence of acting, has resulted in a bewildering array of systems, methods, theories and techniques. The actor is left with many questions: University training, or private study? Lee Strasberg, or Stella Adler? How is one to chose? Who are these people? What do they teach, and how did their ideas evolve?
- Most of the important teachers of acting have been actors themselves. They have grappled with the real world demands of their art and tried to extend its boundaries. They have intensely examined the process of acting and dedicated their lives to penetrating its mysteries. They have built upon the foundations laid down by their predecessors. (Brestoff, xii)
Professionally as an actress, I have been consciously seeking this constant creative flow of energy through stage performance. Admittedly, I have enjoyed great experiences onstage alongside some wonderful artists. I am honored to have been both directed and coached by legends of the American stage whose lessons on this craft have literally left me spellbound. Yet I must honestly conclude that I think it is the nature of Western theatrical practices which most inhibits our performers from becoming both simultaneously lost and alive within the newness of constant creative energy. Unlike jazz musicians, theatre practitioners must rehearse for weeks at a time to master an illusion for our audiences to believe. Although trained actors are grounded with a strong foundation in improvisation, we are still guided and restrained by the artistic visions of the other artists (playwright, director) while onstage. Our challenge is to constantly stay "in the moment" of discovery during performance. This artistic challenge for theatre performers has led many to search for and create new methods of performance.
The Delicate Marriage of Theatre and Film is my conscious search for the energy and newness of stage performance that I immediately fell in love with through the religious performances I experienced in childhood. Historical studies of the origins of theatre supports the spiritual connection to my early religious performance experiences. Although theatre is now practiced as a truly western art form, it has its earliest foundations within the passion plays of early Africa.
The world's earliest report of a dramatic production comes from the banks of the Nile. It is in the form of a stone tablet preserved in a German museum and contains the sketchy description of one, I-kher-nefert (or Ikhernofret), a representative of the Egyptian king, of the parts he played in a performance of the world's first recorded "Passion" Play somewhere around the year 2000 B.C. This Egyptian Passion bears a notable resemblance to the Passion Plays of the twentieth century. Its purpose is obviously the same as that of the one at Ober-Ammergau, or the Tyrolean, or the Persian Passion Play of Hussein . . . the principal object, as always, being to keep vivid in the minds of the faithful the sufferings and triumph of a god. (www.theatrehistory.com)
These passion plays were actually highly ritualized religious events whose primary purpose was to gain favor with the Gods and/or deities for specific purposes such as supplying fruitful harvests, bringing sufficient rain for crops, and the well-being of the community. Many of theatre's fundamental elements are inherit within each passion play; the use of masks, costumes, dance, instrumentation, chanting and/or song. These rituals were highly participatory events wherein the entire community played a role. Unfortunately due to the nature of the oral tradition coupled with the struggles of Africa over time, very little has survived which can be used as an instructional guide for teaching and recreating these magnificent events as they were performed in Africa. Yet, to my amazement and delight, the classical theatre of Japan may be the truest living theatrical tradition of cultural stage performance which is most like the passion plays of early Africa.
"For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood." Japanese Proverb
Experience has taught me that it is far better to be proactive in my teaching than reactive. I will begin this unit in precisely the same manner I have outlined this text: by clearly stating my objectives and motives for creating and teaching this curriculum. It is important that my students have an immediate sense of ownership of the work they study in class. I am constantly asked, "What does this have to do with me?" By approaching this curriculum from a historical and ethnological perspective, I am certain to gain the immediate attention and respect of most of my students, their parents, and community; which the majorities of which are descendants of Africa living in America. In doing so, my students will gain a more positive image of themselves and their ancestral global legacy while being introduced to a new culture.
Presbyterian minister Reverend James Marmaduke Boddy (1886-?), of Troy, New York, was a graduate of Lincoln and Princeton Universities, and the first known African-American writer to address the issue of the African presence in early China and Japan.
In "The Ethnology of the Japanese Race" Boddy attempted to document what he considered a prominent and indelible African strain running through early Japanese history, and that the Japanese people are, at least in part, "Asian Negroes". Reference the work of pioneer ethnologist and anthropologist James Cowles Prichard, M.D. (1786-1848),
"They are described as having peculiar features, 'crisp hair' and 'dark complexion'. Besides their Negro features, which are very observable, the early Japanese historians themselves have described for us the 'Black Barbarians of the South,' who, in an age which antedates authentic history, came from the south in ships and settled in Japan."
