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2007.10.5 |
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 | Artist interview collection from this website, Energizing Japanese Culture: The Performing Arts in Japan, released! |
| | Since going online in December 2004, this website, Japan Foundation’s “Performing Arts Network Japan” has posted a new interview with a Japanese artist each month. Taking the 30th update of website this summer as an appropriate occasion a collection of the first 30 artist interviews has been compiled into a book that is being published on October 10 from the publisher Suiyosha Inc. The contents of the interviews have been edited to some degree and the result is a collection that we believe presents a vivid cross-section of the depth and vitality of Japan’s contemporary culture and the great diversity of expression it encompasses, while also offering a definitive overview of what is happening in today’s performing arts scene. This book will be sold in bookstores throughout Japan. For orders or inquiries about this book from overseas, contact the editorial department of Performing Arts Network Japan at: (info@performingarts.jp).
| + | Energizing Japanese Culture: The Performing Arts in Japan
(Performing Arts ni miru – Nihonjin no Bunkaryoku)
Messages for the world from 30 leading artists in field ranging from the traditional Japanese arts to contemporary dance
Editorial Review: From the World Heritage traditional arts of Noh and Kabuki theater to Japanese traditional music, theater and contemporary dance, the performing arts of Japan today are world renowned for their diversity and depth of expression and living proof of the cultural dynamism of the Japanese. Here are in-depth interviews with 30 artists who speak to the world.
The artists (In order of appearance in the book)
Mansai Nomura/ Kazuyoshi Kushida/ Kojun Arai/ Oriza Hirata/ Hironori Naito/ Go Aoki/ Harue Yamagata/ Kazuki Nakashima/ Kim Ito/ Sakiko Oshima/ Toshie Tanaka/ Michiyo Yagi/ Norihiko Tsukuda/ Daisuke Miura/ Kanjuro Fujima/ Shigehiro Ide/ Ai Nagai/ Yukihiro Isso/ Yukichi Matsumoto/ Toshiki Okada/ Ikuyo Kuroda/ Yukio Ninagawa/ Shuichi Hidano/ Akaji Maro/ Ryohei Kondo/ Keishi Nagatsuka/ Yoshihiro Kurita/ Yoji Sakate/ Hiromitsu Agatsuma/ Jo Kanamori
Publisher: Suiyosha Inc.
Supervision: Japan Foundation
Editing: Institute for the Arts
Size: A5 size, 344 pages
Price: 2800 yen plus tax |
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| Setagaya Public Theater announces 10th Anniversary Program |
| | The Setagaya Public Theater that this year celebrates the 10th anniversary of its opening in 2007 has come to be known as a leading theater on the performing arts scene for its programs in the area of foreign collaborations and introduction of foreign theater productions in Japan, as well as for its activities in the field of contemporary dance. Among the theater’s recently announced 10th anniversary programs begin with the Kyogen play Okina, Sanbaso by the Mansaku no Kai company, a re-staged production of AOI/KOMACHI, an adaptation of a traditional Noh play, a new play Kuninusubito based on Shakespeare’s Richard III and its fourth Kyogen Theater series and more. It is clearly a schedule focused with works combining the traditional and the contemporary in a style of the theater’s artistic director, the Kyogen actor Mansai Nomura. It has been decided that Nomura will continue in his position of artistic director for the next 5-year term.
| + | Setagaya Public Theater announces 10th Anniversary main programs (as of March, 2007)
Apr. 5-8: Okina, Sanbaso
Apr. 11-15: Contemporary Noh Plays I AOI/KOMACHI (written and directed by Takeshi Kawamura)
May 11-27: Death Variations (by Jon Fosse, directed by Antoine Caubet)
May 15, 19, 20: Nogaku Gendaikei Gekijoban@Setagaya (directed by Mansai Nomura)
June-July: Kuninusubito (adapted by Shoichiro Kawai from Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by Mansai Nomura) |
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| 2007/2008 season lineup celebrating the 10th anniversary of the New National Theatre, Tokyo announced |
| | The 2007/2008 season lineup has been announced for the New National Theatre, Tokyo, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2007. Attention is focused on a series of performances for the New National Theatre 10th Anniversary Festival and other special performances including new productions of classic favorites Wagner’s Tannhauser, Weber’s Der Freischutz in the opera department (new artistic director: Hiroshi Wakasugi). From the ballet department (artistic director: Asami Maki) there will a production of Asami Maki’s La Dame aux Camélias composed around the music of Berlioz and a return-home performance of the Raymonda and Mixed Program that received such excellent reviews in the 2006 performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the U.S. From the contemporary dance department there will be two pieces by Saburo Teshigawara and several new projects now in production. From the theater department with its new artistic director Hitoshi Uyama there will be seven new plays presented on the themes of “Re-creating Grand Sagas,” “Rediscovering New Theater,” “Asian Encounters” and “Contemporaries.” There will also be a “Three Tragedies” series including a production of The White House on Argos Hill (tentative title) written by Takeshi Kawamura and directed by Hitoshi Uyama, a Japan-Korea joint production of “Yakiniku Dragon” (tentative title) written by Wi Shing Chong and directed by Jung Ung Yang and Wi Shing Chong and a “Contemporaries” series of three plays of young playwrights and veteran directors at the small theater.
