Ritual Theatre Research Articles

‘High-Value Culture’ of Igal: Mirroring ‘DAKEN21’ Promoting ‘Malaysia MADANI’

This paper explores the igal ritual theatre practised by the Bajau ethnic group in Sabah, Malaysia, that is performed to heal for the community's well-being. This study focuses on the concept of high-value culture, which goes hand in hand with the thrust of 'Malaysia Madani' and National Cultural Policy 2021 (DAKEN21). The ethnographic method is applied through an 'inductive phenomenological character' approach involving descriptive research design exploration and case studies. The connection of igal ritual theatre elements and its meaning, high-value culture, and the concept of ‘Malaysia Madani’ will be highlighted to demonstrate the community's well-being and quality of life.

“Play You is [Me]!”: Third Space Rituals, Memory & the Performance of Self as Pedagogy

ABSTRACT This paper reflects upon an in-progress, exploratory piece of digital theatre adapted from Zeno Constance’s seminal bildungsroman The Ritual. In this work, Black women engage in a process of theorising liberatory practices to (re)cognise embodied technologies. inherent in their bodies. Herein I raise the argument that an arts-based research approach is a decolonising onto-epistemological undertaking with the capacity to make Black women cognisant of, extract, and apply the knowledges held in their bodies. This proposed process also allows for a measured consideration of the possibilities of using ritual theatre and embodied knowledge(s) in digital space as a means of analysing lived experiences, transgenerational communication and the imaging/imagining of futurisms.

A Research on the Origins of Ritual Theatre in Eastern Asia: The Associative Development of Chinese Nuo Theatre and Japanese Noh Theatre

As a region with a significant agricultural industry, the ritual theatre of East Asia played an important role in the early drama of its origins. In addition, the trajectory of the early agricultural and religious cultural interactions in East Asian countries was decisive in shaping their national cultural roots, so exploring the different developments of ritual theatre among different countries on the basis of the history of early cultural interactions can help to provide a more explicit understanding of the cultural development of ritual theatre in East Asia. This research explores the trajectories of Nuo theatre in China and Noh theatre in Japan, broadly in terms of both agriculture and religion, summarises the similarities and differences between the developmental routes of Nuo and Noh theatre, and analyses the causes of the contemporary phenomenon of Nuo and Noh theatre moving along different developmental routes.

Micro Partitions: Interrogating ‘Punjabi Refugee’ Identities

This special section on micro partitions follows ‘the reduction in scale’ from macro in national to meso in regional and micro in micro-regional histories in the field of Partition studies through focusing on micro-narratives of Partition from Punjab, a region divided between India and Pakistan after the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The focus of the essays is on affective memories of Partition in testimonies and cultural representations to examine the microhistories of displaced persons in micro-regions in West Punjab, including the North Western Frontier Province (Kohat, Bannu, Derajat), South Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur) and the Mewat region in India, resettled in metro and non-metro cities and towns in India, Pakistan and the UK, through the lens of microhistory or microstoria and affect theories. The section hopes to examine the Partition’s affective charge embodied in ‘vernacular’ languages and representational forms left out of print cultures, 1 which include both traditional genres such as ritual theatre, folk-songs, folk music, folk-tales and proverbs as well as contemporary ones like popular music, ritual practices, festivals and pilgrimage sites through which communities from these micro-regions have represented Partition’s collective trauma. It draws on the methods of microhistory to closely analyse narratives of small local events, communities and neighbourhoods in Punjab’s micro-regions and subregions to connect the stories of these small places and ‘little’ people with the macro-narrative or grand narrative of Partition, so as to inquire what microhistory can bring to the understanding of Partition, as well as whether the micro-narratives relate to or throw new light on metanarratives. 2

Igal Ritual Theatre: A Cultural Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Perspective

This study explains the spiritual aspect of igal ritual theatre. It justifies the relationship between the concept of Cultural Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the role of the igal ritual theatre in the well-being of society and the preservation of heritage. This research applies the ethnographic method through an 'inductive phenomenological character' approach. The result explains how the igal ritual theatre relates to the concept of Cultural SDGs presented by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). This study affirms that igal ritual theatre aligns with the agenda of the Cultural SDGs to improve society and preserve heritage.

