Birth of Asian Drama All the world is a stage, And all the men and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Birth of Asian Drama

“All the world is a stage,
 And all the men and women merely players; 
 They have their exits and their entrances;
 And one man in his time plays many parts. . .”


—William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Presented by Yi Liu, Wenjia Liu

Asian drama, 


dramatic works produced in the East. 
 
 The three major Asian dramas— Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese
 
 Sanskrit is the oldest.

Sanskrit Drama

• Sanskrit drama is part of Sanskrit literatur

e, the classical literature of India.

• Language: they were written mainly in

Sanskrit, but also combine with Prakrit or difgerent forms of vernacular languages.

• The longest continuous performing

tradition of any drama texts in the world: nearly 1200 years (early centuries B.C. to about A.D. 1100)

• Beginnings: probably derives from

hymns, dance and religious ceremonial.

The playwrights and their works

• Bhasa (c.3d cent. A.D.):

the earliest known Sanskrit playwright The Vision of Vasavadatta.

• Kalidasa (c. the late 4th to mid 5th cent

A.D.) the most celebrated poet in the history of India Shakuntala (also The Recognition of Shakuntala)

• The poet-king Sudraka, Harsha and

Bhavabhuti.

Typical features


• Religious and supernatural elements; also

firmly grounded in the real world

• The blending of prose and verse
• The alternation of languages (Sanskrit and

Prakrit)

• No theaters: the plays were performed in the

concert rooms

• f palaces (rather small)
• The play almost always opens with a prayer and

is followed by a dialogue between the stage manager and

• ne of the actors, referring to the author and

the play.

The themes of the drama


• Love and heroism are the two most

common sources of emotion in the plays

• The supernatural elements:

some plays are almost totally concerned with the sup ernatural (Kalidasa's Vikramorvasi)

• Political and historical

topics (Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitra).

• Ordinary people (The poet-king Sudraka’s

Mrcchakatika)

• The happy endings: complete absence of tragedy;

death never occurs on the stage

Shakuntala 


शकuतला


(The Recognition of Shakuntala)


by Kalidasa

Of all Sanskrit dramas it is Kalidasa’s Shakuntala that is best known outside India. A Shakuntala manuscript was found in a monastery in coastal China, indicating close cultural ties between China and India. It is even possible that the Sanskrit dramas influenced the development of Chinese theatre during the times when the contacts were most active. Shakuntala was probably the first Asian drama translated into Western languages. It is also one

• f the very first Sanskrit works ever translated

into English. Shakuntala is probably the most frequently performed Asian play in the West. （沙恭达罗 迦梨陀娑）

Shakuntala 


(The Recognition of Shakuntala)

Shakuntala tells about the love of King Dusyanta and a beautiful girl, Shakuntala, who is the foster daughter of a forest hermit (and, in fact,

• f semi-divine origin). They meet, make love,

and engage in a secret marriage. As a token of his love, the king gives Shakuntala a ring. However, owing to a magic trick, the king forgets Shakuntala, and she is taken to the heavens, where she gives birth to the king’s son. Only when the king sees the ring he has given to the girl does he again remember their love. While visiting the heavens, the king meets Shakuntala and their son and they are finally reunited. Video:

Early chinese drama

Animal movements 
 sing and dance

The development of Chinese drama

• Early times Dance and sing
• Nan drama in Song and Yuan dynasty
• Yuan drama—the first golden era
• In Ming and Qing drama—another

prosperous time

Song dynasty

Za ju : drama, music and dance Nan xi: early southern opera

Background of Nan xi

The Earlist existing complete script of Nan xi

• Top graduate Zhang xie
• male lead:

sheng

• female lead:

dan

• clown

character: chou

Yüan dynasty (1260–1328)-golden age

• f drama

classical drama time 1,Background 2, Yuan dramatists were “The Four Yuan-Period Masters” 3,classical dramas

Development background

• Mongal rule the

country

• Abolish the

examination

• Scholars social

statue became low

• To avoid penalty

and express their

“The Four Yuan-Period Masters”

Guan Hanqing (Kuan Han- ch’ing)-- “Father

• f Chinese

Dramatic Literature” Dou E yuan (Tou Eh yüan), The Injustice Experienced by

The injustice of DO E

r

• Dou e was accused of

killing her step- father in law. But the

• ffjcials took the real

killers’s money and sentenced Dou e to death.

• Before the head

penalty, she predicts three events will happen because of her innocence

• The three events

really did happen after Dou E's death.