Rev. Boddy concluded by saying that:
"These immigrants mingled and amalgamated one with another and with the natives, and in time became a homogeneous race, whose predominating physical characteristics bespeak the unmistakable presence of a large Negro element." (www.cwo.com/~lucumi/boddy.html)
I teach theatre history using a large map of the world so that students can better identify the progression of the art form. I will employ this same method for tracing the theory of the above sited historian, Runoko Rashidi. Runoko Rashidi is a Pan-Africanist scholar who has spent years researching the African presence around the world as well as African foundations in early civilizations. Though Rashidi is not a theatre historian (and does not claim to be), his research definitely supports the obvious similarity between the passion plays of early Africa and Classical Japanese Theatre. His scholarly research gives detailed evidence as to how and why these elements came to be.
A team of scientists led by an anthropologist at the University of California-Berkeley has discovered the fossilized remains of what they believe is humanity's earliest known ancestor, a creature that walked the wooded highlands of East Africa nearly 6 million years ago. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/07/0712_ethiopianbones.html)
The 2001 scientific discovery of human fossils in The Middle Awash River Valley of Ethiopia confirms that the human race descended from Africa. This irrefutable evidence can easily be used to further justify the African presence in early Japan. Referencing the world map, I will demonstrate the waterways which were most likely used by early African travelers to reach Japan. It is important to note that these early African travelers brought with them their culture, traditions, and religious beliefs.
"The Blackest people I have ever seen in my life are from India. Not from the Congo. You have another phenomenon in India in terms of religion and philosophy and culture — and that is Buddhism. If you look at all the early images of the Buddha, they are all Black. Kinky hair, tightly curled hair . . . very Africoid characteristics." (Runoko Rashidi, "Tony Brown's Journal")
It is important to note the African influence in early Buddhism because this directly supports why there are such strong similarities between the religious passion plays of early Africa and the earliest form of Classical Japanese Theatre — Noh, which has Buddhism as its' core element.
NOH
- Noh had a purpose beyond that of simple diversion. It too was a religious observance of a kind difficult for us to sense, impossible for us to re-create. Reading about the Noh theatre had not prepared me, except in the most elementary way, for what I had seen. The performance revealed a kind of theatre I had not imagined and could not understand, though I felt sure that, as with all great theatre, there was more to it than met the eye. (Nakamura, 9)
- The ancient gods had a hard time getting the world going out of chaos, but with the seventh generation the islands of Japan were created, and its creators also produced a sun goddess, Amaterasu, two other children, and Susano-o, a storm god who, pleasing no one, was banished to the land of darkness. Before leaving, he visited heaven to say goodbye to his sister, which he did in a curious and destructive fashion, climaxed by his flaying a piebald colt backwards and throwing it through the roof of Amaterasu's palace. His sister, furious, went into the rock cave of heaven and closed the door. The sun vanished. Here was, for all their difficulties, the greatest crisis the gods had faced. They made their offerings; they sang her hymns of praise, with no success. Then Ame no Uzume, the "heaven-alarming female," thought of something else. She started a fire, and when it was blazing, she overturned a tub, jumped on top of it, bared her breasts, raised her skirts, and singing an obscene song, danced. Her performance was so cheering that the gods shook heaven with their laughter. Curiosity getting the better of her, Amaterasu opened the door to see what was going on, and an enterprising deity pulled her out of the cave. The godlike way to meet adversity, it seems, is to brighten up the night of despair with lively song and dance. That's the only way to make the sun shine again. (Nakamura, 10)
I will begin this curriculum study of classical Japanese theatre with an in-depth discussion of Noh. Noh theatre is the oldest Japanese theatrical art form and has many of the performance elements of the passion plays found in early Africa. As with passion plays, Noh has its firm foundations deeply rooted within the spiritual and is performed not as a spectator event but as a participatory ritual experienced both by and for the entire community. Noh theatre emphasizes the Zen Buddhist ideals of simplifying life while acknowledging the beauty, grace, and significance of nature and man's relationship to it.
These Zen Buddhist ideals are clearly evidenced in the Japanese arts of painting, landscape design, flower arrangement, and gardening which flourished during this same era.
Noh theatre is a seven-centuries long dramatic tradition which is passed down from master to disciple or, more commonly, father to son. Though Noh continues its strong characteristics of song and dance rituals performed as a part of Tribal ceremonies and festivals, it has slowly developed into a more structured theatrical art form. Father and son, Kan' ani (1333-84) and Zeami (1363-1443) are credited with creating the form and structural elements of Noh theatre which continue to this date. Kan'ani became a well-known performer and respected dancer of Noh. He revolutionized Noh performance in 1368 when he used a kusemai dance, and ancient song and dance ritual, for the first time in a play called Shirahige. Zeami was trained in his father's performance practices of Noh and began performing with his father in 1374. Zeami soon became a great writer and scholar of Noh theatre.