2007/2008 Season Lineup
| + | Theater
Sep.-Dec., 2007 Play House Three Series
(New National Theater 10th Anniversary Performances)
Three Tragedies from Greece—The Ancient to the Present, Connecting the Contemporary to the Future: The beginning of Story
Sep.-Oct., 2007 Three Tragedies—From Greece Vol. 1
New work The White House on Argos Hill (tentative title)
Playwright by Takeshi Kawamura
Directed by: Hitoshi Uyama
Oct.-Nov., 2007 Three Tragedies—From Greece Vol. 2
New work
Playwright by Wi Shing Chong
Directed by Yumi Suzuki
Nov.-Dec., 2007 Three Tragedies—From Greece Vol. 3
New work
Playwright by Seiki Tsuchida
Directed by Tatsuo Kaneshita
Feb.-Mar., 2008 Okujo Teien and Doin Sowa
Playwright by Kunio Kishida
Directed by Keiko Miyata (Okujo Teien)
Atsushi Fukatsu (Doin Sowa)
Apr., 2008 Japan-Korea production
New work Yakiniku Dragon (tentative title)
Playwright by Wi Shing Chong
Directed by Jung Ung Yang and Wi Shing Chong
May-June, 2008 A Japanese Named Otto
Playwright by Junji Kinoshita
Directed by Hitoshi Uyama
June-July, 2008 Small Theater 3-play series
Series—Contemporaries (tentative name)
Collaboration of young playwrights appearing at the New National Theater for the first time and veteran directors
June, 2008 Series “Contemporaries” Vol. 1
New work by Satoshi Hayafune VS. directed by Yuko Matsumoto
June-July, 2008 Series “Contemporaries” Vol. 2
New work by Shiro Maeda VS. directed by Akira Shirai
July, 2008 Series “Contemporaries” Vol. 3
New work by Ryuta Orai VS. directed by Tamiya Kuriyama |
| + | Contemporary Dance
New National Theatre, Tokyo 10th Anniversary Festival
New Works by Teshigawara Saburo
Sep.-Oct., 2007 Dance Planet No.23 [Performance 1]
Dec., 2007 Dance Planet No.24 [Performance 2]
Jan., 2008
Dance Planet No.25 DANCE SELECTION at THE PIT– from the past 10 years and to the future –
Takiko Iwabuchi: Against Newton
Motoko Hirayama & Kenshi Nomi: Chaconne
Kaori Uchida & Yutaka Koga: Espresso
Mako Kawano: Circus
Feb., 2008 Dance Planet No.26 Triple Bill into the future
Kimio Nosaka: VOICES
Motoko Hirayama & Satoshi Nakagawa: Butterfly
Anjelin Preljocaj: Annonciation
Apr., 2008 Dance Planet No.27
New project under the direction of Teshigawara Saburo
*Co-produced by Aubade Hall, Toyama and Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre |
| + | Ballet
Nov., 2007 (5 performances)
New National Theatre, Tokyo 10th Anniversary Festival
New production of Asami Maki’s La Dame aux Camelias
Dec., 2007 (7 performances) The Nutcracker
Feb., 2008 (3 performances) Overseas production of Raymonda and Mixed Program
Mar., 2008 (4 performances) Carmen by Jun Ishii
May, 2008 (5 performances) La Bayadere
June, 2008 (5 performances) Swan Lake |
| + | Opera
Oct., 2007 (6 performances)
New National Theatre, Tokyo 10th Anniversary Festival
New production of Wagner’s Tannhauser,
Oct., 2007 (4 performances) Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro
Nov.-Dec., 2007 (6 performances) New production of Bizet’s Carmen
Jan., 2008 (4 performances) Puccini’s La Boheme
Feb., 2008 (4 performances) R, Strauss’ Salome
Feb., 2008 (3 performances) New production of Kosaku Yamada’s The Black Ships–Yoake
Mar., 2008 (6 performances)
New National Theatre, Tokyo 10th Anniversary Special Performance
Verdi’s Aida
Apr., 2008 (5 performances) New production of Weber’s Der Freischutz
May, 2008 (3 performances) New production of Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten
June, 2008 (5 performances) Verdi’s La Traviata |
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 | Japan Society 100th Anniversary 2007-2008 program “Turning Japanese” starts |
| | Founded in 1907 as a private-sector non-profit organization, the Japan Society has continued to engage in activities in the fields of arts and culture, education and international exchange with the aim of promoting mutual understanding and exchange between Japan and the United States.
