Nearly there...
So busy!
The past few days of class have centered around learning the blocking and memorizing the text. I've got to say that on both accounts it wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined it would be. I feared that it would be a little overwhelming -- perhaps in part due to the fact that, at first, Japan itself was overwhelming -- but everything is turning out fine. It's actually quite a lot of fun to be able to do a piece I don't understand. I guess that's a bit of a lie. One of the other students in the program translated our text into English for us very early in the process, so I do know what I'm saying, but I certainly wouldn't be able to improvise if I lost my place. My favorite part of the whole process so far has been learning the interesting intonations and rhythms of the Japanese language, and more specifically, of the kyogen 'accent'. One of the girls in the nihonbuyo program sat in on the end of our class a couple days ago on a night that each pair of actors was running through the piece. She told me afterwards that I had done something peculiar. While rehearsing, I stopped to ask the sensei a question about a line and used my normal accent -- meaning, I guess, that I spoke the Japanese in a very American way. She said I used a hard r. However, when I backed up a few lines to run through the troublesome section again, I said the line with a surprisingly passable Japanese accent -- meaning, and I'm guessing again, that I automatically flipped over to the soft d/r sound that is so frustratingly difficult to pronounce. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that somewhere in the back of my subconscious, I'm learning the Japanese language. Hooray!
If you checked out my recent pictures you probably saw that I went with a couple of the other students to dinner with Doji-sensei at a tiny restaurant near the art center. It was fun. We talked about all kinds of stuff and argued about music for a while. He played me some crazy Brazilian stuff that I'll have to read more about when I get home. He also told his he dropped nine grand on a record when he was twelve. I wish I had that kind of cash to drop on music sometimes.
Last, but not least, I saw a bunraku performance in Osaka as part of my day off from rehearsal. There's some pictures of the backstage tour on my Flickr account. I think one of my favorite memories of Japan so far is seeing a particularly rough-looking puppet picking whiskers from his beard while his two minions got beat to a pulp by a tattooed puppet that had just gotten out of jail. Bunraku consists of the puppet teams (consisting of an unhooded lead actor who operates the head and right hand and of two black-clad hooded assistants who operate the feet and left hand), a storyteller who single-handedly provides the narration and character voices, and a shamisen master who provides music. It might sound kind of boring, but the puppets can be so lifelike times that if nothing else it's cool to see someone manipulate a puppet so masterfully. Oh, also, when the storyteller and shamisen player are (quite literally) rotated in at the beginning of each scene, one of the black-clad assistants gives them an introduction that is unintentionally hilarious. In fact, at this moment I find it difficult to describe the introduction because every time I think of it I giggle uncontrolably. Guess you had to be there.
~ 5 days till the recital...
The past few days of class have centered around learning the blocking and memorizing the text. I've got to say that on both accounts it wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined it would be. I feared that it would be a little overwhelming -- perhaps in part due to the fact that, at first, Japan itself was overwhelming -- but everything is turning out fine. It's actually quite a lot of fun to be able to do a piece I don't understand. I guess that's a bit of a lie. One of the other students in the program translated our text into English for us very early in the process, so I do know what I'm saying, but I certainly wouldn't be able to improvise if I lost my place. My favorite part of the whole process so far has been learning the interesting intonations and rhythms of the Japanese language, and more specifically, of the kyogen 'accent'. One of the girls in the nihonbuyo program sat in on the end of our class a couple days ago on a night that each pair of actors was running through the piece. She told me afterwards that I had done something peculiar. While rehearsing, I stopped to ask the sensei a question about a line and used my normal accent -- meaning, I guess, that I spoke the Japanese in a very American way. She said I used a hard r. However, when I backed up a few lines to run through the troublesome section again, I said the line with a surprisingly passable Japanese accent -- meaning, and I'm guessing again, that I automatically flipped over to the soft d/r sound that is so frustratingly difficult to pronounce. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that somewhere in the back of my subconscious, I'm learning the Japanese language. Hooray!
If you checked out my recent pictures you probably saw that I went with a couple of the other students to dinner with Doji-sensei at a tiny restaurant near the art center. It was fun. We talked about all kinds of stuff and argued about music for a while. He played me some crazy Brazilian stuff that I'll have to read more about when I get home. He also told his he dropped nine grand on a record when he was twelve. I wish I had that kind of cash to drop on music sometimes.
Last, but not least, I saw a bunraku performance in Osaka as part of my day off from rehearsal. There's some pictures of the backstage tour on my Flickr account. I think one of my favorite memories of Japan so far is seeing a particularly rough-looking puppet picking whiskers from his beard while his two minions got beat to a pulp by a tattooed puppet that had just gotten out of jail. Bunraku consists of the puppet teams (consisting of an unhooded lead actor who operates the head and right hand and of two black-clad hooded assistants who operate the feet and left hand), a storyteller who single-handedly provides the narration and character voices, and a shamisen master who provides music. It might sound kind of boring, but the puppets can be so lifelike times that if nothing else it's cool to see someone manipulate a puppet so masterfully. Oh, also, when the storyteller and shamisen player are (quite literally) rotated in at the beginning of each scene, one of the black-clad assistants gives them an introduction that is unintentionally hilarious. In fact, at this moment I find it difficult to describe the introduction because every time I think of it I giggle uncontrolably. Guess you had to be there.
~ 5 days till the recital...
posted by Matt Hooks at 7:44 AM
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