page_title: Theatre
section_title: Chinese theatre
hierarchical_section_title: Theatre / History of theatre / Chinese theatre
caption_attribution_description: English: Lijiang, Yunnan, China: Nakhi people carrying the typical baskets of the region; scene from a public perfomance in Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Open Air Theatre. Español: Mujeres Naxi llevan cestas típicas de la prefectura de Lijiang, provincia de Yunnan, China. Fotografía tomada durante una presentación pública en el teatro al aire libre de la Montaña Nevada del Dragón de Jade. Čeština: Ženy etnika Naxiů (纳西族) nesou typické místní nůše, scéna z folklórního představení v čínském Li-ťiangu (丽江) na pozadí Hory nefritového draka (玉龙雪山) Français&#160;: Des femmes Naxi portent sur le dos des paniers typiques de leur région, dans la préfecture de Lijiang, province du Yunnan, en Chine. Photographie prise lors d'un spectacle public de la troupe du théâtre en plein air du Mont enneigé Yulong. Polski: Kobiety z grupy etnicznej Naxi niosące na plecach typowe dla ich regionu kosze. Scena z przedstawienia pod gołym niebem w Lijiang, w prowincji Junnan, w Chinach. W tle masyw Śnieżnej Góry Nefrytowego Smoka. Português: Mulheres do grupo étnico naxi carregando cestos; cena de uma apresentação pública no teatro ao ar livre da Montanha Nevada do Dragão de Jade. Lijiang, província de Yunnan, China.
context_page_description: Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, typically actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον, itself from θεάομαι.
  Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature and the arts in general.
  Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre.
context_section_description: The Tang dynasty is sometimes known as "The Age of 1000 Entertainments". During this era, Ming Huang formed an acting school known as The Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that was primarily musical. That is why actors are commonly called "Children of the Pear Garden." During the dynasty of Empress Ling, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. There were two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Pekingese (northern) and Cantonese (southern). The two styles were differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods on the puppets, as opposed to the type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda.
  Cantonese shadow puppets were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather which created more substantial shadows. Symbolic color was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets' heads. Thus, they were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather (usually taken from the belly of a donkey). They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast a very colorful shadow. The thin rods which controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet then turned at a ninety degree angle to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside the shadow of the puppet; thus they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods attached at the necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the heads were not being used, they were stored in a muslin book or fabric lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce the possibility of reanimating puppets. Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the eleventh century before becoming a tool of the government.
  In the Song dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form known as zaju, with a four- or five-act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, one of the best known of which is Peking Opera which is still popular today.
  Xiangsheng is a certain traditional Chinese comedic performance in the forms of monologue or dialogue.
caption: Public performance in Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Open Air Theatre
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