AN

ASSIGNMENT

ON

DANCE, SONG, MUSIC, & DRAMA OF THE ORIENTAL THEATRE AND HOW THEY PROMOTE THEIR CULTURE

WRITTEN BY

NAME: ETIM BLESSING ENO

MATRIC NO: 15/038144104

SUBMITTED TO

COURSE LECTURER: DR. ARNOLD UDOKA

COURSE TITLE: ORIENTAL THEATRE

COURSE CODE: TMS 302

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND MEDIA STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE COURSE REQUIREMENT (TMS 302)

November 2019

THE INTERRELATEDNESS OF DRAMA, DANCE AND MUSIC IN ORIENTAL THEATRE

In Asia drama, dance and music are inseparable. In the European performing arts, on the other hand, they

developed their own ways. Thus in the West we talk about text-dominated “spoken theatre”, music-

dominated “opera”, and dance-dominated “ballet”.

Most of the traditional forms of Asian performing art combine drama, dance and music into a kind of

whole in which it is difficult to draw a clear borderline between these art forms. Most of the Asian

traditions employ either dance or dance-like, stylised movements, while movements are frequently

interwoven with text. In addition to this, most of the traditions are characterised by their own specific

musical styles or genres. The acting technique, which employs dance-like body language, is usually very

intricate and it demands many years of arduous training, as western ballet technique, for example, does.

Therefore in Asia it is simply not possible to classify stage arts as nonverbal “dance” or “spoken theatre”.

In Asia, puppet theatre and one of its variations, shadow theatre, are often regarded as valued “classical”

traditions, whereas in the western tradition puppet theatre is, with only a few exceptions, regarded merely

as children’s entertainment.

In Asia there are dozens of important forms of puppet theatre. One could generalise that shadow theatre

usually represents the early strata of puppetry with a long history and religious or magical connotations. In

shadow theatre the silhouette-like figures are often cut from leather or other transparent or semi-

transparent materials and they are seen through a cloth screen while manipulated by one or more

puppeteers.

The interaction of puppet theatre and “living theatre” is one of the characteristics of Asian theatrical

traditions. There will be several clear examples in this book of how puppet theatre has influenced the

structure, acting technique and other conventions of “living theatre” and vice versa.

RELATIONSHIP WITH RELIGION

In western tradition, dance and theatre were separated from religion after the Middle Ages. In many of the

Asian cultures, theatre and dance, however, are still organically related religions and other belief systems

today. This deep intermingling of theatre, dance and religion makes it difficult to draw a sharp borderline

between dance, ceremonies and rituals, as will be apparent later.

The Preservation of Ancient Forms

In Europe there are only a very few, if any, really living ancient performing traditions. Western theatrical

tradition is firmly based on existing drama texts, some of which are over two thousand years old, but how

these texts were originally performed can usually only be speculated upon.

In Asia there is, however, an abundance of theatrical traditions with histories of hundreds, some times

even thousands, of years in which the performance traditions with specific acting techniques are also still

preserved. This may be due to the deep interrelationship with religion and rituals. Religious art tends to be

conservative in nature and changes of style are mainly avoided. Thus Asia is a treasury of traditions

representing different stages of the development of theatrical performances from stone-age rituals to

later, complex court performances and to modern, often western-influenced styles.

Most of these traditions preserve not only a literary heritage, but also an acting technique, costuming,

masks, a make-up system etc. that have retained much of their original qualities throughout the centuries.

BUNRAKU PUPPET THEATRE

Which is the most refined form of puppetry in the world, is a combination of three skill: Puppet

manipulation, joruri recitation and shamisen music, each of which requires many years of training to

master.

The dolls that appear in a bunraku puppet show are about half life-size. Their eyes move, their eyebrows

rise in surprise, their mouths open and shut and their hands and arms gesture gracefully and realistically.
Each of the principal dolls is operated by three manipulators who work in perfect unison. The manipulators

carry the dolls on to the stage and are visible throughout the play.

