Kabuki Theater
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Kabuki Theater was created around the year 1600. It was almost around the same time that the English began to form colonies on the American continent. The history of Kabuki is as long as the history of the United States.
Kabuki was created by a shrine maiden named Okuni. Okuni was from Izumo Shrine. Her performances in the rive beds of the ancient capital of Kyoto caused a sensation. Soon their scale increased and a number of competing companies started.
Early Kabuki was much different from what is seen today. It was consisted mostly of large group dances performed by women. Most of these women acted as prostitutes off stage. Finally the government banned women from the stage in an effort to protect public 'morals'. This would become just one, in the long history of government restrictions placed on the theater.
This ban on women, though, is often seen as a good move. This was because it required the importance of skill over beauty. It also put more stress on drama than dance. This put Kabuki theater on the path to become a style of theater. With the need for female representations in plays, 'onnagatas' were developed. 'Onnagatas' were female role specialists, in lowest terms- men who played women.
The last quarter of the 17th century is referred to as the Genroku period and was a time of renaissance in the culture of Japanese0 towns-people. It was a time when both aristocratic and common arts flourished. Since the West and China were cut off from the outside world for over 50 years, many new art forms were introduced during this time.
With Kabuki as the main form of theatrical entertainment for commoners, there was an outburst of creativity. During this period the styl...
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...i class, and actors where often thought of as gods when they played "aragoto" roles.
In Kansai, Sakata Tojuro perfected a style of acting known as "wagoto" or soft style. While the "aragoto" of Danjuro was a hit in Edo, still very much a frontier town with a large military presence, Kyoto and Osaka, collectively known as "kamigata," had histories of over a 1000 years and were dominated by merchant culture. "Wagoto" appealed to the refined tastes of the kamigata audiences. "Wagoto" characters were often the sons of rich merchants that had fallen in love with beautiful courtesans. Having spent mast amounts of money to visit their lovers, they would be disowned by their families and forced to wear kimono made of paper. Despite their sunken state, though, they never lost their own self-perception of living in the lap of luxury, giving the role a comic touch as well.
On Farting by Hiraga Gennai gives the reader a perspective into the world of various arts in the Edo Period. Not only are we shown what is meant to be a proper practicing of the arts through his satirical character, Crankshaw Stonington Esquire, but he counters this claim that the arts were then lacking in life, passion, and ingenuity. They had become boring and outdated without any creativity being brought forward. To prove this he sings his praises for a fart artist, and engages in a lively debate about what truly marks art as meaningful and how a change to the traditions would improve the civilization. However passionate, his argument may not be effective enough to change the minds and ways of those who revel in the traditional.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
Kabuki theatre has a very long and rich history. It began in the 1600s, around the same time that the American colonies were being founded. A Japanese shrine maiden, Okuni, is credited with creating Kabuki theatre. In its earliest form, Kabuki consisted of large ensemble dances performed by women. Many of these women were prostitutes off stage. Due to the fame and fan base that these prostitutes acquired because of Kabuki, the government in this time banned women from performing onstage. This was done in an effort to protect the public’s morality against what was seen as a form of lewd entertainment (Kabuki History, 1996). After women, the main characters in Kabuki programs, were banned from performing on the stage, men stepped in to continue the Kabuki productions. This change in characters brought about a very important shift in Kabuki. No longer was the focus on beauty and dance. What became important was the skill of the actors, and the drama that they portrayed. This put Kabuki on the road to becoming a dramatic art form, rather than a show of dancing with beautiful women. At the same time, there was a renaissance happening in Japan, which promoted and encouraged arts and culture. This is known as the Genroku period.
Kano, Ayako. Acting Like A Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism. New York, Palgrave. 2001
There was lack of professional bands of actors. Therefore those bands which found most success were patronized by the court. The Earls of Essex, Pembroke and others all had their own bands. Certain troops became so famous that people thronged to see them, therefore leading to the opening of theatres. The first playhouse "the theatre" opened in 1577 and the famous "the Globe" opened in 1599.
