"Sayonara" and "I, Worker". Japanese contemporary theatre in Toronto (2013)

"I, Worker" (Photo from the program by Tsukasa Aoki)

After some months without seeing any theatre performances (totally dedicated to publishing my plays, writing poems, training Butoh and editing photographs) I returned as a spectator of two short plays by Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata: "Sayonara" (さようなら) and "I, worker" (働く私) as part of the Robot Theatre Project. 

The performances were also part of a cultural festival around Japanese culture, Spotlight Japan, here in Toronto, Canada at the Berkeley Street Theatre. 

It was interesting to come back to the theatre not exactly because of the quality of the plays and performances but because of the performers: half of the cast were real robots. 

The program says the following about the project:

"Robot Theatre Project began four years ago at Osaka University. The initial goal of our project was to change the status of robots from being merely displays at expositions to becoming essential elements of theatre arts. At these expositions, where scientists gather to present their latest technologies, we saw that while robots "impressed" audiences, they never "moved" them - and we wanted to show that robots could really move people. We believe that our mission should be to help lead current research efforts that examine how robots can be part of the future of human society - how robots can be created so as not to alienate people, or scare children or the elderly."

Sayonara was in English and Japanese (with subtitles) and I, Worker totally in Japanese (with subtitles as well), so there was no problem in understanding what what was being said on stage.

Sayonara, as the name refers to directly, is a "Good bye" from the life of the real human, a lady, and of a kind of android which has served as her company. The play is full of poems and also some references to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011. 

I, Worker is the story of two couples, two humans and two robots and how they interact when one of the robots begins to refuse to work, like the man of the human couple did, it seems, some time before as well. 

Real robots in relationships with humans in an almost no science fiction imaginary. Interesting for the questions the plays provoke in the spectator's mind (not much, you will see), but I think still a little bit short-sighted about those kinds of relationships in a not so far future. 

Robots don't work in our houses yet, but they have been in fiction films for years, from the stupid ones in the sixties to the one in Kubrick's masterpiece, "2001, A Space Odyssey", and so on -Star Wars, Blade Runner, Terminator, etc.-, doing all we can ever imagine and more each time. So, we are trained to see those things as spectators, no doubt, but to our disappointment we only see on stage, first, one that almost has no movement and, afterwards, two more others which interact like those in those sixties series but without being really funny. So, where and what is the new thing here? Thinking about real relationships with real robots? But haven't the best films and novels about them done that now? Of courses, and very well! 

They only new thing I can see here is that real robots are coming to the theatrical stage too, as in novels and films, and the company gets a good promotion for working as a kind of artistic show of whatever happens in the industry, specializing in human interaction (like 'commercial happenings" in public relations or in advertising), and we'll have to wait many years to see real action with those robots live. Then we won't have to write short long-term fiction, and will see real problems in our relationship with them, we'll be impressed and actually moved by them, I hope.

Here the promotional video by the Japan Foundation:

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

A Kyogen Performance at the National Noh Theatre (国立能楽堂) in Tokyo. (2011)

National Noh Theatre (国立能楽堂) Program with stamps of the 2011 season. (Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

As you would expect, there is no visit I could do to no matter what Japanese city where I do not look for the opportunity of seeing a traditional theatre performance, a kind of theatre that I admire and enjoy very much. In May 2011, in Tokyo, I could only go to see Kyogen, which is a comic performance that normally accompanies Noh plays.  As it took place inside a theatre I was not allowed to take any pictures or video of the performance, but I could take some shots of the building and of the beautiful "stage" of the National Noh Theatre (国立 能 楽 堂).

Contemporary Noh and Kyogen theatres are theatres within theatres, as if the space for Noh were a permanent stage: the spectacular wooden theatre (which has not changed in form or building materials since the sixteenth century) is surrounded by a modern event space, with the consequent addition of seats where originally there was just an open space for spectators in Shinto temples.

Stage within the National Noh Theatre (国立能楽堂). Tokyo, Japan. (Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

Stage within the National Noh Theatre (国立能楽堂). Tokyo, Japan. (Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

The lighting, which is modern, is directed to the "stage" (to the original Noh theatre) in a completely open way, with no changes during the performance and no adding any kind of "atmosphere". Occasionally during evening performances in temples or outdoors at festivals (I saw one in Osaka with the actors on a boat, for example) torches are used, giving a very special effect on the atmosphere, but the use of electrical light as part of a production’s design is never seen.

