Some fragments of conversation...

Entry #13
Work: Japanese Nō Dramas

Last night, I had the pleasure of speaking with my friend, Delbert, about Japanese Nō (or Noh, as he expresses it). He taught the discipline to drama students and actually went so far as to consider going to Japan himself to more closely experience it.

He characterized the performance as factual for the Japanese -- that when they see a nō character upon the stage, they truly believe they are seeing a ghost of the actual person. He related the meditation state that a shite must find before a performance so that he may truly be in character, become the character. I wish I had taken a tape recorder because, though we were talking first in a cold parking lot and then in a crowded pizza parlor, what I sensed from him was an intensity and a passion about the art that I could not convey with mere words here. I would have to transcribe his comments, as well as his body language in order to do it justice.

If one were to meet Delbert and not know his background, it wouldn't take too long before theater would be the first guess, and it wouldn't have much to do with luck, either. He erupted into spontaneous nō movements several times, and I was struck how closely I could identify them with the film we watched in class. We made a friendly pact to grab tickets if any plays were performed nearby.

One last thing: he mentioned that the intensity of the performance is often too much for the acting student to handle. Likewise, even the audience is deeply affected by it. This I can believe just from the few minutes of viewing in the classroom on a small television with poor sound. I really hope that we can follow through on the pact.

On to the rest of the plays, which we will be discussing on Tuesday...

Till later...