"Lesson of Gio" a Japanese Bunraku Play from 2007

"Lesson of Gio"
A Japanese Bunraku Play
Performed: March 17th, 2007 at the "East Meets West" SCA event in Arn Hold.

Japanese traditional puppet theatre, in which nearly life-size dolls act out a chanted dramatic narrative, called joruri, to the accompaniment of a small samisen (a guitar-like instrument).

The Japanese puppet theater, Bunraku, flourished, like kabuki, during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), and appealed most to the people of the newly rising merchant class and other commoners. Its plays either concerned the conflicts in the daily lives of townspeople or presented the most exciting aspects of samurai life in historical dramas. Unlike Noh, with its subtle literary allusions and somber Buddhist undertones, bunraku expressed the Confucian values which were fundamental to the daily lives of its audience.

These three traditional dramatic forms, however, all share one major characteristic: their final form in performance represents a fusion of several different arts. The three main components of bunraku are the narrative, the music, and the puppets, and it takes a group of artists to bring them to life: the narrators, the musicians, and the puppet manipulators. In addition, there are the craftsmen who create the actual puppets. The beauty of a bunraku performance depends on the absolute coordination of its component parts.

This was the Dinner Theatre for our event!

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Narrator: Blaise Tourmente.
Gio: Auraelia de Medici.
Hatoki: Clare de Lacy
Kiomora: Ronan ta Rutalahti

Script adapted by Ivegard Sask.
Puppets, stage, and background designed/created by Ivegard.
Her web site:
http://www.wizros.com/scaindex.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• SCA
• Arn
• Hold
• Artemisia
• MySCAPhotos
• Boise
• Idaho
• Medieval
• Japanese
• Bunraku
• Play
• Gio
• Ivegard
• Blaise
• Ronan
• Clare
• puppet
• theatre
• theater
• doll