There will be heavy snowfall in the sixth in the midst of summer and the thick snow will cover her dead body. Chuzhou will experience a drought for three years. The three events really did happen after Dou E's death.

Bai pu

• Bai Pu (1226–1306) was a son of an

impoverished civil servant family. His best-known play is Wutong yu (Wu- t’ung yü) or Rain on the Pawlonia

• Tree. It tells the tragic story of the

love of the Tang emperor Ming Huang and his concubine Yang Guifei amid the political intrigues and power play while the Tang dynasty was nearing its end.

Zheng Guangzu (1280– 1330)

an early Taoist-inspired ghost opera is Qiannü lihun (Ch’ian-nü li-hun) or Ciannun sielu irtoaa ruumiista

Ma Zhiyuan

• Ma Zhiyuan is famous for his Taoist

themes, but his well-known play Hangong qiu (Han-kung ch’iu)or Autumn in Han Palace, is based on an ancient, tragic love story with patriotic overtones (synopsis). It has been one of the most beloved Yuan dramas.

The story of the west wings

• Writer: wang shi

fu

• China’s most

popular love comedy

Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)

During the Ming dynasty the Yuan zaju lost its popularity to the southern forms of

• peras. The quick and feverish music of the

north gave a way to the soft southern

• melodies. Many regional opera forms
• evolved. Then, as well as now, the regional

styles difgered mainly in the dialects in which they are sung, and in their melodies. Otherwise they, more or less, share the same kind of basic aesthetics.

Kun qu and difgerent riginal operas

Japanese Drama


The No drama was developed in the 14th cent., bri nging together elements from the earlier sarugaku [monkey music猿乐] and dengaku [rustic music⽥由乐]. Its invention is attributed to Kanami Kiyotsugu (1333-84), while his son Zeami Motoki yo (1363–1443) brought the No to its peak of refinement.

No (or Noh) drama 


能


Typical features of No

• No plays are very short, virtually plotless, and tragic in mood.
• Performances of No plays are highly stylized, and they move

at an extremely slow pace, often stretching a text of two or three hundred lines into an hour-long stage play.

• Such performances integrate singing, speech, instrumental

music (three drums and a flute), dancing, and mime into a unity in which no single element dominates.

• Wooden masks are used by the principal character, women

characters, and old people.

• All the actors traditionally are male.

• The playscenter around a single character called the shite. Of se

condary importance is the waki, who is often a priest and who serves as a foil to the

• shite. Both the shite and the waki have one or two attendants.
• There is also a chorus whose sole function is to sing. Frequently

the chorus sings the lines appropriate for the shite, while he dances or mimes the action.

• The usual form of the play is to present two manifestations of th

e shite. In the first part the shite presents a false or disguised appearance. In the second part he presents his true or spiritual self.

• The No stage is a plain platform about 20 ft (6 m) square with

a walkway leading from the back of the stage to the greenroom.

• The musicians are placed at the back of

the stage, and the chorus is on

Video and pictures: 


http://www.xip.fi/atd/japan/noh-crystallised- aesthetics.html


The Kyogen 狂⾔訁

• Developing about the same time as the No was a

type of short farce known as the Kyogen. The Kyogen are placed between No plays as comic relief.

• They do not use music, take about 20 min to perf
• rm, and are broad in their humor.

The Ningyo-shibai [marionettes] 牵线⽊朩 偶
 and the Kabuki 歌舞伎

• In the 16th and 17th cent. two forms of drama devel
• ped in

Japan that have since surpassed the aristocratic and diffjcult No drama inpopularity; they are the Ningyo- shibai [marionettes] and the Kabuki.

• Both the Ningyo-shibai and the Kabuki show

similarities to the No in their integration of movement, music, and lan

• guage. Also, like the No, the Kabuki uses only male

actors, even for

The Development of Kabuki

• The Kabuki uses more characters than the No, features much st

age action as opposed to the stately slow movement of the No, and avoids the use of recondite symbolism and allusion that frequently make the No a puzzle.

• The most popular play in the Kabuki repertoire is a revenge

play entitled The Treasury of Loyal Retainers.

• One interesting facet of Kabuki:

The Kabuki stage is marked by a walkway (hanamici花 道), which extends from the stage into the audience and to the back of the auditorium.

• The Kabuki, both in classical and modernized

References

• http://

encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/ Asian+drama

• http://

encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/ Sanskrit+literature

• http://www.xip.fi/atd/india/sanskrit-

dramas.html

Thank you