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This paperback edition, incorporating corrections and updates, contains more distilled information on the theatrical arts of Asia-Oceania than any other single volume yet published. A broad-ranging pan-Asian essay lucidly explores the basic themes of ritual, dance, puppetry, masks, training, performance, while national entries provide the historical development of theater in twenty countries. Major theater forms of each country are accompanied by entries on significant playwrights, actors and directors. An index and reading lists make this work indispensable.
Masterpieces of Kabuki contains eighteen outstanding dramas taken
from the landmark four-volume series Kabuki Plays On Stage.
Together they cover the entire spectrum of kabuki drama from 1697
to 1905, the period during which kabuki's dramaturgy flourished
prior to the onset of Western dramatic influence. Major
playwrights, chronological periods of playwriting, and a variety of
play types (history, domestic, and dance dramas) and performance
styles are represented. All but one are in the current repertory
and regularly staged. The volume includes introductions to each
play and a new general introduction highlighting kabuki's
historical development and relating the plays to their performance
context. As the subtitle implies, the plays are translated as if
"on stage." Stage directions indicate major scenic effects, stage
action, costuming, makeup, music, and sound effects. In some cases,
complex stage actions such as stage fights are given in detail. The
plays collected here are all marvelous examples of dramatic
writing, intended to be acted on the stage before audiences. They
reveal kabuki's eras of brilliance and bravado, villainy and
vengeance, darkness and desire, and restoration and reform. All
continue to stir audiences to admiration and excitement.
Kabuki Plays On Stage represents a monumental achievement in
Japanese theatre studies, being the first collection of kabuki play
translations to be published in twenty-five years. Fifty-one plays,
published in four volumes, vividly trace kabuki's changing
relations to Japanese society during the premodern era. Volume 1
consists of thirteen plays that showcase early kabuki's
scintillating and boisterous styles of performance and illustrates
the contrasting dramatic techniques cultivated by actors in Edo
(Tokyo) and Kamigata (Osaka and Kyoto). The twelve plays translated
in Volume 2 cover a brief period, but one that saw important
developments in kabuki architecture, acting, dance, and the
manipulation of characters and themes. As the series title
indicates, the plays were translated to capture the vivacity of
performances on stage. The translations, each accompanied by a
thorough introduction that contextualizes the play, are based not
only on published texts, but performance scripts and the study of
the plays as they are performed in theatres today. Each volume is
lavishly illustrated with rare woodblock prints in full color of
Tokugawa- and Meiji-period productions as well as color and
black-and-white photographs of contemporary performances. Published
with the assistance of the Nippon Foundation.
An astonishing variety of theatrical performances may be seen
today in the eight countries of Southeast Asia--Burma, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
James Brandon spent more than three years observing and
interviewing troup members in these countries. He describes
twenty-five of the most important theatrical forms, grouping them
according to their origins as folk, court, popular, or Western
theatre. He considers the theatre from four perspectives: its
origins, its art, its role as a social institution, and its
function as a medium of communication and propaganda. Brandon's
wide-ranging and lively discussion points out interesting
similarities and differences among the countries, and many of his
superb photographs are included here.
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