Architecture and stage of traditional Asian theatre

Abstract

Until the widespread usage of proscenium stages under western influence, theatrical performance spaces in Asia generally constituted temple, private and court stages as well as temporary and outdoor spaces. From the seventeenth century onwards, commercial urban theatres, such as Japan's kabuki and bunraku and later China's jingju, started to build public theatres. Some of these spaces, such as the noh, kabuki and bunraku stages, have maintained premodern designs until today, while others, such as China's teahouse theatres or most private and court stages throughout Asia, have yielded to the proscenium stages since the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter discusses the history and structure of performance spaces in India, China, Japan and Southeast Asia.