The Stage
- The musician’s stage (Yuka)
This is the auxiliary stage upon which the gidayu-bushi is performed. It juts out into the audience area at the front right area of the seats. Upon this auxiliary stage there is a special rotating platform. It is here that the chanter and the shamisen player make their appearance, and, when they are finished, it turns once more, bringing them backstage and placing the next performers on the stage.
- The partitions (Tesuri) and the pit (Funazoko)
In the area between upstage and downstage, the three stage positions, known as "railings" (tesuri). Located in the area area behind the second partition is oftentimes called the pit and it is where the puppeteers stand in order to carry out the puppets' lifelike movements.
- Small curtain (Komaku) and Screened-off Rooms (Misuuchi)
This stage looks at the stage from the angle of the audience, the right side is referred to as the kamite (stage left), while the left side is referred to as the shimote (stage right). The puppets are made to appear and then leave the stage through the small black curtains. The blinded screens are just above these small curtains, and they have special blinds made from bamboo so that the audience cannot see inside.
Read more about this topic: Bunraku
Famous quotes containing the word stage:
“The Indians feel that each stage is crucial and that the child should be allowed to dwell in each for the appropriate period of time so that every aspect of his being can evolve, just as a plant evolves in the proper time and sequence of the seasons. Otherwise, the child never has a chance to master himself in any one phase of his life.”
—Alan Quetone (20th century)
“There are people who are so presumptuous that they know no other way to praise a greatness that they publicly admire than by representing it as a preliminary stage and bridge leading to themselves.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)