as small as a world and as large as alone, soilrockslove: chavisory: phoenixflorid: ...

9:15pm November 9, 2014

soilrockslove:

chavisory:

phoenixflorid:

housetohalf:

did-you-kno:

Ninjas don’t wear black. They used to disguise themselves as civilians. Unlike ninjas in movies, the real guys were smart enough to know that wearing a black outfit with a face mask wasn’t the best strategy for blending in. Source

But this leaves out the really neat part! The reason we equate the above image with a ninja comes from Kabuki theatre. Within Kabuki theatre there’s a convention of having Kuroko (stage hands) dress in all black (with a full face covering) and move around among the costumed actors in full view, moving scenery, props and costumes. In a similar way, Bunraku puppeteers dress in all black, and only the lead puppeteer’s face would be uncovered. The audience knew to ignore these people and focus on the actors, and to only see that the scene was “magically” changing. So when a play called for a ninja assassin to jump out of nowhere and kill someone, the easiest way to create the surprise reveal was to disguise the ninja in the all black garb of the Kuroko and to remove the face covering and start acting at the last second. This would shock the audience, who were conditioned to not focus on them. Pretty cool, yeah?

WHAT THE FUCK I THOUGHT “STAGE NINJA” WAS JUST A CUTE THEATER TERM FOR CREW. THERE WERE LITERALLY GOD DAMN STAGE NINJAS

!!!!!
I am embarrassed that I did not know this.

Oh wow! That is a really powerful use of stage hands! It makes me think of other ways you could use the presence of stage hands as *part* of a play. O_o

In our local presentation of Les Mis, they often had the people changing the scenery be people in costume. For instance, in a hospital, nuns would bring the hospital beds in and out and change it from an outdoor scene to a hospital scene and back. Most of the scenery changes were handled not by stage hands in particular stage hand wear, but by either stage hands or actors (hard to tell which) wearing costumes and moving things around as if it was simply part of the show.This was the best Les Mis I’ve ever seen, hands down, and it was all-local, all-volunteer. It makes me wonder what talents people have that you just don’t know about because they aren’t recognized in official channels as having talent or being stars or whatever.

chavisory:

phoenixflorid:

housetohalf:

did-you-kno:

Ninjas don’t wear black. They used to disguise themselves as civilians. Unlike ninjas in movies, the real guys were smart enough to know that wearing a black outfit with a face mask wasn’t the best strategy for blending in. Source

But this leaves out the really neat part! The reason we equate the above image with a ninja comes from Kabuki theatre. Within Kabuki theatre there’s a convention of having Kuroko (stage hands) dress in all black (with a full face covering) and move around among the costumed actors in full view, moving scenery, props and costumes. In a similar way, Bunraku puppeteers dress in all black, and only the lead puppeteer’s face would be uncovered. The audience knew to ignore these people and focus on the actors, and to only see that the scene was “magically” changing. So when a play called for a ninja assassin to jump out of nowhere and kill someone, the easiest way to create the surprise reveal was to disguise the ninja in the all black garb of the Kuroko and to remove the face covering and start acting at the last second. This would shock the audience, who were conditioned to not focus on them. Pretty cool, yeah?

WHAT THE FUCK I THOUGHT “STAGE NINJA” WAS JUST A CUTE THEATER TERM FOR CREW. THERE WERE LITERALLY GOD DAMN STAGE NINJAS

!!!!!

I am embarrassed that I did not know this.

Oh wow! That is a really powerful use of stage hands! It makes me think of other ways you could use the presence of stage hands as *part* of a play. O_o

In our local presentation of Les Mis, they often had the people changing the scenery be people in costume. For instance, in a hospital, nuns would bring the hospital beds in and out and change it from an outdoor scene to a hospital scene and back. Most of the scenery changes were handled not by stage hands in particular stage hand wear, but by either stage hands or actors (hard to tell which) wearing costumes and moving things around as if it was simply part of the show.

This was the best Les Mis I’ve ever seen, hands down, and it was all-local, all-volunteer. It makes me wonder what talents people have that you just don’t know about because they aren’t recognized in official channels as having talent or being stars or whatever.

Notes: