The document discusses the origins and forms of theatre around the world. It begins by describing ritual theatre and the transition from ritual to theatre in Africa, India, China, and Egypt. It then focuses on specific theatre forms within those regions, such as Noh theatre and Kathakali in India, Peking opera in China, and shadow theatre in Islamic cultures. The document notes influences between Eastern and Western theatre as well.

1. Chapter 12
Theatre Around the
World
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2. Ritual Theatre
An early form of theatre that uses theatrical
techniques like song, dance, and
characterization, but is still firmly rooted in
religion.
IraBlock/NationalGeographic
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3. Ritual vs. Theatre
 Theatre has an actor who plays a
character, who takes on a role portraying
another human being or even an animal,
object, or idea; theatre is artificial
 Theatre usually has a story with a conflict.
Conflict is the key to all drama
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4. Transition from Ritual to Theatre
 In Africa, ritual plays were passed down
through generations
 Mythological dramas were performed in
Bronze Age India
 Ritual performances took place during the
Zhou dynasty in China
 Records in hieroglyphics suggest theatrical
activity in ancient Egypt
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5. African Theatre
Precolonial Forms
 Grew out of ritual and employed acting,
music, storytelling, costumes, and dance
 Often used masks
 Audience participation required
 Concerned with religion and community
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6. African Theatre
Colonial Forms
 Early European travelers and missionaries who
witnessed African ritual theatre dismissed it
because it was so unlike anything they knew
 In the parts of Africa invaded by Muslims in the
seventh century, Islam’s antagonistic view of
theatre often reduced theatrical activity
 Later, in the rest of the continent, sixteenth-
century European and Christian invaders tended
to stifle traditional African theatre and establish
Western theatrical forms
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7. African Theatre
Total Theatre: Postcolonial Forms
Beginning with the independence
movements in the 1960s, an
amalgamation of indigenous African
theatre and European models created a
new form called total theatre.
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8. Wole Soyinka (b. 1934)
 Nigerian playwright who was the first African to
win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986
 Combines African myth and theatre techniques
with European dramaturgy
 His play Dance of the Forest (1966) celebrates
Nigerian independence but also warns against
returning to Nigeria’s violent past, the
“recurrent cycle of stupidities,” chronic
dishonesty, and abuse of power he feels were
caused by European colonialism
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9. Masks and Theatre
 Western actors rarely wear
masks, but they have been
important in ritual, religion,
and theatre for thousands of
years
 Some masks are decorative,
but others provide complex
symbolic meaning, helping
actors play characters and
allowing spectators to
identify the characters
WilliamMissouriDowns
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10. Indian Theatre
(Slide 1 of 3)
 The Natyasastra—An ancient treatise on
dramatic theory and practice dating from 200
BCE to 200 CE
 According to the Natyasastra, the divine forces
that sustain the universe wanted theatre to be
“religion for those who are religious-minded,
love for those who are amorous-minded,
knowledge for the ignorant, criticism for the
learned, a delight for the Gods, and a solace for
the afflicted”
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11. Indian Theatre
(Slide 2 of 3)
 Sanskrit drama—Uses Sanskrit, the oldest of
Indian languages, and tells stories based on
Indian myth
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12. Indian Theatre
(Slide 3 of 3)
 Kathakali—Indian folk
dance-drama based on the
Hindu poems Ramayana
and Mahabharata.
 During the British
occupation of India,
Western-style plays began
to influence traditional
Indian theatre.
HideoHaga/TheImageWorks
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13. Chinese Theatre
(Slide 1 of 2)
 Early influences on China’s ritualistic
theatre
 Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism
 Pear Garden
 School of the arts created by Emperor
Ming-Huang in 714 CE
 Music drama
 Established by 10th century but didn’t
blossom until the 1200s
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14. Chinese Theatre
(Slide 2 of 2)
Peking opera is a
synthesis of music, dance,
acting, and acrobatics.
