Japanese-style vaudeville, complete with authentic comedy, visual arts entertains at Elizabethtown College

Rakugo storytelling, kamikiri paper cutting masters perform

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kamikiri master Hayashiya Niraku

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (02/08/2014)(readMedia)-- Think of it as Japanese vaudeville, alive with storytellers, comedy skits and visual artists.

In a theatre style similar to traditional Japanese Yose, which means 'to draw near,' Elizabethtown College presents an afternoon of authentic sit-down comedy and paper cutting. The free performance, from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, in the College's Gibble Auditorium, is supported by an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) grant.

Yose, a way to entertain local communities, dates to the 17th century. The shows, performed on the grounds of temples and shrines, included rakugo (rah-ku-GO), a unique form of sit-down comedic storytelling, and, during intermissions, iromono, literally translated as "brightly colored things." Iromono tends to be flashy and holds the audience attention with other forms of types of comedy, music, singing and vaudeville type acts until the next storyteller comes onto the stage.

Borrowing from this tradition, Elizabethtown mixes rakugo storytelling with kamikiri (KAH-ma-kitty), an artful paper-cutting performance, and short skits presented by students of Japanese from Elizabethtown, Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson colleges. To remain authentic, the show is performed entirely in Japanese but includes English translation or Power Point subtitles. The College students, wearing traditional Asian garb, perform their traditional skits as a learning tool to practice their Japanese language skills.

Read the full story: http://now.etown.edu/index.php/2014/02/06/japanese-style-vaudeville-complete-with-authentic-comedy-visual-arts-entertains-at-elizabethtown-college/

For more information contact Nobu Takahashi at takahashin@etown.edu.

Read more about events at Elizabethtown College.

Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: http://www.etown.edu/about/

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