This Kyogen performance had a special meaning for me because, for the first time in my life, I was attending a performance of Japanese theatre with subtitles that translated everything to English;  every seat in the theatre had a screen, you could choose between Japanese and English, and so you could follow the performance without focusing only on the movements and the music (which can be interesting but also very tiring).  A wonderful addition for those of us who do not speak Japanese, because it really turns that performance into an event that is very enjoyable in every sense; for the first time in my life I could laugh watching Kyogen through understanding the verbal element and not only through visual cues. These are treasures of modernity that are well appreciated.

Screen with subtitles at the Noh National Theatre (国立能楽堂). Tokyo, Japan. (Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

Most viewers are people over 50, many of them fall asleep just as soon as the performance starts, but a good deal of them really enjoy the show, you can tell that they are familiar with it and they know what to expect from it.  It is not a ritual theatre anymore, of course, and it is not a theatre with great and famous actors and shouts of the public as in Kabuki, but it is highly respected, people applaud vigorously and shows are almost always sold out.

 
The Kyogen performance

Plays program at hall of the Noh National Theatre (国立能楽堂). Tokyo, Japan. (Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

Ticket for the Kyogen performance at the Noh National Theatre (国立能楽堂). Tokyo, Japan. (Gustavo Thomas © 2011)

Kyogen plays, in contrast to Noh, are very simple plays about earthly subjects, related with trickeries and vices, usually common people and with not very stylized movements on the stage. In the last play of that evening program, for example, The fish sermon, a drunk fisherman wants to fool people by pretending to be a monk, and when he's asked to give a sermon he starts to give a list of all the fishes he knows instead of religious sentences, as simple as that.

 
Just as a reference I transcribe the program with the plays performed that night which, as I mentioned earlier, was only Kyogen. There are many sites on Internet which resume Noh and Kyogen plays, so you can make a simple search on Google if you want to know more about them.


Three plays and a musical piece (about 90 minutes)


- Otoshi-Suo (The discovered gift)

- Tsuen (The tea Monk)

- Uo-Zekkyo (The fish sermon)

Slideshow with images of the National Noh Theatre

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (2011)

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Ritual performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (Por Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

In May 2011 I had the opportunity to see live a Bugaku 舞楽 dance ritual performance at one of the most beautiful temples of Japan, the Meiji Shrine, in Tokio. 

Bugaku is a group of court dances with more than 1200 years of age and it was till the 1950's of the last century that those dances were hidden from the general public.

Obviously I'm not a connoisseur but it seems that what I saw that day was a very standard version of these dances: very slow, smooth and rhythmic movements with a royal attitude performed by a group of dancers wearing Buddhist clothes (even when the Meiji shrine, in this case, is a Shinto temple).

The act of dancing is very short; the music and the musicians have a very important role; and the preparation and the exit of the dancers occupies most of the time of the performance itself (that's a very common characteristic of Japanese ritual performing arts).

In my point of view (very ignorant in anything about Japanese ritual dances) what's remains in the memory of everyone is the visual beauty of the spectacle with such a formidable set around.

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Ritual performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (Por Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Ritual performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (Por Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Ritual performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (Por Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

You can see in other post of this Blog, about my first visit to Tokyo in 2008, some ancient documents from the National Museum depicting Bugaku dancers: http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.ca/2010/03/ancient-scroll-images-of-bugaku.html

Video Bugaku (舞楽) Dance Ritual performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (2011)

Bugaku Dance Performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (2011) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.
Bugaku Dance Performance at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo (2011)


Slideshow of the Bugaku Dance Performance at Meiji Shrine

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Tamasaburo Bando Poster Exhibition at The Japan Foundation in Toronto (2012)

Sign at the entrance of The Japan Foundation in Toronto (2012)

I've written before about my fascination with Tamasaburo Bando, since I saw a video of him performing till the moment I had the chance to watching him performing live in Beijing in 2008. Today I celebrate The Japan Foundation brings to Toronto some posters and photo books as well as screenings of some of his greatest performances and, specially, an amazing documentary, The Written Face.

While watching those amazing images today I found a very interesting quotation. When Tamasaburo was 20, in 1970, Yukio Mishima wrote of him, amazed by his face and his performance:  

"The fascination of this beautiful young man is of another era than our own. But it may carry with it a magical power, which by the right and privilege of his young age, will succeed in completely overturning the prevailing tastes of our time."

Posters viewed through the outside window at The Japan Foundation (2012)

Posters viewed through the outside window at The Japan Foundation (2012)

Flyer given as a gift for attending the Tamasaburo Bando Poster Exhibition at The Japan Foundation in Toronto (2012)

 

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio in Yokohama: The Place and its Objects.

