An Actor's Tricks (Performance Books) by Lorna Marshall & Yoshi Oida

Author:Lorna Marshall & Yoshi Oida [Marshall, Lorna]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury 3PL
Published: 2013-06-06T03:00:00+00:00

5 On the Stage

There are two or three hours of performance ahead of me. How do I get through them? By following a kind of map or itinerary. And this is what the rehearsal process is actually about: creating a good map. You rehearse in order to define the mise-en-scène, using the elements of space, character, action and thought. Then you follow this design from moment to moment as you perform. But each of these four elements is quite complex.

THE SPACE

For audiences, the theatre space itself can be very exciting. Unless you know exactly how the auditorium is set up, you never really know what space you will be entering. Maybe it will be a traditional proscenium arch theatre, but will it have a curtain? With more modern theatres there is a variety of stage forms and in some theatres the physical set-up can change from show to show. Will it be a thrust stage with the audience on three sides, or completely in the round? Will there be seats at many levels, or maybe no seats at all?

In Japanese classical theatre these elements are all fixed by tradition. The Noh Theatre stage was originally an outdoor platform made of wood, usually built within the precincts of a Shinto shrine. It later moved indoors and the audience was placed in fixed seating to the front and stage-right side of the auditorium. The stage itself has retained a number of features from its original outdoor setting. The main performing area is a raised wooden platform, usually between six to ten metres square in size. Despite being indoors, the stage is covered by a roof, and there is also a raised bridge-walkway (the hashigakari) as the main entrance to the performing area. This begins in the stage-right wings, and connects to the right side of the performing square. The stage platform itself is open on three sides and backed by a wall at the rear. On the stage left there is a short wall at the rear, with a low door set into it, then this side also becomes open. The Noh stage is effectively a three-sided thrust stage, with the audience sitting on two sides.

In the Noh Theatre there are two points of entry for performers. The chorus enters from the low door on stage left (which requires them to bend down in order to enter), while the musicians enter via the hashigakari bridge. After these performers are in position, the first actor appears at the beginning of the hashigakari and starts the journey of the play. The actors commence their performance on the hashigakari, but the main drama is carried out on the stage platform.

In the early Noh theatres, the hashigakari began behind the performing platform and came directly towards the audience. This created an impression of distance; of characters coming from far away to enter the space of the action and the audience. Although the hashigakari now proceeds from the side to the stage rather than from behind to

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