How about the role of women in the Kabuki Theatre of
Japan?
As you may know, that theatrical art form was
started by a woman but when the female performers proved to be as popular off stage as
on, the Shogunate forbid women from performing on stage. They did the same for young
boys who were also popular off stage. What to do? There were already many popular
plays with female characters, and as a popular entertainment having no female characters
at all wasn't going to be much fun for anyone.
Thus was
born the onnagata. The male actor who performs as an onnagata is
not attempting to impersonate a woman, but rather he is attempting to
capture the very essence of femininity.
You might examine
the female characters themselves in several plays, or, the role of the actor who plays
these parts.
As contrast you could look at the Elizabethan
Theatre which faced a similar problem and arrived at a similar solution. However,
Western Theatre eventually relented, the Kabuki did not. Indeed, although women perform
in kabuki plays here in the US, in Japan it is still an all male art
form.
See:
The Kabuki Theatre
by Earl Ernest
Theatre East & West by Leonard
Pronko
Kabuki Five Classic Plays by James R
Brandon
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