Mandalay, Myanmar 緬甸曼德勒
Myanmar traditional marionette has gradually disappeared from the scene under the development of modern entertainment. Myanmar Marionette Theatre’s members hope to revive this traditional culture through regular performances incorporating Myanmar music, dance, sculpture, embroidery, painting and other forms of traditional arts. Additionally, the troupe has been actively engaged with cultivating talents in puppetry as a means to continue this heritage while introducing it to younger audiences. Meanwhile, they are invested in bringing puppet arts into the community to achieve the goal of promoting puppetry education.
緬甸傳統懸絲傀儡戲在當代娛樂發展之下以逐漸消逝,Myanmar Marionette Theatre 的成員期望能透過定期的演出,並結合緬甸的音樂、舞蹈、雕塑、刺繡、繪畫等其他傳統藝術形式,復興傳統文化藝術。此外,團隊積極培育偶戲人才,以延續此技藝並吸引年輕族群認識和投入復甦的工作,同時也致力於將偶戲帶入社區,達成偶戲教育的意義。、地區的藝術家合作,發展並保存印尼民間故事和藝術的計畫。
Myanmar Marionette Theatre is dedicated to protecting Myamar string puppetry that is traditional and unique. Founder of the troupe, Ma Ma Naing mentioned, “art and culture are the most crucial aspects to a country. If we lose our traditional cultural heritage, our entire ethnicity may also disappear.” She believes that it is important to challenge modern entertainment and Western influence. New creations should be based on tradition. A nation’s identity, image and dignity on the global stage are also tied to its culture.
Traditional Myanmar marionette accentuates dialogues. It relies on using poetry to depict the scenes. There is no backdrop for traditional marionette performances in Myanmar. The show requires the audiences’ imaginations. Sound is the most important medium to draw their attention and bring out their imaginations as audiences in the past “listen to" instead of “seeing” the shows. Therefore, in traditional performances, narrators are more senior than puppeteers.
However, Ma Ma Naing noticed that contemporary audiences are no longer satisfied with the words, and focus more on the skills. As a result, Myanmar Marionette Theatre produced a modern performance based on traditional puppetry, and adopted pop music that was popular among young audiences. Some of their shows replaced traditional dialogues with music and they found huge success in such transformation.
Myanmar Marionette Theatre 致力於保護傳統且獨特的緬甸偶戲,Ma Ma Naing 提到:「藝術和文化對於一個國家來說是最重要的,如果我們喪失了我們的傳統文化遺產,我們的族裔可能就會消失了。」因此她認為對抗現代娛樂以及西方的影響是非常重要的,新的創作也是基於傳統,同時在國際上的身份、形象和尊嚴,也跟文化有非常大的關係。
仰賴「詩」去描述場景。傳統緬甸偶戲演出沒有布幕,必須完全仰賴抓住觀眾的想像,而聲音是抓住觀眾注意力、帶領觀眾想像的主要媒介,因為以前的觀眾是來「聽」,而不是來「看」表演的。因此傳統演出中,配音員會比操偶師更資深。
然而 Ma Ma Naing 觀察到現在的觀眾已經不再滿足於聽那些文字,而且也更聚焦在操作技巧。Myanmar Marionette Theatre 奠基於傳統偶戲,創作了一齣現代演出,使用在觀眾和學童之間很流行的音樂。有些演出則以歌曲取代傳統的對話,並發現這樣的做法很成功。
Myanmar Marionette Theatre’s performances can be put into three major categories: repertory, campus tours and performances at Pagoda festival.
The troupe will perform all night during the local Pagoda festivals every November. The shows are free and open to the public with usually thousands of audiences.
Myanmar Marionette Theatre’s repertory performances differ from low and high seasons. The low season spans from March to August, and the high season is from September to February. There are usually 10 audiences daily during the low season, and more than 20 audiences during the high season.
During the early establishment of the Myanmar Marionette Theatre from 1995 to 2007, they often visited different villages and performed all night. The founder Ma Ma Naing described those shows as very similar to ancient theatrical performances.
Myanmar Marionette Theatre 演出分為三大項目:定目演出、校園演出,以及佛塔節演出。
每年十一月地方的佛塔節,劇團會進行整晚的偶戲演出,免費開放給所有民眾看,大約會有上千名觀眾。
定目演出有淡季、旺季之分,淡季從三月到八月,旺季從九月到二月。淡季大約每天十個觀眾,旺季大概每天二十個觀眾以上。
劇團早期在 1995 和 2007 年間,會到許多鄉鎮去演出整晚的演出,創辦人 Ma Ma Naing 形容,場面就像是古代劇團演出的情形。
Myanmar Marionette Theatre has been receiving many invitations to perform internationally since 1998. They have visited Singapore, Taiwan, the United States, Japan and France multiple times for performances, and toured to many other countries.
In addition to international tours, they held an international puppet festival for the first time at the National Theatre of Mandalay in 2016 with workshops and performances. Later in March 2018, they held the international puppet festival at the National Theatre of Yangon, and invited artists from many different countries to participate.
Myanmar Marionette Theatre 自 1998 年開始就有許多海外演出邀約,曾多次受邀到新加坡、台灣、美國、日本、法國演出,以及出訪另外多個國家。
不僅經常受邀前往海外演出,2016 年在曼德勒國家劇院,第一次舉辦國際偶戲藝術節,活動包括工作坊和演出。之後更於 2018 年三月,在仰光的國家劇院舉辦國際偶戲節,並邀請多個國家共襄盛舉。
Photo Credit: Myanmar Marionette Theatre