Noh Theatre, Japan





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Noh theatre is a big part of japanese culture. It is the oldest form of theatre existing and is increasing rapidly in popularity thanks to a new generation of noh actors and actresses. The Noh theatre has influenced the culture of the Japanese since the beginning of time. 

In my post, i will talk about the positions that are taken in tradition by the different people that are key components of the noh performance.

In the noh theatre, there are different places for all of the different people.



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Here is a basic Noh Stage. As you can see there is different people situated everywhere. In the purple Yukata in the center of the stage stands the shite. The Shite is basically a human at first in the play and then a ghost in the second half. The first Shite would be called maeshite and then the second half is called nochishite. When i first read this i didn’t quite understand but now, i know that the Shite is a character in the play and changes from being a human to being a ghost during the Noh.

The small person sitting in the very front right in the golden yukata is called the Waki. The waki is the counterpart of the Shite. He sits there throughout the whole play and watch.

The eight people sitting on the left of the stage in the blue and black yukatas are the chorus choir that helps the background music and the sound effects throughout the performance.

The four people sitting at the back of the stage behind the Shite is hayashikata which are the musicians.

Beside the musician are the two people which have the title of the kōken. They are the two stage hands, they move things around when the have to change a scene or something.

Guest Post by Sarah McGurk

Sarah McGurk's Guest post talks about the different ways make up is used in drama, it then goes into a step by step detailed method of how to apply the makeup just like they do in the play in the movie of "The Black Swan".

Have a read and see if you like it.

Guest post by Sarah McGurk

How makeup is used in drama

Makeup is a very important part of drama. It has been used as means of special effects, highlighting a certain part of the face and as stage makeup e.g to make the actor/actress’ eyes stand out to someone who is sitting further away from the stage. Makeup has been used in drama for centuries, it adds the whole “dramatic” effect on a person’s face or body, needed in drama. It makes a character more life-like and can portray an illusion in some cases.

This is how you apply stage makeup, it is very different to the makeup used on a day to day basis.

If you are a fan of ballet, Natalie Portman, or the movie "Black Swan” then this step by step makeup tutorial is for you, it highlights the importance of stage makeup used today, not just in Dramas but also in movies. 

Step 1: Using a black eyeliner pencil, define the outline of the swan’s eyes.

Step 2: Fill in using black cream makeup and set with a black eye shadow.

Step 3: Show a feather feel using light strokes of silver cream makeup.

Step 4: Line the inner line of your bottom lids with a red eyeliner pencil.

Step 5: Take down the colour of the skin using a white cream makeup.

Step 6: Use a light peach blush under the cheekbone to define the cheeks, and then brush a silver shadow over the peach for extra definition.

Step 7: Define the lips using three colours (plum, burgundy, black) that progressively get darker towards the outer corners.

                                     

Famous Quotes :)

Most drama teachers would start off at the beginning. They would teach people about facial expression, body language, etc., and would continue this, they would then start to put the play into action. Gavin Bolton, a famous drama teacher once said;

                                      "Our aims are helping children to understand, so that.. they are helped  to                                face facts and to interpret them without prejudice; so that they develop a                   range and degree of identification with other people; so that they develop a set of principles, a set of consistent principles, by which they are going to live." - Gavin Bolton.

I think this means that teaching the children dram are just as important as teaching them French or maths. It means that, yes of course, drama is for fun and if you're lucky you make a living out of it but it also means that it helps the children to express their emotions much more.

The quote says “they are helped to face facts and to interpret them without prejudice.."  This shows the children how to take things and understand and interpret them. It helps them to deal with things, positive or negative. If they had a role to play that they were grouchy old man/women. They would have to think "I have to think like a grouchy old man or women.. How can i do this to the best of my ability?" That would be a positive example, a negative example would be you have to be the thief or the murderer, the person would think "Okay, so I'm playing a Murderer, I need to concentrate as to what would make this more convincing. The costume, Body Language, Facial Expressions, and most importantly the personality of the character." Not only does drama help the reaction to roles in plays, but it also helps the real world as well. For example, if something bad happened, like a car crash or a fire in their house, they would have to take in the information and this is where drama would come in to help, drama would help them to think about it logically and sufficiently.

The quote means a lot.

The meaning of Drama.

"Drama" (the word) originates from Greek, it means something done. Drama began in Ancient Greece. In the olden times, the Greeks used to use drama as a religious learning or showing of a time in the religion they believed in. A couple of hundred years later they created the two themes of a drama, Tragedy and Comedy.

A Tragedy Drama being "an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe." This would mean the drama has different negative emotions throughout the drama; a good example of a drama that has tragedy is "Romeo & Juliet" or "Hamlet". Negative emotions and events would be sorrow, Death, distress and the drama would most definitely have to have a sad ending. The personalities of the characters in this drama would be more serious and mellow dramatic.