The Society’s performing arts department launched in 1953 has presented to the American audience a wide range of traditional Japanese arts, including such renowned performers as the Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando, the Noh actor Hideo Kanze, the Kyogen actor Mansaku Nomura, the composer Toru Takemitsu and the Butoh artist Kazuo Ono, as well as works of contemporary theater, dance and music. Presently the Society continues to present approximately 40 productions a year at its theater facility as well as organizing performance tours around the U.S.
In 2007 the Japan Society celebrates its 100th anniversary with a special program of events (Jan. 2007 to June 2008) with a large number of invited artists from Japan. There is also a program of performances selected to show how modern and contemporary artists of America have been inspired and influenced by Japanese performing arts and incorporated elements of those arts in their own art. Also, this autumn sees the start of a series titled “Turning Japanese: The Japanese Influence in New York. ” To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Japan Society, programs dealing with Japan will be held at seven major theaters and cultural centers around New York.
| + | Japan Society 100th Anniversary 2007-2008 program
Sep 13-25, 2007
Japan Society commissioned work
Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi
The puppet artist Basil Twist has created a work titled Dogugaeshi that is inspired by the traditional puppet theater of Awa in Japan’s Tokushima Prefecture. It debuted in Nov. 2004 and is a winner of the Bessie Award.
Oct. 11-27, 2007
Kazuo Ohno 101: 3-Week Butoh Parade
This three-week festival celebrates the 101st birthday of Kazuo Ohno. The festival will include performances by artists of the first generation of butoh artists, such as Yoshito Ohno, Akaji Maro/Kochuten, Akira Kasai and Eiko & Koma. There will also be performances of new works by young American dancers who create and perform butoh works. It will be held concurrently with the 3rd New York Butoh Festival. During the festival there will be film showings, symposiums photo exhibitions and more.
December 13-15, 2007
Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury
This is a 1969 work by Harry Partch, who stands alongside John Cage as one of the leading postwar American composers. The performance is a recreated version incorporating total theater elements inspired by the Noh. For this production McArthur “Genius” award winning playwright and director John Jesurun is joined by Dean Drummond of the studio of music director and conductor Harry Partch. |
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| Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) Opens (Sept. 20 to Oct. 14, 2007) |
| | The Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) was launched in 2001 with the joining of the Seoul Theatre Festival (founded 1977) and the Seoul Dance Festival (founded 1978) to form South Korea’s largest performing arts festival. Now in its 7th holding, this year’s festival opens from Sept. 20 to Oct. 14. with performances at venues including the Arko Arts Theater, the National Theater of Korea, the Sogang University Mary Hall, Nam Mountain Theater Center, Arko Arts Theater, Dongduk Women's University the Performing Arts Center. The theme of this year’s festival is “Base of Arts: Challenge! Dare to dream of Provocation!” and it will feature 38 theater, dance music and performance programs from 16 countries.
The Japan-related programs on this year’s schedule include Toshiko Oiwa, a program of butoh dance by Korean and Chinese choreographers titled “At This Point” and a joint production with local artists by Koji Hasegawa of the Aomori Hirosaki Theater titled “Seoul Rain” (a work telling a love story between a Japanese and a Korean set at the museum in Aomori). Also, as the festival’s closing program, there will be a performance of trilogy of the Japan Foundation production “Performing Women - Medea, Jocasta, Helen, ” which is a joint work by Indian, Iranian, Uzbekistan and Japanese artists.
This year, in addition to the simultaneously held Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS) there will also be a IETM satellite meeting on the theme of Europe and Asia that will further heighten interest for festival visitors from the performing arts field.
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| Participant applications now being accepted for 2007 Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS) (Oct. 9-12, 2007) |
| | Now in its third year, the Performing Arts Market in Seoul (PAMS) will be held over the four days from October 9 to 12 in the Daehangno “University Road” district with its 56 small theaters. This year, the schedule will include a satellite meeting in Asia by the European performing arts network, IETM, along with Asian and European performing arts showcases and seminars aimed at promoting exchange between Europe and Asia. Visitor applications are now being accepted. The deadline for visitor applications is Sept. 21. To apply, use the form appearing on the website or send an application by fax.
