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A Bunraku puppet troupe is coming to Utah with performances in Salt Lake and Provoto I believe. If you live in the area you should check it out, I believe the second performance is free....here's an article about it from the Salt Lake Tribune:
Artful Japanese puppetry coming to Utah
Becoming a master manipulator of the Bunraku puppets, which are about half the size of real people, is a lifelong pursuit.
By Celia R. Baker
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Tonda Japanese Puppeteer Troupe traces its history to the early 1800s, when a traveling puppet theater troupe ran out of funds in the town of Tonda, deserting its puppets and stage equipment. When the puppeteers failed to return, townsfolk began teaching themselves to manipulate the puppets. Help came from other traveling troupes, who shared their knowledge of traditional Japanese puppet theater, known as Bunraku.
Bunraku is an intricate art form that originated in the 1600s and is usually shared through generations of families, but a University of Utah college professor, Glenn S. Brown, spent last summer in Japan studying with sensei Hidehiko Abe of the Tonda troupe. The Tonda Japanese Puppeteer Troupe will perform "An Evening of Bunraku" Monday at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City using scenery designed and built by Brown, based on the scenic elements he observed in Japan. On Tuesday the troupe will perform at Brigham Young University in Provo.
Bunraku tradition has little in common with the puppets Americans know well -- Lamb Chop, Charlie McCarthy and the Muppets. Bunraku has its own body of traditional plays and a growing canon of modern works.
Becoming a master manipulator of the Bunraku puppets, which are about half the size of real people, is a lifelong pursuit. Three people work together in intricate accord to operate each puppet. Puppeteers start by learning to operate the feet of the puppets, and graduate to working the left arms. After many years -- sometimes decades -- puppeteers acquire enough skill to operate the head, face and right arm of a puppet. When three skilled puppeteers work together, Bunraku puppets can be astonishingly expressive as they perform the melodramatic plots of Bunraku plays.
"We'll be seeing one of the female puppets turn into a demon," Brown said. "The entire countenance changes, horns pop out of her head and things erupt out of the mouth. It's very dramatic for the audience."
During his trip to Japan, Brown learned how the puppets are constructed, and some of the secrets of their lifelike beauty. The puppet heads are of Japanese cypress with human-hair wigs, and the faces are painted with seven layers of oyster-shell paint, to give them a creamy, humanlike complexion, Brown said. Beneath each puppet's elaborate costume, a light wooden frame with loofah-sponge shoulders suspends the weights and machinery that make the puppets move like real people.
Puppeteers are visible to audiences during performances, but wear black clothing to fade into the background. On a smaller stage off to one side are two other performers, dressed in traditional costumes. One provides musical accompaniment on a three-stringed instrument called a khamsin, and sound effects. The other is the juror chanter, who sings out the stories -- in Japanese.
The audience will be helped to understand the plays with program notes and English explanations preceding each program segment, but Brown says these will hardly be necessary:
"Even if you don't speak Japanese, you will understand the stories from the intonation of the khamsin and the movement of the puppets, emotionally and physically."
For most Utahns, the performances of the Tonda Japanese Puppet Troupe will provide a window into a world they know little about. Brown and two colleagues in the University of Utah theater department had that idea in mind when they traveled to Japan to learn theater traditions such as Kabuki, Noh, Ketone and Bunraku. Brown, Richard Scarring and Jerry Gardner are passing along their knowledge in a University of Utah course called Introduction to Asian Theatre, now in its second semester.
One of the main thrusts of the class, Gardner said, is "to use art forms to present concepts and ides of other cultures to broaden the understanding of students and make them more appreciative and tolerant of the ideas of others -- and to give them a thirst to explore ideas from outside of their own settings."
Puppet masters
The Tonda Japanese Puppeteer Troupe presents "An Evening of Bunraku: Traditional Japanese Puppet Theatre" Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Libby Gardner Concert Hall on the University of Utah campus. Tickets are $12; $6 for students. Call 801-581-7100.
The performance will be repeated Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Nelke Theatre in the Harris Fine Arts Center on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo. The performance is free. Call 801-422-6340.