Butler, Judith. Ed. Case, Sue-Ellen. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution." Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
At a hundred and four years old, the State Theatre still stands as one of Bay City's most recognizable landmarks. Despite floods, fires, and a century's worth of history, the theater proudly remains and operates on Washington Street. Dozens of events are put on there each year. Orchestras, Vaudeville, various musical groups, and comedians are just a few of the thousands of acts that have been housed within its walls. The building inside has been remodeled various times over the last few decades, and each time parts of the past have been found. Though there's a haunting presence, the six hundred seat house is still full for most events. The theater may not be run by the same employees, and the jobs have changed, but the theater is still as loved by many as it was when it was first opened. The State Theatre of Bay City has one thrilling past from its century of being alive!
The term Burlesque is usually thought of as slightly naughty theatre produced and performed between the 1700s and World War II. Webster defines it as a literary or dramatic work that seeks to mock by means of bizarre embellishment or comic imitation, mockery usually by caricature or theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits, and sometimes striptease acts. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which itself derives from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Today Burlesque has no meaning as a modern marvel to most Americans. Burlesque is far from the commonplace twentieth century definition. The entertainment known as Burlesque has had many different types of audiences. "Burlesque" has been used in English in this theatrical sense since the late 17th century. It has been applied with hindsight to the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. A later use of the word, particularly in the United States, refers to performances in a variety show format. These were popular from the 1860s to the 1940s, often in clubs, as well as theatres, and featured vulgar comedy and female striptease. American burlesque shows were originally an offshoot of Victorian burlesque. They consisted of three parts: first they had comic sketches by low comedians, second they had male acts like acrobats, magicians and solo singers and third they had a burlesque in the English style on politics or a current play. The entertainment was...
In order to explore this question fully I feel I should primarily lay out some of the changes that took place in society around the 18th Century. It was only after the restoration of Charles II in 1660 that there was a law passed permitting women to represent their own sex in the theatre. This did not change society's attitude towards women that chose to act or dance on stage. This is commented on in Anne Coris's article `Women and Dancing after the Restoration' where she highlights that in the 1660's men are given `a legitimate opportunity to ogle at their legs when they are cast in male roles'1. It would seem even after Prevost, Camargo and Sallé's success in the dance world, gentlemen such as Lord Chesterfield refer to women on stage as
From the late 1800’s up through the present date, musical theater has changed. Though customs and love for the theater will always be carried on, origins, trends, and styles will change throughout time.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
Japan is known for its unique gardening style, their diverse plants, their food, and their beautifully woven tapestries. Yet, most do not know about the history of their drama. Japanese Noh theatre is one of the most precise and prestigious art forms. It has been this way since the fourteenth century when Zeami first created Noh theatre. Zeami’s most famous plays, such as Kinuta, are still performed today. Japanese drama has not changed much since the fourteenth century because it has made a lasting effect on the culture. Noh theatre had a major influence on fourteenth century Japan and has affected modern day drama.
The use of original practices, the costumes and male characters used to play the role of female characters are due to the different gender identity attributes and sexuality concerns from the play. Although the producer insists that the use of male characters to play female roles was mainly to show case the original set-up and forms of acting it can also be attributed to the producer wishing to raise different sexualities from the audience. The different actors who play the roles of females while they are male characters have been used by the producer to raise different sexualities since the heterosexual people in the audience view of the audience since gender as asserted by Bulman is performative rather than
For more than 700 years, until 668, in the kingdom of Koguryo, embracing northern Korea and Manchuria, court music and dances from Central Asia, from Han China, from Manchuria, and from Korea, called chiso and kajiso, were performed. Many of the dances were masked; all were stately as befit serious court art. They were taken to the Japanese court in Nara about the 7th century. Called bugaku in Japan, they have been preserved for 12 centuries and can still be seen performed at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, though they have long since died out in China and Korea. In Koguryo's neighbouring kingdom of Paekche, a form of Buddhist masked dance play was performed at court, and, in the 7th century, it too was taken to the Japanese court at Nara by a Korean performer, Mimaji, who had learned the dances while staying at the southern Chinese court of Wu-hou. Called kiak in Korea and gigaku in Japan, the Aryan features of some of its masks clearly indicate Indian (or Central Asian) influence. Such complicated genealogies are common in East Asian performing arts.
This is to be expected in a society that did not even permit women to perform in theaters, so men played the women’s roles. Women were not allowed to perform on stage until 1660 when Charles II took the throne and the Restoration occurred (Nestvold). Hence, women are often restricted by husbands or fathers, like Juliet who was controlled by her father in Romeo and Juliet, or women are victimized by men and not in control of their own fate, like Desdemona who dies at the hands of Othello in Othello.