ITTA Director Dean of School of Art, Tel Aviv University, Israel Zveka Thurber
《Chinese Elements of Traditional Japanese Drama》
I spent a long time in Japan, studying and learning all three kinds of traditional Japanese theatre styles: Nenju, Madhya and Kabuki. For me, it's a wonderful journey to understand traditional drama. When I first arrived in Japan, my first Japanese friend introduced me to "Taijiquan", so I started practicing Taijiquan. Through Taijiquan, I began to think about Japanese tradition, philosophy and thought, and began to read Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and the Book of Changes. I found that many elements of Japanese traditional drama were based on Chinese philosophy. The creators of Nengju, Mao Yan and Kabuki follow Chinese philosophy and build up the sound, action and stage image of theatre on this basis. In the book introducing the creation process of Kabuki in the early 19th century, we can see a lot of contents about Chinese philosophy - "Yin and Yang", "Tai Chi", "Five Elements" and so on, which are covered by a large number of Chinese philosophical elements. I have also explored and studied other elements of Japanese drama, but they all originated from Chinese philosophy without exception.
Taijiquan is the basis for the training of Japanese traditional performers. I listed some benefits of Taijiquan for the performers: adjusting breathing in sports, relaxing in sports, lowering and stabilizing the center of gravity, mobilizing body parts in continuous sports, and creating imaginative stage elements. There are some similarities between Suzuki method and Taijiquan training in the small theatre originated in Waseda, Suzuki method, Kabuki and Taijiquan, and some postures are apparently homologous.
Another very important aspect of Chinese art is about structure. Chinese classical music "Daqu" is divided into scattered order, middle order, breaking through (dancing all over), which is a typical "transitional structure". We can see the application of this structure on the stage of drama in China and Japan. In Japan, these stages are called "Preface", "Break" and "Urgent", which are also evolved from the Chinese Daqu structure spread to Japan in the 7th and 8th centuries.
The Chinese concept of "false and real" means the conflict between false and real, between false and true, between deficit and Manchu. In fact, "deficit" and "Manchu" are often used in Taijiquan movements. Therefore, these are also very important elements of stage art. As you can see, in the repertoire I created, some props will be used to refer to different stage meanings. By using some stage props, such as fans in Chinese and Japanese dramas, we can refer to very gorgeous intentions. In the deduction between "virtual" and "real", stage props and costumes can present completely different connotations. I also try to add totally opposing stage performances and totally opposing costume styling elements to the play.
In the original dramas of Europe, the United States and all over the world, we can see that some training methods and theatrical principles originated from China. So I hope that this kind of creation can be used in drama towns to establish an international training mechanism.
Speech by Mr. Zveka Thurber at the International Theatre Town Alliance Forum
(These contents are from the tape recordings of the speaker.)