Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance

Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance PDF

Author: Jo Riley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-06-13

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780521570909

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This work gives an 'inside' view of Chinese theatre and the actor in performance for the first time. It challenges western theatre artists such as Brecht, Grotowski, Barba and Schechner, who have extracted from Chinese theatre elements which might enrich their own theatres. It is based on personal observations of and dialogue with Chinese actors, experiences which were impossible before 1980. Riley's study is well illustrated with photographs and diagrams and is accessible to anyone interested in theatre, even those with no knowledge of Chinese or Chinese theatre.

Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage

Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage PDF

Author: M. Tian

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-01-02

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1137010436

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The first book-length study in any language of the presence and influence of Mei Lanfang, the internationally known Chinese actor who specialized in female roles on the twentieth-century international stage. Tian investigates Mei Lanfang's presence and influence and the transnational and intercultural appropriations of his art.

Chinese Opera

Chinese Opera PDF

Author: Wang-Ngai Siu

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 9888208268

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Chinese opera embraces over 360 different styles of theatre that make one of the richest performance arts in the world. It combines music, speech, poetry, mime, acrobatics, stage fighting, vivid face-painting and exquisite costumes. First experiences of Chinese opera can be baffling because its vocabulary of stagecraft is familiar only to the seasoned aficionado. Chinese Opera: The Actor’s Craft makes the experience more accessible for everyone. This book uses breath-taking images of Chinese opera in performance by Hong Kong photographer Siu Wang-Ngai to illustrate and explain Chinese opera stage technique. The book explores costumes, gestures, mime, acrobatics, props and stage techniques. Each explanation is accompanied by an example of its use in an opera and is illustrated by in-performance photographs. Chinese Opera: The Actor’s Craft provides the reader with a basic grammar for understanding uniquely Chinese solutions to staging drama.

Chinese Traditional Theatre and Male Dan

Chinese Traditional Theatre and Male Dan PDF

Author: Guo Chao

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-01-31

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1000538966

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This book examines male dan, a male actor who performs female roles in Chinese theatre. Through the rise, fall and tenuous survival of male dan in Chinese history, Guo Chao reflects the transformations in the social zeitgeist in China, especially the politics of gender and sexuality. The breadth of this study reflects a diversified set of sources, ranging from classical to contemporary texts (texts of jingju plays, memoirs, collections of notation books) and other commentaries and critical evaluations of dan actors (in both English and Chinese languages) to video and audio materials, films and personal interviews. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of East Asian/Chinese studies across the fields of theatre, history, culture and literature.

Chinese Theater

Chinese Theater PDF

Author: Colin Mackerras

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1988-09-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780824812201

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This volume is the first concise introduction to the splendid variety of the Chinese theatrical tradition. It presents a rounded perspective on the development of Chinese theater by considering all of its major aspects—history and social context, performance, costume, makeup, actors, playwrights, and theaters—and by discussing all the major forms of Chinese theater, including the Beijing opera, which arose in the eighteenth century, and the spoken play, an entirely twentieth-century form. Its contributors are uniquely qualified to write about the Chinese theater. They have enjoyed an intimate relationship with their subject, both as academics and as theater workers, and they have combined a deep knowledge of Chinese theater with a high regard for its long tradition and continuing vitality. The book is intended for general as well as more specialized readers. Those with an interest in theater as a worldwide phenomenon and those wanting a new light on Chinese culture and society will find it equally useful. To those with a particular interest in Chinese theater, it will be a rich and important resource.

The Classical Theatre of China

The Classical Theatre of China PDF

Author: A.C. Scott

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1136575812

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First published in 1957. Besides tracing the history and development of the Peking Theatre, this volume explains acting techniques, stage costume and symbolism, musical forms and the various types of plays.

Chinese Theatre

Chinese Theatre PDF

Author: Jin Fu

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-03-09

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 0521186668

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Chinese opera has a history of over 800 years. However, since the early twentieth century, following increased contact with the West, drama without music has also become popular in China. The development and prosperity of modern drama has created a new landscape for Chinese theater, which, as a whole, has become more diverse.

Elite Theatre in Ming China, 1368-1644

Elite Theatre in Ming China, 1368-1644 PDF

Author: Guangren Shen

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9780415343268

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Theatre in Ming China represents a golden age of Asian performance, when an enthusiasm for theatre on the part of the national populace became a nationwide phenomena. Theatre occupied a particularly important place in the life of the elite, for whom owning a theatre troupe was highly fashionable and for whom theatre performances were an integral part of formal gatherings, various rituals and ceremonies. This book provides an overview of elite theatre in Ming China. It is based on an exploration of the original historical records, and includes comparisons with other forms of ancient theatre, and an examination of the details of theatrical performance.

Actors are Madmen

Actors are Madmen PDF

Author: Adolphe Clarence Scott

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9780299088606

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A. C. Scott's first visit to China in 1946 marked the beginning of a personal involvement with that nation's people and culture that would prove singular in its intensity, intimacy, and joy. Now, more than three decades later, an eminent Western authority on Asian theatre looks back on those early years of discovery in a memoir that is at once compelling drama and vividly etched history. This is an explorer's impressions of a world which few foreigners have ever seen and a scholar's unique depiction of pre-liberation China, its society, customs, and theatre, before the final curtain fell. For anyone interested in Chinese culture, history, or drama, or intrigued by the increasingly rare genre of travelogue, Scott's achievement will prove both enjoyable and invaluable.