A cypress stage for Kyogen performers living in the 21st century
Vol.11 "The Heart Of Kyogen" in USA
Okura doctrine (Noh actor Kyogen style Okura style)
Walk briskly.
Put your hands in your pockets and walk with a long stride.
Twice or more than usual. I'm a resident of this town, and I walk as if this is my daily life.
People who go to town walk fast. Cross at a red light. Cars honk their horns without hesitation. The sound reverberates through the skyscrapers. They also have different skin and hair colors.
I am busy just walking. This is New York.
As shops and companies change with the times, how will New Yorkers view the Kyogen performance "The Heart Of Kyogen," which has inherited 650 years of tradition?
During his five-day stay in the United States, he traveled to New York University, Princeton University, Keio Academy of New York, and on the final day of his stay in Washington DC, held workshops at educational institutions such as George Washington University. This performance is a theater called "BRUNO WALTER AUDITORIUM" in New York.
The contents are as follows.
At the same time as the performance begins, a Kyogen performer appears saying, "Hurry up, hurry up," and the performance begins with "I'm going to New York in a hurry." Another Kyogen performer also appears, and they walk the streets of New York together, saying, "Hurry up!" Along the way, he introduces famous places such as "Who is that big woman?" While doing so, it is set that "No, I arrived at 〇〇 (venue name) while saying something", "Let's open the door of the venue", "Rattle rattle rattle ~ (sound of door opening)" and arrived at the site started with the intro. Although it is not a domestic production, it was specially made for overseas. This alone made the audience happy and laughed. Of course it has subtitles.
Our method is to give a lecture before the performance.
In Kyogen, the stage does not change the background and does not rely on sound or lighting, and the actors express everything through their lines and actions. Here we put in a performance and made it a quiz format to guess the actions of the actors. There were some that were hard to hit, but the audience was having fun while worrying.
And introduce the ′′ side ′′ that is also published in the flyer.
Kyogen masks are used to portray animals as well as gods and spirits. This reaction is the same in Japan, but the interpreter seemed surprised and asked us "Really?" many times.
It's just a little bit, but I got to experience it. I was happy that they actively challenged me with Kyogen stances and vocalizations. I think this point is a manifestation of the national character of wanting to deepen understanding by moving one's own body and experiencing it. There was also a scene where I gave a little service due to the excessive participation rate.
The performances are "Neonkyoku" and "Fushi". Both are easy to understand and are popular in Japan.
Subtitles are now the norm for overseas performances. I have known the organizer, Noh Society, for nearly five years. If the subtitles are not pressed at the right time, there will be a time lag between the performance and the laughter of the audience, so we carefully consulted and rehearsed how to fill this gap. Thanks to that, the stress I had until now was eliminated, and I was able to perform on stage very comfortably.
After the performance, I was able to talk about various things with the staff, which also serves as an after-party.
Lecture-centric or performance-centric? If possible, I would like to make it performance-only, but wouldn't it be better to include a lecture to deepen understanding? What is your style and what do you really want to convey? A heated discussion ensued. Based on this discussion, I would like to show an even more powerful performance next time.
Customers are of various ages. Some children are fluent in Japanese. Among them were students from Columbia University. I heard that he is interested in Japanese classical literature and medieval culture and is studying it. We were surprised to find that he was knowledgeable about fields that even we could not get our hands on.
Japan is a country with a long history and a diverse culture. That's why I feel like I learned that not only manga and cosplay but also various charms are scattered in each era.