A comedy drama is "Professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.”.  The personalities of the characters in this drama would be a lot more different then to the tragedy drama. Usually, the comedian of the group would be more flexible and messy. They would have more of a tendency to be funny rather than another character in the play. The plot would sometimes be more random, it gives the audience more of a "What the ?.." thought when they watch it. Also, Comedy is a very flexible form of entertainment. Most Dramas have to have a plot line and at least make sense, but comedies don't.

Credits to;

• http://bit.ly/GS12YF

• http://bit.ly/cysREA

For all of the information.

Famous Drama Countries.

                                                    

                                                                      Picture Source:
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picture source:
http://bit.ly/wUr5nG

Yes. The top one is Britain. It's alright though its hard to compete with william shakespeare, A.P Herbert and Alan Watts. Atleast we put up a fight. In all seriousness, there is one main thing that is a very large tourist attraction to do with wiliam shakespeare and that is William Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Unfortunately, the original Globe theater was burned down in the middle of one of the performances of Henry VIII, but dont worry because it was rebuilt only a few minutes down the road on the River Thames. During the play, a cannon was shot to let everyone know the king had arrived and it actually hit off a beam which then setfire to the thatched roof. In total of time, it only took one hour to burn down the Globe theatre to ashes.

I know what you're thinking. "Well, the next one is deffinitely the Sydney Opera House!" believe it or not , that ranks as the 10th most popular theatre in the world. The second being La Scala de Milán, situated in Milan, this theatre would be very important to the people that live there. One of the world's largest tourist attraction.

The Covent Garden also being a very large and well known tourist attraction to people. Others may know it as the Royal Opera House. it is situated in london and it is a musical institution.
Teatro real de madrid is a theatre in Madrid which seats many of the Spanish Royal Family and hundreds of other people. The name does give it away, but for some of you that may not know it, the theatre is situated in madrid.

There is so many more theatres in the world that are also large tourist attractions like the metropolitian opera house of new york , Wiener Stastooper and moscow bolshoi theatre and more.

Credits to:

•       http://bit.ly/GQ7RJ8 for the information.
•       Links above for the pictures.                

Writing about Drama

Credits to St. Bernie's News for the picture.

I have never written an extravaganza play, however i do have a clue. All these courses paying off as a child. Okay, so basically, there's two types of drama. Prose fiction and Drama. The difference is , is that drama is a piece of literature. Drama is a theatrical producting that connects with the crowd. Thinking about it logically, a drama production is like a restuarant. the audience being the customers, the chef being the writer and the waitors and waitress's being the actors. The Chef's Job is to produce and create, the waitors and waitress' job is to deliver with gratitude and the customers job is to recieve, which is basically, sitting back and enjoying the show. Throughout drama there is alot of things that have to be covered. Body Language, Facial Expression, Tone of voice, use of language (for example, walking to something, or prancing, which one is more interesting?). One of the many things that some people tend to forget when writing a drama is that they have to avoid both of the clichés, these are;  "Show, Don't tell.." and "Make sure dialogue advances plot or character.".

Show dont tell basically means to have the actor standing still on the page waiting around while the narrator is sitting there reading it all out. The point of a theatrical play is to show the audience what is happening. not read it out to them.

In order of making sure that the diologue advances plot or character, you would have to do something that would make a twist. For example, Carly coming home from boarding school and finding her boyfriend and bestfriend have been cheating. The part that would be making the diologue advance in plot would be the bestfriend and the boyfriend being together, and the character would be Carly.

Here's a video to describe some of the drama techniques and different body language methods.


http://www.ehow.com/video_12221328_drama-techniques-body-language.html

Beginning

Okay, so drama. It has a lot of meanings when you sit down and think about it. There's drama as in a dramatic production of a play.. But then again there is the "Drama" that happens in with jenny and Penelope when they fight. Picking "The Geography of Drama" is probably going to come back and bite me.. May as well give it a go..  This week, I am going to talk about the different kinds of drama. As i have already covered. Yes, there is two types, but there sure is so many more. Like drama as in a series on the telly every night as you cosy up with a cuppa'. Now, the question will be asked.. "But , what kind of drama are you going to blog about?". Quite frankly, none of them. I'm going to talk about the ; "The art or practise of writing or producing dramatic works.". The ART of drama. I wouldn't like people to call actors artists, because plain and simple, they aren't. How would they know if they can paint, or write, or draw? They are Artistes. (Note the 'e' on the end.) An artiste is a person that practises the art, doesn't write it or anything like that.


So "The art or practise of writing or producing dramatic works" can mean a whole lot of nothing when you read it first. Continuously writing about it though, does actually tend to give you more of an idea. Well, the "art" of drama? the art being the finished Piece of the writers. For example, Romeo and Juliet after William Shakespeare finished. The art being portrayed by the acters in films, shows or in the theatre. It has a large impact on some lifes. When you think about it.. Where do you think Edward Alleyn or Henry Condell the famous Elizabethean Actors would be without the beautiful world of Drama?