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Paper short abstract:

The ongoing Covid-19 crisis stimulated noh-kyogen performers to attempt innovative methods of training, performance, and fan support. This paper examines tthree years of such experiments, and posits how the noh-kyogen world has been irrevocably changed by these strategies of coping “with Covid.”

Paper long abstract:

Noh-kyogen performers have proven their resiliency for over six hundred years of shifting patronage, artistic tastes, and technologies. Although already suffering diminished professionals and students for decades, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis stimulated noh-kyogen performers, producers, and scholars to attempt radically innovative methods of training, performance, and fan support. This paper examines the fruit of such experiments (and resuscitation of older traditions), and posit how the noh-kyogen world has been irrevocably changed by these strategies of coping “with Covid.”

As with performing arts around the world, March-April 2020 marked the beginning of widespread cancellations, postponements of long-planned performances. Noh and kyogen were especially vulnerable to governmental restrictions. As with most dance forms, archived performances, even with multiple cameras, lacked the aural and somatic intensity of live performance. Elderly disciples were unwilling to risk face-to-face lessons, or even travel to get to theatres, while the close proximity to singers’ and drummer’s booming voices were deemed too risky to even long-term fans. Kyogen actors attempting to bring joy in dark times found spectators’ reactions muted, both physically distanced and covered by masks.

Yet mostly younger performers began early on to engage in online, streaming of spectatorless performances, regular YouTube salons and live podcasts, and collaborations with contemporary visual and technology creatives. A surge of plays from the repertoire or newly written ones depicted historic pandemics banished through prayers and benevolent supernatural beings. Meanwhile unprecedent national and local funding enabled casting a wider net for new spectators, and luring reluctant regulars.

Meanwhile international fans and disciples found new ways of both watching, practicing, and learning. The Japan Foundation’s multi-lingual Stages Beyond Borders introduced traditional arts, reaching hundreds of thousands worldwide. For a fee, foreign students could study chant online, with scripts and etiquette lessons available. As educational tools, Hawaii, Singapore, and New York’s Japan Society produced recorded kyogen performances, providing English titles and interpreted talkback sessions.

After reviewing these desperate and deliberate ways of coping, I will attempt to assess fundamental changes may be permanent, including the rise of social media, online educational resources, reversed authority of seniority, and ongoing collaborations.