The Stage Play Brought to the Streets in Asia

June 23, 2010 - PRLog -- Elaborate and intricate costumes were worn during the ancient times from Babylon to Egypt, Greece, and Rome then to the medieval times, Victorian era, until the 19th century. At the dawn of the 20th century, dressing became less elaborate and more practical. The same historical line can be traced for stage plays starting from the passion plays of Ancient Egypt to the tragedy, comedy and satyr plays of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, then to the classic English plays of William Shakespeare during the reformation era that continue to be performed until today. Since the plays performed during that time depicted their period, the costumes of the actors were no different from what was ordinarily worn by the audience including the make up.

Today, we refer to costume as a dressing style, including hairdos and accessories, characteristic of a historical period, a group or a nation that is worn during stage plays, masquerade balls, etc… Another concept of costume wear evolved from the influence of television and the movies showing animated characters and sci-fi heroes. It became a new craze to wear costumes of favorite sci-fi characters during masquerade balls and sci-fi conventions in the U.S. This new craze crossed to Japan during the 1980’s when the comics Manga and anime (animated) characters were very popular. This is how the costume play or Cosplay in Asia emerged.

Cosplay is almost like a stage play where the actors would role play their favorite anime, manga, sci-fi or video characters but minus the story line. A great amount of time and effort are devoted by the participant in preparing for the costume and make up including the movements and even the voice to make the character authentic. A semi-annual gathering of cosplayers called the Comiket is held in Japan during the summer and winter. But cosplaying in Japan is not limited to this semi-annual gathering only. You will see cosplayers on a regular basis around their cities especially in Tokyo just gathering together to admire and compare each others intricate costumes. They even have their own parks and cafes where they can comfortably observe each other’s work of art.

Cosplay continues to spread all throughout Asia including Taiwan, China, Hongkong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Because of its growing popularity, the Japanese organizers established an annual World Cosplay Summit where participants from different regional winners all over the world compete for the grand prize. This year’s Summit will be held in Nagoya, Japan and will be participated not only by Asian countries but from North America, Australia and Europe as well.

The cosplay subculture is seen to grow even larger through the online communities, and most of these communities come from the younger generation.

http://cosplayerhub.com/2010/06/10/cosplay-the-stage-play...