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| London performances of The Face of Jizo, the English adaptation of Hisashi Inoue’s Chichi to Kuraseba (Living with Father) (Oct. 23 – Nov. 10, 2007) |
| | The London-based Japanese theater company “Ichiza” will give performances of The Face of Jizo, the English adaptation of Hisashi Inoue’s Chichi to Kuraseba (Living with Father) in London. (Oct. 23 Ð Nov. 10, 2007)
The main character of this play is Mitsue, a woman who lives quietly in Hiroshima with the sad burden of having lost all of her loved ones in an instant when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and being the only one to survive. Three years after that day she meets a young man who is absorbed in gathering documents and information about the atomic bombing and falls in love with him. But she feels guilty about being the only one of her family to find happiness, until her dead father’s ghost returns to encourage her otherwise.
This premiered in 1994, performed by the theater company “Komatsu-za,” for whom Inoue is the designated playwright. Since then it has been revived almost every year and has also been performed overseas, in France in 1997 and in 2001 by Komatsu-za in Russia. In 2004 it was made into a movie and has become one of Inoue’s most widely loved masterpieces. This is a work that Inoue hopes people in all the countries with nuclear weapons will see.
| + | The Face of Jizo (Based on Chichi to Kuraseba)
Dates: 2007 Oct. 23 – Nov. 10, 2007
Venue: Arcola Theatre [studio2] Arcola Theatre
By Hisashi Inoue, translation by Roger Pulvers
Director: Togo Igawa
Designer: Mamoru Iriguchi
Costume: Kyoko Wainai
Music: Jun Fukamachi
Producer: Jo Allan |
In 2003, the Performing Arts Network Japan began a program called the “Contemporary Drama Translation Project” for the purpose of translating representative works of Japan’s leading playwrights into English for dissemination to other countries. Unlike the arts of dance and music that do not depend on words, there are very few chances for plays written in Japanese to be performed overseas. In answer to this situation, this project aims to provide translations of outstanding works into English that speak of the contemporary world so that they can be shared with people of other countries. The six plays that have been translated thus far under the project are representative works of Japanese theater selected by specialists from among works written and premiering in the past ten years. If you are interested in using these works in translation for readings or performances, please inquire at the email address below.
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| Kennedy Center Japan festival “Japan! Culture + Hyper-culture” lineup announced (Feb. 5-17, 2008) |
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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the U.S. capital, Washington D.C., has announced that it will hold a large-scale festival “Japan! Culture + Hyper Culture” from February 5 to 17, 2008. A press conference was held in Tokyo on May 14 at which the Center’s President, Michael M. Kaiser, presented an outline of the planned two-week festival. The program aims to show some of the depth and breadth of Japanese culture through diverse presentations ranging from the classical and tradition arts to cutting-edge contemporary art. In all, some 467 artists from 17 companies will be invited to Washington to perform some 47 performances in the fields of music, dance and theater and four exhibitions in the fields of robotics and other advanced technologies. There will also be exhibitions of visual arts, design, fashion, as well as film and literature presentations and more than ten free events. As the Center’s vice president and international program director, Ms. Alicia Adams has directed the Japan festival programming. She says, “I have never seen a country with such diversity of culture, and I hope that this program shows at least a bit of that diversity.” Click here for a link to a full-length interview of Ms. Adams.
| + | Japan! Culture + Hyper-culture program
Theater
Yukio Ninagawa directing Shintoku-maru
Amon Miyamoto directing Up in the Air: The Story of Boonah, the Tree-Climbing Frog
Mansaku Nomura and The Mansaku-no-Kai Kyogen Company performing The Kyogen of Errors and Traditional Kyogen Works
Youkiza performing with Edo stringed marionette
Mari Natsuki’s The Impressionism
Dance
New National Theater, Tokyo Ballet Company’s Raymonda, etc.
Sankai Juku Kinkan Shonen
Jo Kanamori and Noism08 NINA materialize sacrifice
Akira Kasai Pollen Revolution
Strange Kinoko Dance Company Flowers
Music
Oki Dub Ainu Band and Marewrew
Hakata Kinjishi Taiko & Hakata Koma
Midori, violin, with Miró Quartet
A Tribute to Toru Takemitsu
Aki Takahashi
Meiwa Denki
Laptop Orchestra
Visual Arts
Yayoi Kusama
Tadao Ando
Motoko Maio
Nobuyuki Tanaka
Textiles-design-technology
Reiko Sudo
Junko Koshino
Mikimoto Pearl
Mika Ninagawa
Robotopia Rising
Robot Evolution Karakuri Dolls
The Influence of Anime and Manga on Robots
Robots and the Arts
Super Humanoids
Film, manga & anime
Joint film presentation by Freer/Sackler Gallery
STUDIO 4° GENUIS PARTY World Premiere
A Marathon of Anime Premieres |
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