Noh plays are commonly divided into two categories — Zeami's Phantasmal Noh or Present Noh. The difference between these two dramatic forms is the characterization within the plays. Phantasmal Noh contains the waki, a Buddhist Priest, a mountain warrior-priest, or a Shinto priest who lives in the real world. The play also contains a shite who lives in the world of the spirits. In Present Noh, the waki and the shite are characters who live on the same plane and time - some plays have these characters in direct conversation with one another. Despite these differences of characterization, all Noh plays have the fundamental principle of jo-ha-kyu. Jo is the slow, simple, dignified, and graceful introduction. Ha is the development of the play, containing the play's most important material thereby breaking the pace of the jo. Kyu is a short, quick, highly paced finish which always reverts back to the opening jo.
This predominance with the many levels of existence and the relationship of the spiritual world to the real world and vice versa is the fundamental characteristic of Noh Theatre. Noh lends us to experience the dimensions of Zen Buddhist philosophy by simplifying the present existence of its participants and performers; thereby it enables a greater concentration on the possibilities of spiritual knowledge which are not readily seen and common to all. This being said, the Noh stage is extremely bare and is covered and supported by carved beams which continue the ideal of simplicity. On the center wall of the stage is a painted single pine tree. The large emptiness of the stage is both accented and enhanced by the beauty of Japanese cypress from which it was created. The staging of Noh theatre supports the Zen Buddhist ideal of nothingness and space. The stage is a literal depiction of the clear mental focus required and attained through Buddhist meditative practices.
- When viewing a piece of sculpture it is important to remember that it is made up of the fullness of the space it occupies and the space which surrounds it. This surrounding space is rather vague and indefinite, and thus it might be better to say that it has a breadth which links it with the universe. The strongest characteristic of sculpture is that it exists as a definite individual form with limitless space. The space surrounding a piece of sculpture is similar to the blank spaces in a Japanese ink painting, which make a true masterpiece appear larger and more intense than it actually is. Zeami made the following interesting observation on this subject:
- "There are times when an audience says of an actor, 'He's best when he is doing nothing.' This is due to the secret inner movement of his heart and mind. The two main parts [song and dance] of a play, plus mime, are all performed with the body. The time 'when he is doing nothing' is the spaces between these physical aspects of his acting. The actor's strict care and concentration are the elements which make these still pauses interesting. He must be careful not to lose his intensity even down to the deepest recesses of his heart at such times as the movement after the end of his dance, song, dialogue, gesture, etc. The concentrated intensity in the depths of the actor's heart is sensed by the audience, and thus the silent pauses are made interesting." (Nakamura, 34)
The above cited quote directly speaks to my artistic desire for a more organic performance experience. Many theatrical scholars have commented on the beauty of stillness in stage performance. The challenge for the actor is how to achieve this nothingness organically and consistently on the western stage. What I have come to view as both a challenge and an incredible advantage of Noh, is the fact that there are no rehearsals prior to performance. Each participant has been trained for many years under the tutelage of a master making them well prepared for their role and/or responsibility in the performance. The participants simply meet once prior to the performance to gain awareness of one another's individual rhythms. This empowers each performance to become a new organic stage experience. The actors and performers are cautiously aware and "in the moment" of their performances as a result of the newness inherent within Noh. This characteristic nature of Noh Theater ensures that each performance is whole and new versus a duplicated pattern of set events.
In Noh, then, we have a theatre in which performers create art directly instead of creating an illusion which the audience is to accept as real. In realistic drama each actor portrays one character through words, vocal and facial expressions, and movements. Events are shown (dramatized) rather than told (narrated). In Noh the entire ensemble unites to create one being, who is something more than a normal human. To accomplish this, Noh utilizes the narrative and lyric modes as well as the dramatic. (Bethe and Brazell, 15)
The use of masks in Noh Theatre is a symbolic element which enhances both the reality and stillness of the actor. Unlike Western theatrical practices, masks in Noh Theatre are not used to shield the actor. On the contrary! Masks are used to enhance the symbolic representation of the character's spirit with which the actor must communicate during this ritualistic performance. Each mask is believed to have separate powers and characteristics inherent within the character or spirit for which it was created. The challenge for the masked Noh actor is to communicate emotions through the magnificence of their physical movements. The actor's emphasis and mastery of physical movement is greatly enhanced by the slow, perfected nature of Noh theatre.
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