African ritual drama

Q2. Pick a form of African ritual drama. What is the role of the actor in this performance form? What are her/his responsibilities? Privileges? Limitations?

Oral narratives in African culture has been described by Mzo Sirayi in “Indigenous African Theatre in South Africa.” In this article, Sirayi acknowledges that many people have chosen to disregard oral narratives as a worthy subject of study. However, Sirayi argues that indeed is worth looking more closely at. Sirayi explains that, “The time limit is determined by the language and artistic skills of the performer that captivate the audience. If the performer has the artistic ability to arouse the interest of the audience, the story is prolonged, but if the performer cannot sustain the interest of the audience, the performance becomes short,” (352).

Sirayi describes important aspects to the performer as language, voice, songs and gestures. Performers use these features of performance to portray their story, such as using a big voice or singing a song “to expose the culprit to other people,” (353).

In oral narratives the most important aspect of the performance is the story teller, who helps bring narration to action (351). The story teller plays all characters in the story and does not dress in costume. Due to the lack of advantages other performances have (actors, costumes, stages) story tellers use their voice to depict characters. Such as a deep voice to show a bad character, mumbling for stupid characters, etc. (351). How fast and how slow the story teller speaks is also important to the mood of the narration.

-Monica Strauss