Asian Theatre: India, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, & Cambodia
Cultural Periods and Events Theatrical Developments Persons Aryan migration & caste system Natya-Shastra (rasas & the Bharata Muni & Abhinavagupta Vedic & Gandhara Periods spectator’s liberation) Shūdraka & Kalidasa Hinduism & Sanskrit texts Islamic invasions actor-manager (sudtradhara) Buddhism (promising what?) shamanic rituals jester (vidushaka) Hellenistic influence court entertainments with string-puller (sudtradhara) Classical Period & Ashoka Jester Ming sheng, dan, jing, & chou (meanings) Theravada & Mahayana wrestling & Baixi men & women who played across gender Gupta golden age impersonations, dances, & women who led troupes Medieval Period acrobatics, sword tricks Guan Hanqing Muslim invasions small plays of song and dance Tang Xianzu Chola Dynasty Pear Garden & adjutant Li Yu Early Modern Period plays Kan’ami & Zeami Mughal Empire red light districts with shite & shite-tsure (across gender), waki, Colonial Period with British East southern dramas & waki-tsure, & kyogen India Company variety show musicals chorus of 8 men, musicians, & onstage British Raj with one star singing per stagehand (kuroko) Dramatic Performances Act act Okuni Contemporary Period complex, poetic dramas onnagata Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Jin, kun operas with plaintive Chikamatsu Northern & Southern, Sui, Tang, music & flowing Danjuro I Song, Yuan, Ming, & Qing melodies/dancing chanter, 3 puppeteers per puppet, & Dynasties Beijing Opera (jingju) as shamisen player nationalist & communist rulers fusion dalang & gamelan players Gojoseon Kingdom noh from dengaku & narrator & pin peat ensemble North-South States sarugaku Later Three Kingdoms kabuki first with women, Goryeo & Joseon Kingdoms then boys (both banned), Korean Empire & then men Japanese rule bunraku develops North & South Korea flat puppets based on Hindu “Age of the Gods” god types, refined or Emperor Jimmu coarse, plus aggressive, Yayoi, Kofun, Asuka, & Nara Periods comic, or evil, influenced Heian Period & court lady’s novel by local ancestral spirits, Kamakura Period & samurai clans hermaphroditic jester, & Muromachi Period with Ashikaga animistic spirits shogunate & daimyos dalang as shamanic healer, Azuchi-Momoyama Period yet comic scenes & pop Edo Period with Tokugawa shogunate tunes competing with TV & new capital 3-D puppet show invented by Meiji Period & emperor Javanese Muslim ruler Taishō Period & National Diet dance-dramas based on Shōwa Period & Hirohito Hindu Ramayana Heisei Period & Akihito Reiwa Period & Naruhito Khmer Empire & Khmer Rouge Performance Types & Play Titles Perf. Places & Spaces Performance Objects & Practices Sanskrit dance drama ancient playhouse “like a four performance styles with eight rasas The Little Clay Cart mountain cavern” & bhavas, plus a ninth added as The Recognition of Shakuntala stage with four columns purifying string kuttiyattam, krishnanattam, & (white, red, yellow, & actor as “carrier pot” of rasas kathakali blue), one for each caste “cure by opposites” ottan thullal indoor temple-theatre codified facial expressions, movements, & odissi (square stage, a bronze hand mudras bharatanatyam lamp, curtain, & musical Determinants, Consequents, & Transitory bhavai instruments) States Rāmlilā festival plays outdoor courtyard of temple puja ritual to bring blessings Rāslilā festival plays or village, in daylight or makeup with symbolic colors kathputli at night elaborate costumes & no scenery gewu xiaoxi square stage with male actor-dancers for all roles canjun embroidered curtain, at performing different perspectives nanxi & zaju court or in popular (red devotional performance The Injustice Done to Dou E light) district most props mimed kun opera (kunqu) lit screen with puppets poses like temple sculptures The Peony Pavilion village festival solo female performer in temple The Fragrant Companion outdoor, then inside stage satire as ritual offering to goddess wen & wu in jingju with pavilion roof, four actors honored like gods Peach Blossom Fan pillars, minimal symbolic string/glove/rod/shadow puppets talchum (or kamyonguk) scenery, & sounding jars cross-gender actors & some troupes led by noh with 5 types in program hashigakari & mirror room women kyogen Edo red-light district gongs, cymbals, drums, stringed Aoi no Ue (Lady Aoi) theatres with revolving instruments, & clapper on mostly bare Dojoji stage, lifts, trap, & wires stage Matsukaze hanamichi color-coded makeup kabuki fire-lit cloth screen (with wenchou & wuchou bunraku (ningyō joruri) audiences on both sides) few props or scenery, but often chair, wayang topeng at the founder’s grave or table, or painted cloth wayang kulit village center stylized movement, high voices, wayang golek acrobatics, water sleeves, martial flags, Barong dance (ritual battle) & symbolic fans menora, mak yong, kuda kepang, translucent, jointed puppets dikir barat, boria, randai, & main centered in breath, entertaining spirits, puteri masks burned at the end dance-dramas & large shadow all male actors, cypress masks puppet show pine tree painted on the rear wall yugen & hana (bone, flesh, skin) mie, aragoto acting, & kata color-coded costumes & makeup elaborate scenery on a long stage puppets as large as 2/3 life size shamisen & historical/domestic joruri masked dancer or flat or 3-D puppets based on Ramayana & Mahabharata performing all night kayon (tree) & clown puppets