The first step is the place, the space: no one can imagine dance without a space.

My dream to visit, step into and and learn at the study of Kazuo Ohno in Yokohama must then begin by a small account of the space.

Kazuo Ohno built his studio, back in the 60's, next to his home on the hills of Kamihoshikawa, part of Yokohama's metropolitan region, less than an hour by train from central Tokyo. It was, and still is, a humble studio, simple but very functional: it has a wooden floor, a piano, several closets, a bathroom, a kitchenette, lounge chairs, a television, a glass cupboard, a sound system, a small illumination system; it's built from wood and metal sheets, with a group of supports that, when it rains, keep the studio from flooding by water running down the hill; outside, there is a shelf for shoes and a basket for umbrellas . From the entrance one can see the dining room and part of the kitchen of Ohno's house, and one feels ashamed to enter into the privacy of the home and prefers to look away.

Getting to the studio is a journey, is not easy, and everyone gets lost their first time, be they foreigners or Japanese - it's not a matter of language. And that's because, being in a hilly area where alleys and labyrinthine stairs are the only ways, one can not find the one alley and stair leading to the studio. For about 35 minutes I went up and down the hill several times, took several stairs, asked passers-by, checked the map a dozen times; exhausted and with so tired my legs were shaking, in the end I decided to take the first alleyway off the road and follow its roundabout path and there, after a turn which was not visible from the main road, the sight of the stairs that would finally lead to the study.

Mid-way up the hill you discover a wooden sign that reads, in Japanese and English, "Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio."

I was finally in front of that sign, a highpoint in my life as a student: I was there after that weary journey to find the place, after a month of uncertainty due to the earthquake in the north of the country and problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, after a year of studying and discovering Butoh dance with several teachers in Canada, and after a little more than 20 years after first seeing the figures of Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno on stage, setting their work as an example before all my students, my colleagues and myself. There was I, in front of that sign, and I stood there for several minutes.

It was night already, some wind was blowing lightly, you could hear the trains passing in the distance,  you could also hear some crickets, and nothing else.

Before meeting master Yoshito Ohno I got to know the studio, I could see his objects exactly as Kazuo Ohno used them (Yoshito Ohno has respected in full the arrangement of things and nothing has changed place): his chair, his music, his dolls, puppets and masks, his books, his costumes, the shoes of his female characters, his hats, the floor.

As is the usual Japanese (and Eastern) custom, you leave your shoes at the entrance and enter barefoot, that way you can go around the premises with the confidence that you won't damage anything nor will bother anyone the noise of your walking. And so I did, I entered like that, barefoot, and so I stepped where Kazuo and Yoshito stepped and danced together, where sometime they stepped and danced along with Hijikata, where now, by himself, Yoshito Ohno steps and dances, as the heir that is .

I remembered some pantomime class that I had taken in my university years, where for the first time in my life I heard the idea that the workspace was a sacred place, that you should greet it and ask it for permission to enter. I thought of the feet of the teachers, of their bodies falling and rolling, and to those images, as my mother used to say, I "entrusted myself"

In my stepping I checked all of the space and my eyes fell on a picture on a tiny wooden chair: was the moment when Pina Bausch visited an ailing Kazuo and gave him a kiss; a really beautiful photograph, a very hard one, which made me tremble. Strange paradoxes of life, Pina visited the ailing, and perhaps dying Kazuo, but she would die a year before him.

I know some of you, artists or not, understand my dwelling on this first step into the workspace of the studio of master Ohno, my devoting a blog entry to this account of the place where one has dreamed of being and of learning in.  I know some of you have dreamed of stepping into a place you really felt was sacred; it is you I'm addressing and for whom I write these texts, I took these photos and this video that illustrates that first step in my visit to the dance studio of master Kazuo Ohno in Yokohama, last April 20th 2011.

Video: Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio: The Place and its Objects.

Slideshow: Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio: The Place and its Objects.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas.

If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Traditional Japanese Street Puppet Theatre Performance: A Drunk Scene and The Lion and the Butterflies.

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Last Sunday 24th, 2011, I went to enjoy a big party in Yokohama, the Noge Street Performance Festival. This festival has place every year since 1974 (this is its 37th year) with dozens of street performers from all over Japan and the World. Of course my main interest was around those japanese performers rarely viewed in our western World and I was not deceived.

Among many of those performances it was this Japanese traditional puppet theatre: charming, simple and very interesting. 

