EXPERIENCE OF PRACTICAL MASTERING OF ELEMENTS OF TRADITIONAL JAPANESE NOH THEATER BY RUSSIAN ACTORS

V. A. NIZHELSKOY

Higher School of Performing Arts under the direction of K. Raikina

Keywords: cultural exchange, Noh theater, form, content, KATA, KAMAZ

The technology of cultural exchange between Russia and Japan in most industries is quite well developed and time-tested. There is also such an exchange in the field of art, including theater, regarding acting and performing techniques.

Exhibitions and theater tours attract the interest of the general public and have a great public response. In 2013-2015, several important Japanese theaters toured in Moscow. For example, the Japanese troupe Seinendan showed the play " Three Sisters. Android version " at the School of Dramatic Art Theater; a small troupe of the Natori theater company brought the play "Godot Came" to the theater "Near Stanislavsky's House"; and, of course, the big event was the arrival of actors from the No Kongo Theater and their performance on the stage of the recently opened theater center "Cherry Orchard". Each of them revealed Japan in their own way. They differed in style, theatrical direction, and tradition, but they complemented each other as parts of a single, large whole - the heritage of great Japanese art. Undoubtedly, in the best performances of Japanese theaters, the spirit of Japan is present, and the audience can feel it. The performance is a result born in the creative search for stage images of a whole team of actors and directors. These images contain social, cultural, historical and other meanings. But how exactly do they manifest? Thanks to what techniques of acting? What does an actor's technique consist of? Understanding this technique can lead to a deeper understanding of the meanings and aesthetics that stage images carry.

At the end of January 2015, the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre opened in Moscow. One of his non-premiere performances was the play-journey, the play-parable, the mystery "The Blue Bird" directed by Boris Yukhananov. M. Maeterlinck's play became only the plot basis. Thanks to the director's imagination, the use of new scenes-

However, this story was filled with new colors. In some scenes, the director suggested using elements of traditional Japanese Noh theater.

A master class by Haruhisa Kawamura, master of the No Theater of the Kanjo School, was organized to stage these scenes. It was held in three stages during the year. Three times the master came to Moscow for two weeks to meet with the actors, the rest of the time the actors rehearsed under the guidance of the project curator*.

It turned out that professional actors with stage experience and special education knew almost nothing about Japanese theater. Moreover, in the survey of participants, the impression was formed that the majority perceive Japanese theater as a magical action based on the control of some mystical energy that helps to somehow establish a connection with the other world. Of course, this perception is the result of a superficial knowledge of Japanese and Eastern philosophy and culture.

Our development of the Noh theater began with a historical excursion to the origins of this theatrical tradition, and then we moved on to the study of the external technique of acting.

To the disappointment of the participants, Master Kawamura suggested that everyone start with the main KAMAZ rack and stand in it for 30-40 minutes. However, the worldview of our actors did not change from this, no connection was established with the other world, and no magical secrets were revealed either. Then we studied several KATA gestures and a dance from the play "Old Pine", which uses both KATA and basic movements. The coordination abilities and physical training of Russian actors made it possible to master them without difficulty. However, it turned out that, despite the fact that the dance was perfectly copied, our actors could not achieve a mesmerizing effect, as in the performance of the master.

The master again suggested starting with the basics, i.e. just stand in the KAMAZ rack and spend a long time in it. Apparently, the point is not in the pose itself, but in the fact that, standing in it, you feel balance, a special posture, the position of the hands, and, concentrating on the correct execution, thereby concentrating on yourself. If it is performed correctly, the essence of an actor of the No theater is acquired. Leaving the rack or losing concentration in it, the essence that it represents is also lost.

From the master's stories, we learned that even great masters of the Noh theater perform this stance for several hours every day to learn how to concentrate, focus, and control the form. To get into a state of form means to bring yourself to zero, focusing all your will on the potential opportunities that KAMAZ stores in itself. This ancient technique is used in all the performances of the Noh Theater, and there are more than two hundred of them.

