Traditional Japanese puppet and mask show at the CCP on Feb. 12

Press Announcement:

Japanese and Filipino puppet and mask artists will perform at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Batute on February 12, 2013 at 3 p.m.

The Naoshima Onna Bunraku, an all-women community puppetry troupe from the southern Japanese island of Naoshima, will perform Bunraku pieces Dango Uri (The Dumpling Peddlers), Keisei Awa no Naruto Junreika no Dan (The Song of a Pilgrim scene from The Courtesan at Awa), while the UP Center for International Studies Bunraku Ensemble will present Ebisu Mai (The Dance of Ebisu).

The UPCIS Noh Theatre Ensemble II will re-stage Lapeña-Bonifacio’s prize-winning play Ang Paglalakbay ni Sisa, Isang Noh sa Laguna, as a Shinsaku (newly-created) Noh complete with dances, chants, drums with vocal music, costumes and a mask.

Bunraku is the traditional puppet theater of Japan and the Noh, a traditional form of Japanese theater involving music, dance and drama.

The show is part of PAPET AT MASKARA, a series of cultural dialogue activities, slated on February 10-17, between UPCIS performance groups and visiting Japanese artists to mark the 40th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan relations. 

In PAPET AT MASKARA, Japanese puppet and mask artists interact with UP University Professor Emeritus Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas, the UPCIS Bunraku Ensemble and other puppet troupes in activities such as a workshop, lecture-demonstration and public performances in UP Diliman and Los Baños, CCP, and Maestranza Park in Intramuros, Manila.

PAPET AT MASKARA is presented by the UPCIS in cooperation with Embassy of Japan, Japan Foundation Manila, Department of Tourism’s Intramuros Administration, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the CCP.

The UPCIS has been involved in promoting, among others, the study of Japanese culture and performance traditions in connection with its development agenda for the UPCIS Asian Theatre Performance Studies.  Under the leadership of Prof. Cynthia Neri Zayas, Ph.D., it offers a team-taught Japan Studies course conducted by several UP faculty who studied in Japan.

The UPCIS Bunraku Ensemble and the UPCIS Noh Theatre Ensemble II have participated in training-rehearsals in Japan through the facilitation of Amparo Adelina C. Umali, III, Ph.D., Japanese performance traditions scholar and associate professor of Japan Studies at the UPCIS.  The training-rehearsals formed the experiential component of Umali’s Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship to conduct research on Noh and Ningyo Joruri.

Aside from creating the UPCIS Bunraku Ensemble and the UPCIS Noh Theatre Ensemble, the UPCIS has organized workshops, lecture-demonstrations and colloquia as cultural dialogues that bring together Filipinos, Southeast Asian and Japanese culture-bearers of performance traditions.

For more information, please call CCP Performing Arts Division at tel. no. 832-1125 local 1607.