Moved to distraction: the ritual theatre of the Fire Festival in Southwest China

ABSTRACT What does it mean to be ‘moved to distraction’ by ritual theatre? Each year the Nuosu, a Tibeto-Burman group of Southwest China, may be moved by their Fire Festival competitions, pageantries, and ‘extravaganzas’, but not necessarily by the Chinese nationalist elements within them. Simulating the pageants of Chinese megacities, Fire Festival extravaganzas meld Nuosu myth-history, animistic imagery, and ‘minority culture’ with the Chinese Dream of prosperity, the party-state’s efforts at generating cohesion, and the soft power of stadium rock concerts. Many Nuosu are abducted into the mood of performances that evoke what is archetypically human for them, including their myth-historical relationships to Tibetans and Han Chinese. But while some Nuosu may experience frisson and the giddy sense of being moved to distraction by spectacles that celebrate China as a socialist superpower, many turn away from ritual theatre that challenges their cosmopolitics and their sense of what it means to be human.

Play, Defiance and Imagination As Forms Of Knowledge Production : Examining Bidesiya As Folk Theatre and Its Pedagogical Implications in Classrooms Of Literature

India houses a number of folk theatrical forms that are simple and closer to the rural milieu. After the decline of Sanskrit classical drama in India, from the 14th to the 19th century, folk theatre emerged in myriads of rural languages. These theatrical forms can be categorised under two broad genres, viz., "Ritual Theatre" that was religious in nature, and the "Theatre of Entertainment," which was more secular in mood. One such example of the secular form is Bidesiya, the dynamic and popular theatre of Bihar. Bidesiya, like the name suggests, revolves around the "bides" / "pardes," i. e., foreign land / homeland dichotomy. Bidesiya emerged and was given shape by Bhikhari Thakur, the highly-acclaimed poet, playwright, and actor, and aimed at disseminating some kind of social message through the plays. Bidesiya also makes use of a plethora of folk songs that are rooted in Bihar's soil, and these plays were primarily performed by actors belonging to lower-caste communities. The most crucial aspect of Bidesiya is that this folk theatrical form is fundamentally radical and fluid in terms of how it deals with gender. Bidesiya showcases Launda naach — or the dance native to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that is performed by female impersonators — as a powerful theatrical technique. The present paper seeks to scrutinise Bidesiya as a gender-fluid folk theatrical form of India, and further explores the manner in which Bidesiya problematises the essentialist notion of fixed gender identity. The paper, therefore, begins with an elaborate discussion on the origin of Bidesiya, and moves on to study its various aspects, including the structure of the plays and the performers' troupes, the "men's" and "women's" folk songs which are associated with the genre, and the underpinnings of the staged performances. The paper then investigates the obfuscation of gender by the actors, visible in Launda Naach — the central element of Bidesiya plays — and the presentation of the songs, written from feminine perspective, by men. The concluding section of the paper highlights the pedagogical implications of Bidesiya and its relevance in classrooms, with a special emphasis on how gender is revealed as performative in the plays. Introducing Bidesiya in classroom education resists didacticism by promoting hands-on learning, creates a space for the students to locate themselves within the broad spectrum of gender identities, and also indulges imaginative voyages, as this paper will show.

Ritual Theatre Igal: Portrayal of the Ocean Realm Spiritual Self-Integrity of the Ethnic Bajau

This study explored the portrayal of the self-integrity of the ethnic Bajau in the ritual theatre performance of igal. The study's objective is to confirm a portrayal of self-integrity between the ethnic practitioners and the audience through the ethnography method that emphasizes the link between behavior and culture. The theoretical applications of communitas and liminality are applied to analyze how both aspects display the self-integrity portrayal of the ethnic Bajau in the dramatic structure of the ritual theatre igal panangsang. The findings affirm that the ritual theatre igal panangsang serves as the self-integrity portrayal of the ethnic Bajau of Sabah.

Deliberative color morphology in ritual theater performances

Abstract:
 The twentieth century, in which the development of structuralism and linguistics appeared, witnessed a very significant development after the publication of Susser's lectures, which took a great deal of translation into several languages in the world, hence the emergence of constructivist schools that produced many currents and approaches that analyzed language and searched for revelation About its secrets and concepts, which focused on studying its analyzes, contextual references, and external factors that affect the communication processes between the conductor and the recipient, which led to the emergence of multiple new currents and theories that scholars called a pragmatic term that they call the function of language and the extent to which our daily life is affected in terms of the levels of its differences. Where this research consists of:
 The first chapter (methodological framework): It includes the research problem represented by the following question (How can deliberative be achieved in a theatrical performance to reveal the deliberativeness of the color formation in the performances of the ritual theater), as well as the illusion of the research that lies for those who need it from specialized scholars and researchers, and the aim of the research. Research is to find accurate scientific foundations that can reach deliberative results in influencing color values, and to define terms and their definitions that are commensurate with what the research aims at.
 In the second chapter (theoretical framework the researcher devoted to studying the following:
 The first section is about negotiation and concepts.
 The second section: the foundations of color formation, its indications, and its functions in performances of the ritual theater.

Image of Spiritual Self-Integrity of the Ethnic Bajau in the Ritual Theatre Igal

This study explored the portrayal of the self-integrity of the ethnic Bajau in the ritual theatre performance of igal. The study's objective is to confirm a portrayal of self-integrity between the ethnic practitioners and the audience through the ethnography method that emphasizes the link between behavior and culture. The theoretical applications of communitas and liminality are applied to analyze how both aspects display the self-integrity portrayal of the ethnic Bajau in the dramatic structure of the ritual theatre igal panangsang. The findings affirm that the ritual theatre igal panangsang serves as the self-integrity portrayal of the ethnic Bajau of Sabah.

Ritual Techniques for Creating a Divine Persona in Late Imperial China: The Case of Daoist Law Enforcer Lord Wang

Lord Wang (Wang lingguan 王靈官, Wang tianjun 王天君) is a ubiquitous god in late imperial and modern Chinese society, worshipped in different contexts, including temple processions, exorcistic rituals, monastic ordinations, and elite spirit-writing cults. This article argues that his divine persona remains coherent in these different contexts, and that a reason for this coherence is that he is made present to his many audiences through ritual techniques (controlled spirit-possession, ritual theater, spirit-writing) that are closely related to each other.

Features of the actor's performance in the ritual theater (Iraqi theater as a model)

تعد ملامح أداء الممثل في المسرح الطقسي ذات أهمية كبرى ورئيسة في العمل المسرحي ومذ النشوء الأول للمسرح، إذ أن ملامح أداء تجسدت في كل العروض المسرحية العراقية إلا أنها أخذت الخصوصية الذاتية في بعض العروض الطقسية لما له من وجهات اختلاف وتشابه بين العرض المسرحي الطقسي والعرض الطقسي الخالص، والذي أراد الباحث معرفة نقاط التشابه والاختلاف في ملامح الأداء العرض الطقسي وفي العرض المسرحي، على الرغم من التحولات الكثيرة التي حدثت في المسرح وأثرت في ملامح الأداء إلا أنها بقيت حلقة وصل مهمة وجذابة بين المتلقي والمؤدي والممثل، حاولت دراسات الأداء التمثيلي تأسيس إطار نظري لتأثيرات الطقس وفقا للمنظور الثقافي المتداخل وفي ذات الوقت الاستجابة المسرحية الأوسع في الانتاجات المسرحية، اذ التشابه بين الطقس والمسرح لا يكمن في الناحية الشكلية بل في تأثيرهما في المتلقي، وعلى الرغم من خصوصيته لذا وجد الباحث ضرورة تبيان الطقس على علاقة بالمسرح وكيف يمكن ان يتبلور في المنظومة الادائية للممثل ، ومع أن الطقس لا يقبل التطوير لأسباب دينية ويبقى مغلقا إلا أنه يمكن أن يأخذ طابع الفرجة جزئيا بسبب اهتمام الناس به من خارج الجماعة المشاركة وهذه هي حالة الفرجة من الخارج التي تتمظهر في جملة من الاداءات الفرجوية التي تشارك بها المجموعة كاحتفالات المولوية وطقوس ضرب الشيش في الحضرة الرفاعية التي تلقى إقبالا من المتفرجين من خارج أبناء الطريقة

Performance Objects of Muḥarram in Iran: A Story through Steel

Abstract Some Muḥarram ceremonies in Iran today, such as taziyeh (ritual theatre) and dasteh (procession), often involve metal artifacts. They are commonly made of steel (mainly armor elements, arms, sculptures, and vessels). Many objects of similar types, generally without any historical data on their original contexts, are preserved in Islamic art collections. The present research proposes to identify these objects as Muḥarram performance objects. Based on two large collections (Paris, Musée du Louvre and Musée des Arts Décoratifs), this article aims to relocate them in their likely ritual contexts, especially those developed in the late Qajar period (from 1850 onward), and to look further into the past of their Safavid (1501–1722) models. Made of forged steel and inlaid with precious metals, these productions from the late Safavid period to the present day suggest the durability of some models with a strong visual identity and highlight the recurring use of this metal in Shiʿ⁠a devotional art in Iran.