The article in it's original format and a photo can be found at http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Oct/10122003/arts/100778.asp
Artful Japanese puppetry coming to Utah
Becoming a master manipulator of the Bunraku puppets, which are about half the size of real people, is a lifelong pursuit.
By Celia R. Baker
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Tonda Japanese Puppeteer Troupe traces its history to the early 1800s, when a traveling puppet theater troupe ran out of funds in the town of Tonda, deserting its puppets and stage equipment. When the puppeteers failed to return, townsfolk began teaching themselves to manipulate the puppets. Help came from other traveling troupes, who shared their knowledge of traditional Japanese puppet theater, known as Bunraku.
Bunraku is an intricate art form that originated in the 1600s and is usually shared through generations of families, but a University of Utah college professor, Glenn S. Brown, spent last summer in Japan studying with sensei Hidehiko Abe of the Tonda troupe. The Tonda Japanese Puppeteer Troupe will perform "An Evening of Bunraku" Monday at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City using scenery designed and built by Brown, based on the scenic elements he observed in Japan. On Tuesday the troupe will perform at Brigham Young University in Provo.
Bunraku tradition has little in common with the puppets Americans know well -- Lamb Chop, Charlie McCarthy and the Muppets. Bunraku has its own body of traditional plays and a growing canon of modern works.
Becoming a master manipulator of the Bunraku puppets, which are about half the size of real people, is a lifelong pursuit. Three people work together in intricate accord to operate each puppet. Puppeteers start by learning to operate the feet of the puppets, and graduate to working the left arms. After many years -- sometimes decades -- puppeteers acquire enough skill to operate the head, face and right arm of a puppet. When three skilled puppeteers work together, Bunraku puppets can be astonishingly expressive as they perform the melodramatic plots of Bunraku plays.
"We'll be seeing one of the female puppets turn into a demon," Brown said. "The entire countenance changes, horns pop out of her head and things erupt out of the mouth. It's very dramatic for the audience."
During his trip to Japan, Brown learned how the puppets are constructed, and some of the secrets of their lifelike beauty. The puppet heads are of Japanese cypress with human-hair wigs, and the faces are painted with seven layers of oyster-shell paint, to give them a creamy, humanlike complexion, Brown said. Beneath each puppet's elaborate costume, a light wooden frame with loofah-sponge shoulders suspends the weights and machinery that make the puppets move like real people.
Puppeteers are visible to audiences during performances, but wear black clothing to fade into the background. On a smaller stage off to one side are two other performers, dressed in traditional costumes. One provides musical accompaniment on a three-stringed instrument called a khamsin, and sound effects. The other is the juror chanter, who sings out the stories -- in Japanese.
The audience will be helped to understand the plays with program notes and English explanations preceding each program segment, but Brown says these will hardly be necessary:
"Even if you don't speak Japanese, you will understand the stories from the intonation of the khamsin and the movement of the puppets, emotionally and physically."
For most Utahns, the performances of the Tonda Japanese Puppet Troupe will provide a window into a world they know little about. Brown and two colleagues in the University of Utah theater department had that idea in mind when they traveled to Japan to learn theater traditions such as Kabuki, Noh, Ketone and Bunraku. Brown, Richard Scarring and Jerry Gardner are passing along their knowledge in a University of Utah course called Introduction to Asian Theatre, now in its second semester.
One of the main thrusts of the class, Gardner said, is "to use art forms to present concepts and ides of other cultures to broaden the understanding of students and make them more appreciative and tolerant of the ideas of others -- and to give them a thirst to explore ideas from outside of their own settings."
Puppet masters
The Tonda Japanese Puppeteer Troupe presents "An Evening of Bunraku: Traditional Japanese Puppet Theatre" Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Libby Gardner Concert Hall on the University of Utah campus. Tickets are $12; $6 for students. Call 801-581-7100.
The performance will be repeated Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Nelke Theatre in the Harris Fine Arts Center on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo. The performance is free. Call 801-422-6340.
The article in it's original format and a photo can be found at http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Oct/10122003/arts/100778.asp