The KAMAZ pose is, in fact, the beginning as such. This grain, which, on the one hand, has already been peeled from the husk and dust, has all the opportunities to germinate and give life, but, nevertheless, has not yet been planted in the ground, not watered. The whole mystery of life, trees, fields, forests, flowers and fruits-ALL hidden in one small seed. Probably, a similar effect can be achieved using other stands: from martial arts or meditation. However, it is KAMAZ, the pose of the theater But, that is its code. In this position, the actor's sensations are recoded. He begins to perceive himself no longer as an object of everyday reality, but as an object of the reality of No.

Mastering the KAMAZ stance and listening to the master's comments, we moved on and came across the next concept-KATA.

Kata-literally translated-is a form. The concept of KATA is found in all traditional Japanese arts. Kata - in the art of swordsmanship kendo, KATA - in the art of archery, in the tea ceremony, etc. Traditional Japanese arts are primarily a ritual. And the ritual is not intended to create the final product. The process itself is important. Who performs the ritual, he lives and all that it conceals in itself.

Generational experience is both

* Director and researcher of the Japanese theater V. Nizhelsky (editor's note).

there is culture proper, or at least its semiotic function. Ritual is the door that leads to this experience and leads to the space of culture. The rule or form of ritual is the key to these doors. Moving or acting according to a certain ritual scheme, a person, as it were, gets into the world of other relationships that have generated and determine just such a form and rules of action. It turns out that KATA is a psychophysical way to get into the cultural sphere of life. But since we have established culture as a phenomenon of generational memory, it is precisely the reproduction of KATA with canonical accuracy that makes sense. And, relatively speaking, the creation of any "own" KATA in this aspect will not make sense, since it does not connect anything and does not lead anywhere but to self-expression.

If we consider KATA as an element of the stage expressiveness of the No theater, then we can compare this concept with the usual concept of gesture in our theater. After all, a gesture in the theater is not just a movement, but the inner content embodied in the movement, i.e. a form of psychological and spiritual life of the character. And if you consider KATA as a gesture, you can find a great similarity in the game of actors of the Noh theater and Russian theaters.

As you know, in our theater, gesture and movement must necessarily be filled with emotion and action. Just demonstrating movements as signs is perceived as a play and a stamp in the acting game. But an organic, thoughtful, heartfelt performance of an actor can enliven and make interesting for the viewer any, even the most primitive, everyday gesture. And actors of the No theater should not just perform once and for all memorized movements, but be able to fill them with content, rhythm, and breathing.

One of the challenges in mastering Japanese traditional art for foreign actors and even novice Japanese actors is overcoming the pressure of form. Most often, this is due to the fact that the student only imitates, copies the form (KATA). Mastering the tea ceremony, Aikido, calligraphy, and dance is impossible without learning KATA. It is important to remember that KATA is not an empty form, but a meaningful gesture or purposeful movement.

Based on these principles and using the studied dance movements and KATA, we have created a dance that meets the tasks of the performance "Blue Bird". To do this, we performed a spectral analysis of the studied dances and identified the elements that make up them. These are three categories of elements: pre-game - gait, poses, KAMAZ stance, fan opening and closing, etc.; dance-transitions, turns, squats, jumps and their combinations; and game-KATA.

Having caught the choreographic pattern, the actors tried to immediately start honing the clarity and smoothness of the form. However, without all the content that was originally embedded in the dance according to the play, only the external form was obtained. And when working on creating their own dance in "Blue Bird" using elements of theater, but the actors, on the contrary, started from the content of the dance that they created themselves. This is a very important point. Using the plastic signs of the No Theater in their own works, Russian actors gained an experience of deep cultural penetration and exchange.

This experience made it possible not only to stylize several scenes of the play in the Japanese key, but also to trace the possible technology of applying Japanese theatrical aesthetics on the basis of Russian theatrical culture thanks to a detailed and thorough acquaintance with the basics of acting skills of the theater.

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