Exploring Noh Theatre

This free resource is one of a series of units, guidebooks and lesson plans for teachers of Theatre. Although written with the DP Theatre teacher and student in mind, it can be adapted for other ages and curricula quite easily. Resources are adaptable and can be shared with colleagues, but please do not remove the credit to Kieran Burgess and this website. A condensed version of this unit plan was adapted by ISTA and is available on the IB Exchange platform, and the original extended unit is available below.

Overview

Using the ancient Japanese tradition of Noh Theatre as a vehicle, this mini unit captures approximately 4-6 lessons of a potentially wider project to explore a world theatre tradition as a whole group. As a first-year, teacher-led unit, this series of practical and collaborative activities will give a sense of how students can approach their own independent research task on a different tradition. With elements of research, practical exploration, experimentation with traditional performance material and reflection on our development as learners, this mini unit offers ample opportunity to expand into a full practice run of the research presentation assessment task.

Teacher materials included in this set:

• Teacher Notes: Unit Instructions

• Presentation slides

Student materials included in this set:

• Handout 1: Kata of Noh

• Video 1: Extract from Oimatsu, performed by Tatsushige-sensei, Kyoto, Japan.

• Handout 2a: Utai from Oimatsu

• Handout 2b: Extract from Dojo-ji

Additional materials recommended by the teacher:

• A class set of ōgi - Japanese folding fans. Any cheap folding fans will do for this unit, but if you can get authentic ones for students to scrutinise it’s even better. If no fans are obtainable, simply using marker pens as substitutes will do.

• Optional set of tabi - the forked white socks worn by Noh actors. Can aid in the suriashi exercises if you have a polished wooden floor to practice on. Otherwise, most students’ regular socks do the trick if not too sweaty!

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This free unit planner is centred on students' practical exploration in the classroom

Rationale

This mini-unit on Japanese Noh Theatre aims to introduce IBDP Theatre students to this rich, historical performance tradition through teacher-led activities. This unit directly addresses the world theatre traditions and research presentation elements of the guide, and provides a platform for developing analytical and performance skills in a culturally diverse context. The lesson plans break down the tricky distinction between exploring and experimenting in the Research Presentation criterion B, and guides students through both distinct actions. By looking into Noh, students will also expand their toolkit for play text explorations, collaboratively created original theatre, or the application of theatre theory. The unit provides opportunities for both theoretical understanding and hands-on engagement, with the opportunity to reflect on learning. Students will be introduced to just a few of the unique aesthetics, conventions, and historical context of Noh Theatre. Through practical exploration and experimentation with traditional performance material, they will gain insight into how cultural traditions shape theatre practice.

Students will develop...

Knowledge:

• Introduction to Suzuki

• Introduction to Zeami

• Some conventions of Noh

Skills:

• Intensely channeled movement of Jo Ha Kyu

• Research & presentation of findings

• Kamae

• Suriashi

• Some kata

• Applying kata and suriashi to text

Conceptual Understanding:

• Jo Ha Kyu

• Role of the hara in performance

• The room for creativity in highly codified systems

Key tasks

The slides for this unit include detailed side-coaching, optional extensions and alternatives, and additional reading. Some key tasks, including additional useful information for teachers’ understanding are below:

Lesson 1

This lesson is about students understanding Jo Ha Kyu through personal experience, before moving on to some basic information about the tradition of Noh needed for the remainder of this unit. A mini research task ensures learning through inquiry.

Useful understanding for the teacher:

• Jo Ha Kyu, in brief, is similar to the Western idea of Beginning, Developing and Resolving, though deals with energy at every level rather than merely narrative structures.

  • Jo represents a slow and gentle introduction of energy. It can include the impulse thought that develops within the mind, and then the body, before manifesting through visible means

  • Ha involves a faster, more dynamic development - a quickening of the energy output

  • Kyu is a rapid conclusion or resolution. It can be a swift end to a movement or a sudden stop. The absence of output is as energetically intense and pure as the split second before it stops - dynamic stillness.

• National Theatre of Japan website is one of many good resources for the teacher to improve background knowledge on the conventions of kamae, suriashi, kata and Noh play text characteristics.

• Udaka Tatsushige is a Noh sensei based in Kyoto who has an excellent Youtube channel (only Japanese) - search Youtube for 竜成の会 tatsushige no kai - with many videos showcasing accurate use of these conventions.

Lesson 2

This lesson is about sharing research discoveries and using these as a platform for conducting practical exploration, beginning with kamae and suriashi practice.

Lesson 3+

These lessons are about practically exploring a selection of kata, and then experimenting with applying them to Traditional Performance Material (TPM), with two options provided for students to choose from.

Final lesson(s)

This lesson is about sharing the experimentation of the convention of kata and movement in Noh to TPM, and reflecting on how we have developed as performers.

Key assessment

There are no formal assessment requirements written into the slides, to allow the focus to be on skills and conceptual understanding development. It is expected that assessment and feedback are ongoing via observation and discussion, however there are the following opportunities for more structured assessment events:

• Presenting research findings in lesson 2, using criterion A, strand 2 from the Research Presentation (RP) task

• Practical exploration of the physical conventions can lead into an assessment of how well they explain this process and the learning moments they had from it, later. If so, criterion B, strand 1 from the RP would be a perfect fit.

• The sharing of a piece of TPM reflects the requirements of criterion B, strand 2 from the RP.

• The reflection on development as a performer reflects the requirements of criterion C, strand 1 from the RP.

In all of the assessment opportunities, the journal is central. Teachers are free to combine criteria or create their own for the purposes of this unit.

Exploring a World Theatre Tradition means more than learning another set of performance skills: it's to become deeply inquisitive about the fundamental mental models of a diversity of cultures, and how those models and cultures shape and are shaped by its traditional practices, such as theatre.

Links to the Theatre guide

• Exploring World Theatre Traditions

• Research Presentation

• Inquiring

• Developing

• Presenting

• Perspective of performer.

Links beyond the subject

• TOK: Do highly codified knowledge systems give us something that more fluid knowledge areas cannot?

• TOK: Is there a limit to the usefulness of knowledge passed down unchanged across dozens of generations?

• History of Japanese society.

Further potential development

• Research task could be expanded to include more conventions, and the background of the tradition itself.

• Practical exploration could be expanded to include highly complex and codified vocal elements.

• The reflection phase could be expanded to consider the role of Noh in Japanese culture - both at its peak and in modern day (linking to Research Presentation criterion C2).

• There is huge potential in transferring the conventions of Noh into other play texts - e.g. using Noh movement to inform the characterisation and portrayal of Claudius in Hamlet, linking in with the Staging Play Texts and Production Proposal elements of the guide.

• Similarly, deep dives into Zeami Motokiyo or Suzuki Tadashi as part of this unit could provide evolution into the theories of these men, connecting with the Performing Theatre Theory and Solo Theatre Piece elements of the guide.

Download your copy of the Exploring Noh Theatre unit for free here

The set is provided as a view-only Google Folder of Docs and Slides. Please download or make your own copy of any files you wish to edit. Do not 'Request Access' to the Google files as this will be ignored. Please feel free to adapt or add to these files, but please retain the credit to Kieran Burgess and this website. Please do get in touch if there are any broken links.

If these free resources have saved you some time and you want to show a gesture of thanks, I'd be so grateful for any small amount you wish to give!

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