I took some photographs and two videos. Enjoy.

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Video: 

Presentation and A Drunk Dance Scene

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama 

Video:

The Lion and the butterflies

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama 

Bunraku Puppets at Kaganawa Prefecture Museum of Cultural History, Yokohama.

Bunraku Puppets. Kaganawa Museum of Cultural History. Yokohama (2011)

I've always loved Bunraku and seeing those amazing puppets was a real gift for me. The Kaganawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History in Yokohama has two Bunraku puppets in exhibition and I could take some photographs of them. 

Ancient Scroll Images of a Bugaku Performance

Dance Bugaku (Japan National Museum). Photo by Gustavo Thomas

Just sharing a group of photographs (and one video) taken during my visit to Japan National Museum in Tokyo, in 2008: an ancient scroll with Bugaku performance images. There is also one more video (this is not mine) with an example of a modern performance of this court Japanese dance.

Bugaku performance images at Japan National Museum

Video: A Religious Performance of Bugaku in Miyajima

Hosho Nohgakudo Theatre in Tokyo. A Glance to the interior.

Beginning this 2010 with a nice memory to my visit in January of 2008 to one of the most important Nō Theatre Buildings in Japan, the Hosho Nohgakudo Theatre. I went to see a whole program of Nō and Kyōgen (1), but it was impossible to record any video of it, so I only can show a glance of the building interior; not bad at all I think, specially its traditional stage made entirely by wood.

Video: A glance to Hosho Nohgakudo Theatre.

Slideshow of Hosho Nohgakuda Theatre

(1) You can see an example of this kind of program in my post:

(Noh Theatre) Kanze Seinen Kenyu Nō: Three Nō plays and one Kyogen.

Edo museum in Tokyo: A whole theatre facade and a Kabuki Theatre exhibition.

Here two short videos about mi visit to Edo Museum in Tokyo (January 2008).

Astonishing facade of an entire Kabuki Theatre building, Nakamura-za, and a Kabuki Theatre exhibition inside.

Facade of Nakamura-za at Edo Museum, Tokyo.



Kabuki Theatre Exhibition at Edo Museum, Tokyo.

Beijing’s Modern Puppets Company, a big disappointment.

I’ve been living in Beijing for one and a half years and during all this time I’ve tried to find a traditional big sized puppet performance, but when I asked about where to go and see it the reply I got was to go to the provinces and look for shadow theatre, not big puppets. The Chinese Puppet theatre was born in the South of China, and the place with the major tradition is Fujian Province (1); although I plan to travel to that region, I expected Beijing, as a capital city of a reborn Empire, to support (as part of its cultural plans) a National Puppet Company, or at least to give money for some performances by traditional trouppes. One day I found some big puppets on sale in Panjiayuan’s artcrafts market in Beijing, and another day in the central city of Xi’an I found another kind of big puppets, but never a performance. Should I wait for my Fujian trip or even go to Taiwan, where they say you can find the highest techniques of puppet work (2)? Maybe it’s bad luck, I thought.

It was at the beginning of this year, 2007, with the celebration of the Chinese New Year, that one Puppet Company from Beijing decided to perform one traditional piece about the Monkey King story, making use of that kind of puppets I wanted to see. The advertisements said it was a rare opportunity to be a spectator for this kind of theatre. I was very excited, of course.

Finding the theater was easy, the taxi driver knew very well where the theatre was located; it seemed to be a venue for Beijing’s children he said. Like a bad copy of a Western medieval castle, the theatre facade was not the best introduction to the spectacle; trying not to compare that with my experience at the Bunraku National Theatre in Osaka (3) and The Joe Louis Theater in Bangkok (4), I went to the pink and orange colored building and took my seat.

It was a disappointment. What I saw was a ‘modern’ attempt to imitate traditional Chinese Opera with medium sized puppets and, worst of all, a very poor technique. Yes, it sounds strange, Chinese traditional artists are known for their high technical level. Well, not here. Imitation is not creation. Children entertainment is not an Art. I have to recognize that the “puppets” were nice and attractive like many puppets are, and it was funny to see their movements, specially since I know the movements that belong to the real Beijing Opera, but nothing there was no amazing technique or work like in Japan’s Bunraku or like at the Joe Louis Theater in Bangkok.

The video tells everything, not just my words(see new addition); I hope to finish soon the editing of the visual material I have about Bunraku and Thai Puppets and to present a good point of view and of comparison between those theatres.


