Festivals and Theater Arts of China, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand

THEATER
CHINA

 Chinese Peking Opera

 Also known as Beijing Opera
 Combines music, vocal performance,
pantomime, dance, and acrobatics.
 Stage Decorations
 square platforms, the action on stage is
usually visible at least 3 sides.
 Musicians
 Are visible to the audience on the front
part of the stage.
 Props
 Utilizes very few props, will almost always
have a table and at least one chair, which
can be turned through convention into
such diverse object as a city wall, a
mountain, or a bed.
 Styles of Music

Basically, the Peking opera has two main styles of

music:
 Erh-huang  Peking Opera: Orchestra
 His-p’l  Comprises about 8 musicians sitting on
stools in the far corner of the stage.
(These styles are very similar and the only
 Each performance in Peking Opera
difference is the key.)
begins with the ta-lo and sia-lo, a small
 His-p’l has lower sound than Erh-huang. and large gong and cymbals.
 They also utilize the technique called fan-  But some performance start with a
pan which is commonly used for sorrowful single skin drum or kettle drum.
songs, and is only sung by bearded  Costumes
characters.  Xingtou, popularly known as Xifu, in
Chinese origins of Peking Opera.
JAPAN Costumes can be traced back to mid-
14th century.

 Kabuki
 One of the traditions that is very popular
until today.
 Became the most successful theater
entertainment in the red light districts of the
great cities.
 Is consider the most important Japanese
contribution to World Theater.
 Stage Decoration
 Hanamichi- a flower path, a walkway which
extends into the audience via which dramatic
entrances and exits are made.
  Kogakudo- have stages both in front of the
audiences and along the sides help create
a bond between the actors and viewers.
 Mawaro- the interior of the theater
contains a revolving stage.
 Suppon- a platform that arises from below
the stage.
 Hanamicho- a walkway that cuts through
the audience seating area to connect the
stage with the back of the theater.
 Costumes
 Use big wigs and many different types
of mask to match the character they
portray.
There are two colors
 Red-excellent and means passion and
super human power.
 Blue- is considered to be a bad color
and gives a negative feeling that
articulates jealousy and fearfulness.
 Props
 Odachi- a broadsword more than two
meters long
 Gohon-kuruma-bin- a wig with appendages
like crabs’ legs
 Nio-dasuki- a decorative robe
 Odogu- the set and scenery
 Janome-gassa- an oiled-paper umbrella with
a bamboo framework, decorated with a
bull’s-eye design
 Sensu- a folding fan, which is an essential
prop
 Tenugui- hand cloths
 Wakizashi- shorter sword
 Hachimaki- headband
 Music
 The flutes of Kabuki are the transverse noh
flute (nokan) and the simple bamboo folk
flute (takebue).
 Both flutes are played during a Kauki
performance but only one player and they
are never used together.

 Noh
 Are unique and genuine expressions of the
Japanese spirit and culture.
 They mirror taste and ideals of different
environments and periods.
 Stage Decorations
 Stage open on three sides, and with a painted
backboard representing a pine tree behind.
 A sort of walkway, called the hashigakari leads  Costumes
onto the stage right position from an entrance 
doorway at right angles to the backboard.  Props
 Along hashigakari are three small pine trees, 
and these define areas where the actor may
pause to deliver lines, before arriving on the
main roofed stage, which is about six meters
square.

INDONESIA
  Shadow Puppet Theater
 A well- known Indonesian
theater popular not only
in their own country but
spread in several
countries around the
world.

 Wayang Kulit
 (in Central Java) one of the oldest
continuous traditions of storytelling in
the world which includes the use of
puppet materials and background
musical accompaniment to make it
interesting to the audience.
 Wayang is an Indonesian and Malay
for “theater”.
 Sometimes when the term is used to
refer to kinds of Puppet Theater the
puppet itself is referred to as wayang.
 Kulit means skin and refers to leather
construction of the puppets.

THAILAND

 Khon
 Is the name of traditional Thai
masked dance drama.
 Khon dance is the most stylized form
of Thai dance.

The most common form of khon in the 20th and the

early 21st centuries is “khon performed on a Western-
type stage” (khon-chak).
There are other types of Khon

 “Khon on a bamboo pole” (khon

rong nok) refers to an archaic
form of khon in which the actor-
dancers sit on a bamboo pole
while gesticulating to the
recitation of the narrators.
 “Court khon” (khon na jor) is a
kind of chamber variation of
khon.
 Lakhon
 Features a wider range of
stories than khon, including
folk tales and Jataka stories (
stories of the Buddha and his
previous lives.)
 Dancers are usually female and
perform as a group rather than
representing individual
characters.