Noh Notebook: June 2012 and on

It's just as well I'm at the 2012 Noh Training Project in Bloomsburg, Pennslvania. I'm an addict: I've only been away from Japan for 3 weeks and already the thing I miss most is live noh theatre. Whole afternoons shooting past in a twilight zone of stylised other-worldliness and serendipitous marriages of music, and story, and movement, and beautiful things to look at.

On June 24th, for the last time in a while, from my usual seat in the Kita Theatre, I watched and savoured an afternoon of professional noh theatre. Waki actors sitting in their spot at front stage left...

...waiting for the shite main actor to arrive onstage, often in disguise at first...

...but not for long because after the shite's real identity is revealed, the action really begins. Sometimes, gorgeous heartbreaking dances...

...and sometimes, a no-holds barred demonic sound and light show:

And then, there's the Ai Kyogen interlude actor who appears while the other actors get changed, and either sits and retells the story...

...or prances around to lighten the mood a bit

Ai Kyogen hoeing dance

Now, I won't have to suffer quite so badly now I'm at the only Noh Training Prject in America! Who would never have thought that the most noh you can get outside of Japan would be Pennsylvania? But that's where I am ad what I'm doing. Slightly looking forward to Friday,...in a good way.