• A chorus of musicians with three to four different types of musical instruments such as the shamisen and tsuzumi drum with about six to eight people "singing"
• Very little props and backdrops are used. In fact, the standard backdrop is only a single wall with a pine tree and small pebbles on it. Props are very minimal, but they play an important role in Noh plays.
• Usually, there are only about two main actors, and the progress of the play is determined by the position of them
• The personality and the characteristics of the main actor is potrayed through his or her costumes and masks the actor wears. By the way, the actors must wear at least 5 layers of clothing. Honestly, don't their shoulders crush under all that weight?
• Although the masks only show one type of emotion, through actions, the actor is able to present various feelings and emotions.
• Noh plays are very lonnnnnngggggggggg, but there are short intervals with a half an hour kyogen performance. Goodness! How long is one full Noh play??? What if you have to get up to stretch your legs halfway?? I can't even last that long in the cinema!! LOL.
• Music in Noh is usually very simple with steady drum beats and melodies. Like Chinese opera, in a way :)
• There is not much sound effect change in Noh, unlike Kabuki. Most of the time, the music and sounds are repeatitive and quite slow.
• Also, unlike Kabuki, Noh does not include too many instruments in the musical chorus because it focuses mainly on the actors, not really as much on the music,
• however, the music plays a really important role as well because the singing is the equilvalent of speech and the emotions presented by the actors and vocal chorus.
• The singing is slow, and quite melancholy, but in some Noh plays, it can be seemingly comical
• Some of the plays are adapted from selected literature prose into a "musical". But some of these stories are very deep and quite difficult to understand.
• Noh plays, like several other traditional Japanese performing art forms, include the following characters: gods, warriors, beautiful women, and various other figures (often crazy women or modern figures)
• One of the most popular Noh play would be Lady Aoi, which is based on the 11th century story of the Tale of (Prince) Genji.
• Random fact: Noh plays were often presented to the shoguns by their favorite concubines. The plays usually durated for 3 hours and some, even a whole day! Shoguns really knew how to live their lives huh! :)

Labels: art, history, japan, music, noh, theatre, timeline, tradition