The Comedy of Kyogen at UH

The East-West Center hosted a Discover: Kyogen performance on Sunday, March 26, with Kyogen master Doji Shigeyama. University of Hawaii Theatre students previewed an upcoming performance under the study of Shigeyama.

Outside of Japanese martial arts, I never thought of other arts as having “kata” (set choreographed movements). Kyogen has kata for many things like eating to make it easier for the audience to understand what is happening on a stage devoid of a set and props. The audience had fun with giving Shigeyama suggestions for modern day actions to improvise. The favorite seemed to be “shark attack.”

See the full Kyogen performance by the UH students in April.