The Concept of Acting for Thai Traditional Singing Creativity

Abstract

This article is part of research “The Singing Creativity from Contemporary performance: An analysis of Longkeaw and Phaya Chattan” that aimed to use new singing techniques in the contemporary Thai performance: Longkeaw and Phaya Chattan whose music was composed by Sinnapa Sarasas from two Thai Classical songs, Oah Chartree and Oah Loam.
For these performances, I used two techniques from western theatre, characterization and interpretation in my singing. By characterization, I mean embodying the meaning and the feeling of the words I am singing. These common techniques used by actors work well to creatively engage and enhance the traditional Thai singing that I did in four songs from two performances, Long Keaw, The Bathing of Phaya Chattan, The Hunt and The Sacrifice. I used the characterization and interpretation techniques from acting to help me to understand the situation of the song and to deepen and provide nuance the complicated feelings of the characters in each song, so that I can express the feeling of each character in each song to make the traditional songs more dynamic and better
able to engage the audience.