World Theater Traditions: Kyogen

Today was the first day of learning about world theater traditions; we started with learning about Kyogen.

We watched videos about Kyogen and it was super interesting. In the video we watched it was 2 actors either facing each other head on or the audience. There were props: a bowl containing imaginary soup and a large stick. The way that they were able to utilize these props was impressive, especially the stick. They used the stick as a weapon at times and as a thing to hold an actor prisoner. There was a simplistic backdrop containing a tree and bamboo. The costumes were very colorful, bright, and had lots of patterns. I think that the main convention of Kyogen was either vocals or movement. This world theater tradition was very interesting because I could not understand anything they were saying and had to solely rely on their movements and facial expressions to understand the story. While I could not understand what they were saying, their tones helped to express how they felt and what was happening in the story.