Kathakali theater tradition

Kathakali theater tradition

Why was Kathakali developed?

• Kathakali was performed at palaces and temples as well as religious festivals
• Kathakali is similar to the Ancient Greek theater, not only because only male actors can have role but because it pushes its audience to self-reflection.
• It was also performed in local communities as it was passed on from one generation to the next one. This theater tradition gives us the opportunity to understand the ancient traditions and the importance of it

Sources

Cultural and theoretical context

Hand gestures or Mudras

Conventions

More conventions

• Choreography is a key convention in Kathakali as it is a dance-drama. There are two type of dances, one aims at enhancing the mood and the others that are for stylistic purposes

Facial expressions(navarasas)

• An important convention in Kathakali is make up and each color symbolizes a different character in the story. For example the so called 'beard' reveals the character's underlying nature and behavior. The process of make up takes from two to four hours according to the complexity of the make up.
• Masks are also used to represent animals
• A stage in Kathakali is simple and can be transformed from a palace to a forest very quickly

Different hand gestures

The same hand gesture can have several meanings and the meaning can change if both hands are used

• 1) PATHAAKA (sun,king) (day, movement)
• 3)KATAKAM (flower,mirror) (arrow,gold)
• 12) Ardhachandram (sky,helplessness) (starting, smiling)
• 24) Katakaamukham (servant,hero) only double hand

• Gestures as previously stated do not always have a specific meaning
• Duration of gestures

3:00

• Kathakali is a traditional form of dance drama from Kerala
• The word Kathakali means ''story-play'' in Hindi
• The plays are based on two epic plays, ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata''.
• Kathakali combines acting, dancing, music, all this accompanied by musical instruments.
• There are about 101 stories in Kathakali and when they were created.
• The plays depicted the fight between the good and the evil

• http://www.zonkerala.com/articles/kathakali.htm
• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Kathakali
• http://www.kathakali.net/background
• http://www.cyberkerala.com/kathakali/mudra.htm
• http://danceclassonline.in/Kathakali-dance-Lessons-school-online-dancing-classes.php
• http://www.indianetzone.com/50/makeup_kathakali.htm
• http://blogs.osc-ib.com/2011/03/ib-teacher-blogs/dp_theatre/flooding-the-stage/
• http://www.kavitachhibber.com/main/main.jsp?id=masters_kathakali_rev
• http://abacus.bates.edu/~pbaker/india/index66e2.html?q=node/119

• Music is another convention that plays an important role in Kathakali as throughout the plays there are musicians that play so that the actor/dancer can dance and at the same time a vocalist that sings a specific melody to set mood of the story.

• In Kathakali, actors/dancers cannot express themselves in words so the gestures and the facial expressions need to tell a story by themselves in order for the audience to experience what Kathakali offers.
• The facial expressions are extremely important as they show the state that the character is into.
• There are 9 basic facial expressions that Kathakali actors use to show their emotions such as pleasure, sadness and fear.
• The facial expressions and hand gestures are very closely connected as they rely on each other to get the message across and need to be coordinated which is something that requires a lot of training which started at the age between 10 and 12 years old.

• Probably the most interesting and important convention in Kathakali theatre, the hand gestures need to be very effective as the dancer cannot speak, the lines are expressed through the Mudras. These help the audience convey the message of the play.
• The actor needs to optimize concentration as his eyes must follow the hand movements as well as the body movements.
• There are 24 basic hand gestures and about 470 symbols in kathakali in order to express all of the words needed. Although in many cases the movements do no necessarily symbolize something. (Kathakali dance-drama by phillip b. zarrilli)
• The training process is really intense and for a dancer to be considered completely ready and to have mastered Kathakali, he should be about 40 years old. This made me want to look deeper into this theater tradition as i though it would be a challenge to try something that needs several years of training.

Process on how to approach the text

• As years of training are required in order to be able to perform a Kathakali play, as a beginner, i took an extract from a text and looked up the different Mudras in order to find the correct hand gesture that matches the word that i wanted to use
• It is a really complicated process and it did not allow me to have a variety of choices on what i could use.
• Some movements are actually improvised as this was clearly a main feature of Kathakali

Impact on student

• The few lines that i acted out were a challenge as Kathakali needs a lot of concentration as well as coordination as the hand gestures require flexibility and close attention to what i was doing
• This form of theater is very different to what i have studied already and it gave me the opportunity to explore in depth a culture that i have not previously studied
• The way of acting is different from the Western type of theater, for example the actors do not speak at all
• A parallel although can be drawn with Kathakali, physical theater and Ancient Greek theater. Physical theater as well as Kathakali really depend on the hand gestures and the body language. On the other hand, Ancient Greek theater and Kathakali both aimed at self-reflection of the audience. Another similarity noted is that there was a wide range of audience(children, adults).
• Unlike Stanislavsky, Kathakali is a non-naturalistic form of theater and this is shown by having extravagant costumes and make up