The Invisible Actor PDF
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The Invisible Actor bythesameauthors AnActorAdrift THE D~WD~Drn3[L~ ACTOR Yoshi Oida and Lorna Marshall Routledge Publishedin1997by PublishedinGreatBritainby Routledge Routledge Taylor& FrancisGroup Taylor& FrancisGroup 270MadisonAvenue 2ParkSquare NewYork,NY10016 MiltonPark,Abingdon OxonOX144RN ©1997byYoshiOidaandLornaMarshal Forewordcopyright© 1997PeterBrook RoutledgeisanimprintofTaylor& FrancisGroup InternationalStandardBookNumber-10:0-87830-079-1(Softcover) InternationalStandardBookNumber-13:978-0-87830-079-2(Softcover) Nopartofthisbookmaybereprinted,reproduced,transmitted,orutilizedinanyformbyanyelectronic, mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopying,microfilming, andrecording,orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthe publishers. TrademarkNotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregisteredtrademarks,andare usedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintenttoinfringe. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData CatalogrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress iii informa VisittheTaylor& FrancisWebsiteat http://www.taylorandfrancis.com Taylor&FrancisGroup andtheRoutledgeWebsiteat istheAcademicDivisionofT&FInformapIc. http://www.routledge-ny.com v Contents ForewordbyPeterBrook vii Preface ix Introduction xv 1 Beginning I 2 Moving 14 3 Performing 3° 4 Speaking 87 5 Learning 112 This page intentionally left blank vii Foreword byPeterBrook Itwas during the early days ofourworkin Paris. The group had beeninvited-tospendthe eveningwithsomemusiciansinthe jazz clubwhere theyworked inLes HaIles. Yoshiwas beside me aswe struggled to push our way through the only door into the small roomwhichwascrammedtosuffocation.Wewereallsqueezedand hustled on to the stage where the onlyplaces that remained were between the players and the brick wall. The music was not very interesting,theheatunbearableandyetitwasclearthatasguestsin fullsightoftheaudiencetherewasnowaywecouldleavebeforethe end. When, verylate indeed, the session finished and we dragged ourhot, sore bodies uprightwe realised thatYoshi was no longer withus. Howhehadescapedunseenremainstothis dayamystery - weknewthathewasaflesh andbloodcreaturelikeusall,soifhe vanisheditcouldnothavebeenbymagic,itmusthavebeenbyart. My father used to quote to me his old physics professor who often repeated: 'There are no phenomena thatcannot be reduced tonumbers'.Inourday, the tragedyofartis thatithaslioscience andthetragedyofscienceisthatithasnoheart.Whenwereadthe title ofthe great Zen master Zeami's book Secrets ofthe Noh the WesternmindatoncethinksofanOrientseenthroughth.emurky smoke ofthe opium den. In fact, secrets like mysteries are only vague and romanticwhen theyare unexplored. Yoshi Oida in this unique bookshows howthe mysteries and secrets ofperformance viii TheInvisibleActor are inseparable from averyprecise, concrete and detailed science learnedintheheatofexperience. Thevitallessons he passes onto us are toldwith suchlightness and grace that, typically, the difficulties become invisible. Everythingseemssosimple,butthere'sacatch:intheEastasinthe West,nothingiseasy. Paris, 1997 ix Preface YoshiOidaisunique. HisprofessionalcareerbegannearlyfiftyyearsagoinJapan.Asa childactor,heexploredclassicalNohtheatre,andmodemformsof expression, including television. As he grew up, he continued studying and performing various styles of Japanese traditional theatre(Noh,Kabuki,andGidaiyustorytelling),aswellasactingin Western-style plays. He also engaged in experimental work with theplaywrightYukioMishima. In his late thirties, he leftJapan for Europe. He had justmet a foreign director called Peter Brook, whose ideas about theatre seemed new and intriguing. Although Yoshi spoke no European language,hepackedhisbagsandgotontheplaneforParis.Despite the strangeness ofthis 'exotic' culture and itsunfamiliarapproach to creating theatre, Yoshi stayed in France, continuing to explore hiscraft.Overtheyears,hebecameamajorforceintheworkofthe Centre International de CreationTheatrale, participatingin most ofthe landmarkproductions, such as The Ik, The Conference ofthe Birds, theMahabharata, The Man Who. He has also acted in films, directed plays, and has run workshops for performers throughout theworld. I know of no one else who has this breadth and depth of performingexperience.NotjustEastandWest,butalsotraditional and experimental, text-based and improvised, film and stage,
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