The chief manipulator holds the puppet from the back with his left hand by a special grip in the figure's

chest and directs the puppet's right arm with his right hand. The second operator moves the left hand and

the third, the legs. As a female doll has no legs as a rule, the third operator moves its skirt in such a way as

to create an illusion of moving legs.

CHINESE THEATRE

The classical Chinese theater developed during the Yüan dynasty (1260–1328). Springing from story cycles

made familiar by professional storytellers, These plays relied on romantic or sentimental plots. During the

Ming dynasty (1368–1644) the drama utilized the plots of popular novels. Until the 19th cent., Chinese

drama was not spoken in dialogue form; it was a mixture of music and speeches. Chinese drama avoids

tragedy but the stories often involve the deaths of women.

Although acting style, character types, stage properties, and other external features of Chinese drama are

highly conventionalized, there is great narrative freedom in the plays themselves. Chinese drama is more

social and less concerned with romantic love. Family and country are frequently regarded as of more

importance than the individual.

Chinese drama was written for a popular audience, and dramatic performances took place in virtually

every village.

Chinese drama has traditionally been regarded as an entertainment rather than a serious art form. Chinese

drama relies heavily on music, song, acrobatics, mimicry, and costuming; and third, the preponderance of

stock characters, such as the comic drunk.

In Chinese drama no attempt is made at realism; props and scenery are symbolic (for instance, a flag

represents an army); the property man is present on stage; characters at times directly address the

audience. Often only parts of plays are performed, or scenes are performed in arbitrary sequence.

Sanskrit Dramas

India is home to hundreds of living theatrical traditions. Some of them are archaic rituals that have been

cherished by small rural communities for several centuries, some are age-old classical traditions of dance-

drama

India also has an old and long-lasting tradition of full-length poetic plays, which are called Sanskrit Dramas

because they were written mainly in Sanskrit. In fact, however, they combine both classical Sanskrit with

Prakrit or different forms of vernacular languages.

The tradition was maintained for nearly 1 200 years, which makes it the longest continuous performing

tradition of any drama texts in the world. The tradition of performing Greek tragedies, for example, lasted

only about half a millennium, while the continuous performing tradition of Shakespearean dramas lasted

less than a century.

The earliest Sanskrit plays were written in the early centuries AD and they gradually ceased to be

performed at some time during the 15th century, when Sanskrit was no longer a living, spoken language,

and the Muslims had invaded northern India, where the tradition had been thriving.

IMPORTANCE OF ORIENTAL THEATRE IN THE PROMOTION OF THE HOST CULTURE

A theatre genre crystallised in classical form is an extremely sensitive and complex whole. It requires the

close co-operation of specialists in many forms of art and an unbroken tradition extending over

generations. It necessarily reflects the history and ideals of the culture that created it. Theatre has often

been called living history, and in Asia this is particularly true.

Many of the stories which are enacted with the most elaborate dance-like movements can have histories

stretching back hundreds or even thousands of years. Some of the ritualistic features and physical

techniques of performances reflect ancient animistic beliefs going back even further in time and, even

today, the performances can have a profound spiritual and symbolic meaning for both the performers and

their audiences.

As Asian theatrical genres are such complex constructs they offer exceptionally wide-ranging approaches.

They can be studied or observed from the point of view of literature, since they often enact great epics or

dramatic literature of the highest order. As they are usually accompanied by specific musical styles, they

offer material for musicologists as well.

Their complex dance or dance-like movement techniques can be analysed by means of dance research or a

dance anthropological approach, while the ideologies they propagate can be observed from a philosophical

or religious point of view. They also reveal much information about the social histories of their respective

countries.

However, as Asian theatre genres still preserve their complex, often physical, acting techniques, special

attention will be paid to the question of how the stories are actually performed, and which techniques

exactly are used in the process of enactment.