Download JAPAN Write Your Own Noh Play

Lesson Title- Do You Noh the rules?
Writing to form through mimic writing
Class and Grade level(s)
10th-12th Drama or East Asian Studies Classes
Goals and Objectives
The student will be able to: Given the conventions of an established theatrical form,
students will write to the specific requirements of that genre.
Time required/class periods needed
Five Block periods
Primary source bibliography
Video performance of ‘The Sugiura Kanze Noh Theatre Troupe performing- Miabayashi
(‘Takasago’), Kyogen (‘Kaminari’) and Noh (‘Aoi no Ue’) purchased through
www.4insight.com/NOH/
‘Kamasaka,’ ‘Eboshi-Ori,’ ‘Benkei on the Bridge’
The Noh Plays of Japan, translated by Arthur Waley
http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Noh-Plays-of-Japan/Arthur-Waley/TuttleClassics/9784805310335
Other resources used
All students while conducting their research will visit the following website which
diagrams the performance of Noh plays with accompanying video clips.
http://www.the-noh.com/en/world/index.html
Required materials/supplies
 Computer access to internet
 Sufficient number of copies of the aforementioned plays
 Writing materials
 Access to library
Vocabulary
Shite, waki, yuugen, kyogen, hayashi, jiuttai, koken, kami mono, shura mono, katsura
mono, kiri no, Mugen Noh, Genzai Noh, Geki Noh, Furyu Noh, Kagami-ita, Wakibashira, Fue-bashira, Hashigakari
Procedure
As with Elizabethan theatre andf Greek theatre, it is necessary to understand theatrical
conventions of a specific time and culture in order to fully comprehend the aesthetics of
the work. Students will use mimic writing to construct a surrogate intellectual
apprenticeship with a fictional Noh master. They should think of themselves as learning
a “craft” which they will perfect with practice. Encourage students to view this project in
the spirit of exploration from which their discoveries will bring them a sense of pride and
accomplishment. Students are to use the accompanying video and the websites to
construct an understanding of the art form of which they will imitate.
1. Display a Word Splash of the vocabulary. Inform students that these are terms
they will need to understand to create their own Noh play. They will likely be
confused, but assure them the words will make sense in time. Suggest that
words with like features may be grouped together. This will aid and direct them in
their study.
2. Divide students into groups of no more than four. Have students visit websites
and library with the task of creating a short presentation about what they have
discovered. Each group will search for a specific aspect of Noh theatre. The
groupings will be- History, Performance of major characters, Performance of
minor characters, Style and thematic impact, Performance of musicians and
helpers.
3. Students will give their presentations and provide proper definitions to the words
they discovered from their related areas of study. All the Word Splash words
should be accounted for.
4. Present the video of an actual cycle of Noh plays. Explain to students that as a
group they will be writing a cycle of plays themselves and in the tradition of Noh
they will compose their elements in isolation from one another.
5. As a class, brainstorm and chart what the practitioners of Noh theatre might
mean by the concept yuugen. Similarly have students chart out what they can
describe as the “meaning” that lies beneath the vicissitudes of their own lives.
6. As a group (assigning students roles) read the cycle of Yoshitsune plays. As an
extension to this activity, allow the students to improvise a “reader’s theatre”
performance of these plays incorporating the stylized movements, which they
discovered from the videotape and websites. Encourage them to try to adhere to
the tradition for which these plays were written.
7. From their previous brainstorming, as a class, have students create a skeletal
framework for a Noh play based on their own yuugen. This framework should be
detailed enough to serve as a guide for the respective writing groups but not so
detailed that these groups cannot exercise their collective creativity.
8. In the tradition of Noh theatre, divide among the groups the established roles of a
Noh theatre troupe. Groups will retire to separate spaces where they will work
on their assigned tasks. Groups should be divided into shite, saki, jiutai, hayashi.
In these groups, students will write the text and instructions for their respective
specialties. (As you assign them this task, inform them that Noh is a poetic form
that uses a rhymed form of haiku and that to follow this tradition would serve to
make their text even richer. Each group is responsible for incorporating the
“rules” (conventions) of traditional Noh theatre into the composition of their parta
of the complete script.
Assessment/evaluation
The final part of this study will provide the students with a valuable lesson in
collaboration and problem-solving. After all the groups have completed their tasks, they
are to assemble and put their text together according to the prescribed Noh
conventions. All groups are to have equal shares in this enterprise and should regard
each other as experts in their particular roles.
As an assessment piece the students will perform a similar “reader’s theatre” version of
their assembled work. Accordingly, students should type up a corrected version of their
script, replete with performance instructions.
Have the students write a detailed critique of their experience with emphasis on how
they thought their research informed their final result.