We do know this: Mainland China and India are the sources of Performing Arts in Asia, and China without doubt is the source of the Asiatic Puppet Theatre, but I’m sure that, now, it is companies from Japan, Indonesia and Thailand that perform with the highest technique in the world, and not mainland China anymore. Has China lost the sources of its tradition and all it has left is its Shadow Theatre in the South? After my trip to Fujian I will answer this question.


(1) About one Fujian Puppet performance:
http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/205147/
(2) About a taiwanese master and its company in France:
http://www.hexagramm.fr/petitmiroir/anglais/histoire/maitre_uk.php
(3) I visited the Bunraku National Theatre in Osaka in July 2006.
(4) I visited the Joe Louis Theatre in Bangkok in December 2006.
(5) Link to my videos in Youtube recorded in Wuzhen village (close Shanghai) showing one Chinese Shadow theatre performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq4fVPPvhD8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfuyqjD1v20

ADDITION:

After one comment about the way to say my judgment over this performance, I decided to put the raw video and photographs I took that ocassion. It shows, in my point of view, in a claire look what I was talking about.

Non edited video:

(Noh Theatre) Kanze Seinen Kenyu Nō: Nō appreciation event.

On Saturday July 29th 2006, in Kyoto, Kanze Seinen Kenyu Nō (1) presented a special Nō appreciation event at Kanze Kaikan (Kanze theatre). It was summer and children were on holidays, it was a good opportunity to reach and to teach them how to appreciate Nō theatre in a practical way. The next day the same company would perform a full 6 hour long session of Nō and Kyogen. (2)

The program of the Saturday appreciation event read: ‘Young performers will give a demostration of Tamoe, Ikkaku sennin, and Tsuchigumo, as well an explanation on costumes and a small lesson of Nō performance.’ Tickets cost ¥1,500 (¥1000 for students). (3)
From 10:00 am to 2:00 pm entire families, in a Theatre full to capacity, amused themselves while learning about one of their most precious national treasures.
As I wasn’t able to understand Japanese I decided only to record on video some scenes of the demostration and some part of the explanations and lessons. I’ve always thought that’s the best way to share online my visit experience .

This was the event’s schedule:

9:30 Entrance.

As the organiser asked, we arrived at 9:30, yet the whole theatre was already full of people. Most of them were children but there were also old people.





10:00 Demostration of Nō plays: Tamoe, Ikkaru sennin, and Tsuchigumo.

They started on time and presented part of three plays, with explanations about movements, ways of singing and stories.

The video shows one of the Nō players performing a whole scene without a costume, which helped explain the choreography and the perfection of the details. (4)

12:00 All the next activities took place at the same time (5):

Theatre’s hall: explanation of costumes, masks and texts.

The hall was divided into four sections for the explanations: one for costumes, one for masks, and another one for texts. As all of them were done in japanese, so I decided to enter the theatre and see what was going on inside.

Theatre stage: lesson on how to wear a costume, mask, and on walking with them on.

These are extremely beautiful images of professional Nō players dressing up children with real costumes and masks and showing them the right way to walk wearing that on stage.

First floor: small lessons on singing, holding a fan, dialogue, choreography with objects, etc.

People were happy and excited waiting their turn for the small personalised lessons on singing, dance and dialogues; I say personalised, because Nō has only one way of teaching its acting: from master to student, one on one.

At that moment, Nō had become a family experience, an entertainment, and an exceptional way for one strange meeting: the common people of our age with a refined traditional performing art.

Slideshow of photographs of Costume, Masks, Fan and Recitation Workshops.

(1) Kanze Seinen Kenyu Nō is the Nō company in charge of managing the Kanze theatre. As many other Japanese theatre companies its structure of power consists mainly of a big family, recognised for centuries, though today some parts of this structure have changed and some non-family members can be accepted.
(2) See post of 21th of february, 2007:
http://gthomastheatre.blogspot.com/2007/02/kanze-seinen-nekyu-n-three-n-plays-and.html
There I give detailed information about that performance, including a sinopsis, video and photographs.
(3) Of course, I didn’t translate the theatre brochure, I took one extract from a note inside an English language magazine. About the costs of tickets, I could get a student discount thanks to my chinese Qinghua university ID card.
(4) It’s a pity I lost the other part of the video where the same player shows the same movement and choreography with the whole Nō costume.
(5) That way of giving the explanation and lesson was not problematic at all, it was even exciting, as it created a brilliant work dynamic where everyone could do something, wherever you went you’d find somehting interesting to learn. It was a kind of No carnival, joyful and noisy. A fantastic experience.