Essay on Kabuki Theatre

Stage directions are also used to reveal the humour and action on the stage during the entire performance. At the end of act one, scene two, the audience is and the rest of the patients are told by Doug that there is a fire in the bathroom, where Doug himself, had just exited. Stage directions are used to capture the madness as the characters run off of the stage trying to stop the fire, and as Cherry attacks Doug, and starts to strangle him.

Once seated, we saw that the stage was mainly bare with a chair on the left hand side of the stage. This suggested to the audience that the play would be non-naturalistic unlike, a west end theatre production.

Creativity of this production is the reason for the success. Their expertise in the field proves that they were qualified for this wonderful production. The theater environment of this play was thrust structure, which allows them to innovation stunning method to display all of scenes.

The staging is kept very simple. This allows you to think up what they are describing. Which lets you use your imagination to make it look as you wish. There isn’t much to the stage as I said they keep it simple, for example: for the wedding all they have are chairs set up in rows. The lighting is low making it easier for you to make your own stage with your imagination.

The space was a well-constructed thrust stage however, the stage was not raised off the ground and the seats appeared to be mobile which lead to the belief that this is an Environmental Theater. As for the layout of the stage, there was a couch and a table in center stage for the first two acts, a door to the unseen outside front of the house upstage right, there were two large double doors upstage center leading to the backyard garden, and a raised floor upstage left containing a piano, a bookcase and a door

Something very interesting about this show was that is was based around pie, so many elements on and off stage revolved around this. When looking directly at the box set stage in the theatre, at the off stage left and right stood large revolving diner pie shelves which were fully functioning and rose all the way to the ceiling. Not only did this design bring style and theme to the stage, but the shelves also housed real pies which were often eaten and used as props during the show. Something which I found interesting about the stage itself was that many of the sets moved themselves. Some sets popped up out of the stage and some moved along tracks on the stage which made the transition/flow between each scene very smooth.

Theatre today as in ancient Greek times is a popular form of entertainment. Today’s theatres share many similarities with the Greek predecessors however they are also very different. There are in fact many differences for example; layout, special effects, seating arrangement, the importance of drama and religion, setting, location and architectural features.

The “Ensemble Theater” which held this great theater play, is a very small Regional Theater with a Proscenium Stage or picture frame (also called Fourth Walls). The Proscenium stage

Stage clips: It is used to hold slides in the stage and also Stage clips are provides support to the slides.

Concerning the set in scene, Bunraku consists in puppets which are handled each one by three people, who are behind the puppets and move them with the right hand from one side to another on the stage. In contrast, in Kabuki the

Critics created a standard of perfection within drama to guarantee quality pieces. Theaters began to rework French, earlier English, and Italian dramas to balance out neoclassical tragedies so they began create comedies that manipulated and played on the emotions of the audience to create sympathy for the characters in the plays. In Japan, drama took the form of dance called the kabuki; actors wore elaborate makeup and flashy costumes to perform multiple times over the day. It started with a female entertainer, Okuni. The shamisen musician established rhythms of speech and helped stimulate the motions of the audience; the masses thought it was exciting because it was created to energize the playgoers. The kabuki created highly acclaimed actors, many from the samurai category. There were also puppet plays for playwrights who found the actors demanding since puppets couldn’t steal the spotlight and made no requirements for the creator, some plays used both kabuki and puppets. Ultimately, puppets that could be used by a single person created subtle expressions and effects. Chikamatsu Monzaemon was a playwright that became one of Japans first professional playwrights, and used puppet plays along with kabuki. Monzaemon specialized in history plays but his domestic plays; especially his tragedies were the most produced, which were primarily puppet

The lower level was connected to an upper balcony section by two staircases at the left and right edges of the stage. Above the balcony hung 5 projector screens arranged close together in a non aligned ‘x’ shaped pattern. These screens sometimes were used to display photographs taken by Bobby, showing the people he was thinking about on stage. Other times the screens contained solid colors representing windows when blue or green background lights for a night club. The backdrop behind the whole set was a beige brick wall often lit with a blue or purple light. The actors exchanged out a few key props between scenes to represent the new location. In partial realistic style, a single bed, couch, table or bench was the only stage props used to represent an individual scene. This was effective in conveying most locations, although the bench was used in multiple locations, from a busy subway for the “Another Hundred People” to a quiet park for the scene with Kathy. This overuse caused some confusion as to where the scenes with benches were taking

The grace of a swan, subtle graceful movements, beauty, and finesse, these are all aspects of the Japanese Onnagata 1.The Onnagata (male actors portraying women) in Japan is viewed as the ideal women, according to the revered Misaki Isaka, their conduct “offstage is made responsible for artistry onstage, such as singing (ka), dancing (bu), and acting (ki)” 2. This is how Japanese society has come to view them over the years, but in reality, the Onnagata is a repressed individual that is not allowed to express their masculinity in any facet in society. This can be seen in a quote, within a short story, written by Yukio Mishima; “ He must live as a woman in his daily life, he is unlikely to be considered an accomplished Onnagata. When he

     The third distinct part of the theater was the skene (scene building). "The earliest scene buildings were very simple wooden structures " (Butler 31). " Originally, the skene was a dressing room; later it is believed to have borne a painted backdrop" (Kennedy 1102). This area was known as the actors place. It was intended to provide a background against which actors could perform. "In Greek theater as we know it, the skene appears as a appendage, adjunct, breaking the perfect circularity of the design" (Arnott 13).

In Kabuki theatre, everything that is seen on the stage is the result of a meaningful inner dynamic which completes the performance by the coordination of the actors with all the various components of the mise-en-scène and then by the traditions of all the various elements being assembled into an organic whole (Kawatake 1990, 247).