Cahokia's Mound 72 shell artifacts

ABSTRACT Around AD 1050 at Cahokia, a sudden coalescence of peoples with new ceremonials and Mound 72's commemorative human interments provide evidence of long–distance contacts and finely crafted artifacts. Beads from the famous Mound 72 Beaded Burial have remained unstudied since they were unearthed-a strange situation given the importance of the Beaded Burial. This article presents results from my reexamination of all shell artifacts from Mound 72, including some new artifact identifications, bead counts, and measurements. Artifacts previously called gorgets are shell cups, and one was remarkably large. The source was probably the eastern Gulf of Mexico for most marine shells. I present a new method of examining bead drill holes using the frustum formula, suggesting that porcupine quills or biological materials were used as drill tips for columella beads. This method can be used on stone and bone beads as well. I hypothesize a general decline in bead crafting through time. Paired shell artifact emplacements throughout Mound 72 echo the paired male/female human interments from the Beaded Burial, adding to evidence that Mound 72's burials were part of a ritual theater. My analysis supports the contention that marine shell artifacts were symbolic conduits of human spirits and power.

The Ritual Play and Altered States of Consciousness: the psychophysical processes in actor creation work

ABSTRACT This article discusses the psychophysical processes of the actor from a laboratory practice developed with the Arkhétypos Group. The exposition presented is the result of the meeting of two researchers, one from the Performing Arts area and the other from Physiology, generating an interdisciplinary discussion about the Ritual Theater. This article analyzes two creative processes experienced by the authors and proposes an approximation with the theory of transient hypofrontality. The methodological approach is based on the anecdotal evidence and a rigorous bibliographic study. The partial results of the research help us understand what happens to the cerebral physiology of the actor who enters the ritual play.

Are Dalit Women Healers Allowed to Claim “Tradition”?

Abstract This essay uses Dalit women’s mediumship as a healing tradition that provides something of a “limit situation” from which to review basic assumptions about the varied ways in which we can understand what it is to “have” tradition—as an acquisition and inheritance that Dalit women enjoy like everyone else, but also as formal claims to value and recognition that are largely denied to Dalit women. Comparing Dalit women healers with male performers in ritual theater and more privileged healers in rural Tamil Nadu, the essay addresses dimensions of inequality comparatively neglected in studies of tradition as either constructed or invented within modernity. The essay moves us away from discussions of tradition that center on conscious claims to a consideration of the elements that mean that some traditions may never reach the level of being articulated as claims, let alone achieve recognition.

Being with Black: Windrush suitcase performance and Dramatherapy to meet with trauma, and dialogues about racism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

This article describes how the happenstance discovery of my mother’s 1950s Windrush Generation suitcase, led to a devised cathartic ritual theatre performance and a reimagining of my past future present. Acknowledging the suitcase as a heritage object, I hoped to safely locate myself with inter- and transgenerational trauma, and dialogues about racism in relation to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. First and foremost, this work is informed by Dramatherapy. It also holds in mind the research of Jungian analyst, Brewster, on ‘archetypal grief’, and the socio-political activism of Sharpe’s, ‘wake-work’. Its conclusion is twofold: First, that with the use of the suitcase within ritual theatre performance, alongside the devised metaphoric story and character of Black, I was able to accrue a significant means of resilience to meet with effects of racism worthy of further investigation. Second, that the performance provided a deepened dialectic and cathartic experience between performer and audience above and beyond cerebral language. Three stand-alone performances of ‘Being With Black’ took place at the British Association of Dramatherapists Conference at the University of Chester in September 2018, and later at the University of Roehampton, London in February and March 2019.

