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On the Art of the No Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami (Princeton Library of Asian Translations)

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Zeami, born in 1363, is the man to whom No theatre owes its form and soul - his writings on the No drama have shaped and determined it for over half a millenium. But his influences do not stop there - his ideas were highly significant to famed British director Peter Brook's productions (he would cite Zeami's concept of 'Jo, Ha, Kyu' again and again) and No drama has inspired countless directors with its attention to precise movement, its masks, and its almost spiritual approach to performance.
It is possible for a theatre practitioner to read Zeami's treatises and, as far as theory goes, never have to read another book. Zeami covers all basic aspects of theatre, for the performer from the necessity of constant physical training, to the inevitable consequences of aging on a performers career, to the concept of the audience as a participant in the show. The text of this book is drawn from a number of different essays, and Zeami does have a habit here of going over the same material again and again (it is quite possible that Zeami never considered the texts would come together as a single volume), but even so it is hard to escape the feeling of primal importance this book conveys. A needed text.