This week we started looking at voice characterisation in Kabuki and have just started to rehearse the outline of the scenes. This first step towards what will become of the play really gave me a much clearer perspective of what we were aiming at and how much time we had to do it, because previously, when we were just training the body, the play still felt too abstract. In the production meeting on Saturday morning I realized just how much work has to be done by our whole team to get this played finished on time, and it certainly raised the stakes and the pressure. At rehearsals most people seem to have learned what they were taught during the physical body training, which is good because the positions and ways of walking are the foundations of what will become of the acting. Right now I don't know what to feel more challenged about, the production of the play, the research about Kabuki costumes or my acting role in the play, it all seems to have come together. In drama class i was surprised to find that we as a drama group were able to perform the warm up and then the physical exercises without much guidance at all, and to be honest I felt like we even worked a little bit better without anyone supervising because there is much less pressure in the atmosphere. While exploring the costumes used in Kabuki I realized that some skill would be needed to fold and make the costumes because they are not at all simple, it goes beyond the conventional costumes, and im not sure if were going to be able to manufacture such costumes very easily. The more i learn about costumes, the more i realize about their complexity. Little things such as the direction of the folds can express big things like differentiating the living from the dead for example, so these details are crucial in order to have a Kabuki-correct play.

How much has western culture affected Kabuki since the Tokugawa period ended?