LIMINALITY OF IGAL RITUAL THEATER: A SOLUTION OF TULAH

This paper work delves into the igal ritual practised by the Bajau ethnic group in Semporna, Sabah as a form of a ritual theater. In the traditional context, the igal ritual is presented for healing from tulah for the community’s wellbeing. Other than that, igal is presented as a symbol of change of the practitioners’ ethnic social status through the experiences of the communitas and liminality during the liminal stage of the performance. The ethnography method is applied as a strategy that concentrates on the relationship between behaviour and culture. Ethnographers work hard to understand and separate the emic perspective from the etic pespective. The analysis of the igal ritual has been studied by applying the theory of communitas and liminality as coined Victor Turner. The aim is to analyse how the two aspects assert that the igal ritual as a form of ritual theatre plays the role in influencing the process of change of the social status and the culture of Bajau ethnic for the wellbeing of the practitioners. The communitas experience is faced by the practitioners of the ritual at the liminal stage, which is the stage where players are unconscious during the performance. Liminality and communitas are a stage where the state of mind is able to accept change or the proposed change that happens. This research outcome justifies the ritual igal as a form of a ritual theatre with a significant role in influencing the process of social interaction of the Bajau ethnic through both experiences communitas and liminality for the benefit of the people.

Pedagogia de si: poética do aprender no teatro ritual

Tecendo-se conexões multidisciplinares entre arte, filosofia e educação, as duas questões centrais que inspiram esse trabalho são: Que formas de aprender podem ser vividas no teatro ritual? Como o caráter improvisacional do jogo ritual pode nos fazer falar sobre poéticas do aprender, que fluem pela experiência? Tais questões se inserem no contexto de uma residência artística desenvolvida no México, a partir da qual se propõe neste texto uma elaboração em torno da ideia de pedagogia de si, que foi se desenhando nas práticas de improvisação realizadas nos laboratórios de criação da referida experiência. Entendida como uma poética do aprender característica do Arkhétypos Grupo de Teatro, a ideia de pedagogia de si emergiu em meio à construção da dramaturgia dos encontros, instigando um certo tipo de experimentação que se faz de si mesmo na relação que se estabelece com os outros.
 Palavras-chave: Artes Cênicas. Teatro Ritual. Improvisação. Pedagogia de Si. Poéticas do Aprender.

Ритуал і драма

The purpose of the article is to study the nature of the ritual relationship and theater on the example of the Muslim ceremonial theatrical performance of the Ta’zijah – the Shi’i passion play. The chosen problem caused the broad context of the study. In particular, the author draws attention to the peculiarities of the combination of ritual and theater in ancient Greece, as well as in the European and American culture of the twentieth century. In addition, the specificity of ritual and theater connections in other cultures, including Chinese and Japanese, is monitored. Considering the ancient ritual action in terms of theatricality and perception of the seen, the researcher turns to the artistic practice of the American avant-garde theater of the 1960’s and 70’s. Particular attention is paid to the influence of the Muslim ritual theater on the European theatrical culture of the twentieth century: the famous director Peter Brook’s impression from the revival of the ceremony in Iran in the 1970’s. At the same time, the author insists that Ta’ziah is practically impossible to adequately perceive outside the social, cultural and religious context. One of the reasons for this is that viewers become part of the action as well as performers, while a detached skeptical public cannot take part in the action which is deprived of faith. Focusing on contemporary non-religious tendencies in European and American theaters, the researcher comes to the thought of the German theater critic Ericks Fischer-Licht, who views non-rationality in the context of contemporary performative culture. In this regard, he resorted to the general characteristics of performative, outlining the ideas of Antonina Arto, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brooke and others. The research methodology is mainly based on the comparative method, which involves comparing the archaic rituals of different cultures from the ancient to the Far Eastern, as well as the features of the combination of ritual and theater in these events. An important theoretical basis for the study was the work of the performance theorist Richard Schehner and his mentor Anthropologist Victor Turner. In addition to cultural anthropology, the researcher uses the theoretical works of contemporary European theater critics, in particular Ericks Fischer-Lichte advocating the exclusive influence on the spectator of the ritual performance of the Ta’ziah. The novelty of the work. For the first time in a complex way involving a broad context, using a comparative approach, based on cultural anthropology and based on the study of art, the connections of ritual and theater have been investigated on the example of the Muslim ceremonial theatrical performance of the Ta’ziah. Conclusions. We have shown that ritual and theatre are not identical, though they may be similar.