DP Theatre Traditions

A stylized Chinese form of opera, in which speech, singing, mime, and acrobatics are performed to instrumentals.

A comedy that satirizes behavior in a particular social group, especially the upper classes.

The dhalang tells the stories of kings, princesses, ogres, and knights, using deft hand movement and narration. 

A form of traditional Japanese comic theater. An intermission of sorts between Noh acts on the same stage.

An improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theaters in the 16th–18th centuries, based on stock characters.

A single puppeteer performs a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters. Slapstick.

This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

It had the aim to make people laugh and has a tendency to be vulgar. No plot structure, just bits and funny moments.

The puppet master operates the figures with the aid of wooden rods 50 to 60 cm. in length, affixed at the shoulders

Featured six stock characters: the hero, the villain, the heroine, an aged parent, a sidekick and a servant. Love&murder

Story-telling dance narrating the eternal battle of good v. evil. Features a half-shaggy dog half-lion creature.

A lone storyteller sits on the stage, called the kōza, and uses only a paper fan and a hand towel as props. Long story.

Japanese traditional puppet theatre in which half-life-size dolls act out a chanted dramatic narrative.

To perform it, artists deck out in elaborate costumes and colorful makeup to tell stories from Hindu epics.

The dance is performed by a circle of as many as 150 performers wearing checked cloths around their waists, percussive.

A type of traditional small Thai puppet which uses three puppeteers working together to produce a character with movemen

Recitations of prose and poetry, dance, singing, and mime, with a certain emphasis on comedy (or, happy endings).

A type of storytelling or drama dance from Indonesia accompanied with music. Dancers wear masks and bright costumes.

It employs gender-crossing actors and combines topical humour with well-known fairytales. Music, slapstick, and dance.

They only enact their characters on stage by using expressive gestures and the whole vocabulary of Thai classical dance.

They told of subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, and the Last Judgment. Could last for days.

White screen on which are played the puppets is symbolic of the divide between reality and the imagination.

Known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.

Movement is slow, language is poetic, tone is monotonous, and costumes are rich and heavy. Dreams, ghosts, and spirits.

Korean dance performed while wearing a mask, mimicry, miming, speaking and even sometimes singing.