Tradition meets Tech<span style="text-decoration:underline;">noh</span>logy: Integrating Japanese Noh & New Technology in Shakespeare’s <i>Macbeth</i>

This paper addresses technical and aesthetic problems encountered in adapting Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the noh stage, used for the six hundred year-old dance-drama form. In July, 2009 the Noho Theatre Group created a dancing Witch and Ghost for Sleep no More, Lady Macbeth’s Nightmare by integrating motion-capture technology to create 3D computer graphic animations set to automatic choreography, which were then projected on a screen. Sleep no More, performed bilingually in English and Japanese, by noh and kyogen actors with modern actors and dancers, was given a public rehearsal July 17th at the Oe Noh Theatre, Kyoto. This paper examines the problems in screen placement, interaction of performers with technology, as well as performer’s reflections and audience reception.