 Stylized, precise acting
 Painted face
 Military and civil plays
The Communist Party and
Western plays have
influenced the style over
the years.
WilliamMissouriDowns
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15. Japanese Theatre
(Slide 1 of 5)
 Early influences on
Japan’s ritualistic
theatre include Shinto
and Buddhism
 Bunraku
 Intricate puppet
theatre in which
each puppet requires
three operators
JackFields/DocumentaryValue/Corbis
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16. Japanese Theatre
(Slide 2 of 5)
Noh Theatre
 Five types of stories for
Noh plays are deities,
heroes, women, insanity,
and legends
 Each play has a three
part structure – Jo, Ha,
and Kyu
 The Noh actors’
technique is a living
tradition and is passed
down from father to son
KoichiKamoshida/GettyImagesNews/GettyImages
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17. Japanese Theatre
(Slide 3 of 5)
Kabuki Theatre—Ka (song), Bu (dance), and Ki (skill)
A popular theatre form that includes elaborate
scenography, melodramatic acting, and special
effects.
MichaelS.Yamashita/Encyclopedia/Corbis
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18. Japanese Theatre
(Slide 4 of 5)
Three types of Kabuki plays
 History plays about major political events of the past
 Domestic plays about the loves and lives of
merchants and townspeople
 Dance-dramas about the world of spirits and animals
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19. Japanese Theatre
(Slide 5 of 5)
 Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) is
considered the Japanese Shakespeare; his
stories are often based on actual events and
scandalous gossip
 At the beginning of the 1900s, a modified
version of Kabuki called Shimpa (“New School of
Movement”) began to emerge that allowed
western realism into the performances and
moved the melodrama of Kabuki into stories of
everyday life
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20. Islamic Theatre
(Slide 1 of 4)
Shadow Theatre
 Because graven images are
forbidden in the Koran,
shadow theatre became a
way to tell stories
Western Influences
 Western-style theatre was
mostly performed in private,
but slowly plays were
translated into Arabic
WilliamMissouriDowns
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21. Islamic Theatre
(Slide 2 of 4)
 The Ta’ziyeh religious dramas of Iran are
performed outdoors and use live animals.
Scholars compare such plays to the religious
dramas that existed in Europe during the Middle
Ages.
 Ta’ziyeh plays enact the suffering and death of
Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet of
Islam.
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22. Islamic Theatre
(Slide 3 of 4)
Women in Islamic Theatre
 In 1915, Munira al-Mahdiyyah
became one of the first Muslim
women to appear on stage
 Western-style theatre is very
popular in many Middle
Eastern countries, and with
few exceptions (such as Saudi
Arabia), women are allowed to
act and direct
 Fatima Gallaire-Bourega is one
of the Arab world’s most
controversial playwrights
working today
Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
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23. Islamic Theatre
(Slide 4 of 4)
During the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan (1995– 2002), theatre
was outlawed and actors were often imprisoned. And yet,
soon after the fall of the Taliban, the Afghanistan National
Theatre returned to the ruins of the Kabul theatre and staged
a play about life under the Taliban regime.
RobElliott/AFP/GettyImages
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24. East Meets West
 Sanskrit drama strongly influenced the writing of
Goethe’s masterpiece, Faust
 German playwright Bertolt Brecht imitated the
Peking opera by having actors perform on a
bare stage.
 Kathakali and Kabuki influence the directing
style of French director Ariane Mnouchkine.
 American director Julie Taymor (The Lion King)
is influenced by traditional African, Asian,
Mayan, and Indian masks.
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25. Curtain Call
 Much traditional non-
Western theatre relies on
established conventions and
has remained relatively
unchanged for centuries.
 Non-Western plays often
appeal more to the senses
than to the intellect. But
Westerners can enjoy non-
Western theatre as long as
they open their minds to a
broader, perhaps more
accurate, definition of
theatre.
ImageEntertainment,Inc./Photofest
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or, duplicated or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.