Kyoto performance reviews

Tea and house: 117    Kyoto townhouse             April 29 2013 Two plays were presented by a small company and visiting Hungarian actress at a townhouse near Mibu in Kyoto. The Hungarian Lady Macbeth from Mtensk solo was interesting, but in Hungarian, so it was Greek to me. I concentrate here on the first piece, a   “post-dramatic” deconstruction by a trio of amateur actors. When do personal memories become interesting to outsiders? When does an interviewer’s raw material serve as building blocks for a theatre piece? Intuitively, I would think three possibilities: ·       1 when speaker is famous enough that even minor incident in their life have meaning towards their known oeuvre; ·       2 when the stories add up to a whole portrait, revealing new perspectives on an era or personality; ·       3 when there is a disjun...

Oct 21 2012   Talk , Hirata Oriza, Kichijoji Theatre Three sisters: Irene (Ikumi), a hikkimori shut-in from 17 years old, has pretended suicide and replaced herself with an android in a wheelchair. It has the same memories and reactions as Ikumi, but the other sisters notice a difference when talking with her. The robot assures them it is capable of human-like maturation: “That’s the me I’ve grown into; you didn’t know that me,” says the living one, who unexpectedly appears to have tea with them. The story Akira, the son hasn't made up his mind where to go to study overseas. The older sister plans dinner with 2 nd , fish or meat, decide on Saba, sending the robot, who is late when chatting with other robots at the supermarket. “ tsugitsugi to hanashi shimasu ”. The robot doesn't like aimaisa , so they have to specify who is eating and where they sit. (Actually, the robot merely rolls in, speaks (an offstage actor on a speaker), and rolls off. It looks ...

As articles published in various journals become available as public PDF files, I will introduce them here. http://repo.lib.ryukoku.ac.jp/jspui/bitstream/10519/2492/1/KJ00005242273.pdf Research bulletin, Soci-cultural Association, Ryukoku University, 2008 "Hana" as manifestation of beauty in Japanese noh: Contrasting the flower with Korean's shinmyong (spontaneous katharsis) Tradition meets Technohlogy: Integrating Japanese Noh & New Technology in Shakespeare’s Macbeth http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol0901/jonahsalz/jonahsalz.pdf YouTube introduction to Sleep no more (Oe Noh Theatre): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Z1HVfg1d8 From a talk,  Tech-noh-logies: Historic and contemporary perspectives on Japanese classical masked dance-theatre expressions http://asianperformingartsforum.wordpress.com/past-events/204-2/ 6pm 23 May 2011 at  Centre for Creative Collaboration , 16 Acton Street, London WC1X 9NG.

Once in an eternity   April 12, 2012 Alti Fumin Hall   An Evening With(out) Senrei There are many “once-in-a-lifetime” performances in Japan. A typical noh play will be performed only once by the shite; even if repeated, the ensemble of chorus and musicians, waki and kyogen will vary. The cost of renting hall and costumes, wigs and dressers, and musicians’ fees and gaining an audience for the many recitals of nihonbuyo happen only once. And actors from all traditions might greet a fushime milestone with a special “one-time only” performance to celebrate a kanreki (60) or 88 th birthday.             But I’ve never seen a posthumous once-in-an-eternity performance until last night. Nishikawa Senrei, beloved teacher and creative force for 30 years in Kyoto’s conservative buyo world, produced another “evening with Senrei” where as usual she designed the costumes, story, choreography, and musical accompa...

Shimin Kyogen Dec 7 th ; Hanagata Kyogen Dec 21-23 With Sennojo’s passing, the Shigeyamas seem to be in a holding pattern. They follow through with their varied performances, continue to give solid, funny, individually-inflected shows, and attract their loyal fans. But there are no wild experiments, no changes from twenty years ago, not attempts to expand kyogen potential.   1Big Projects, newsmaking events and special restorations are rarely to be seen. Same old, same old, sometimes with tweaks not for the better. The shimin (civic) kyogen, a 4/year city-sponsored kyogen-only program has been going for over 40 years. Inexpensive seats (once geared towards cinema tickets, now twice that), unusual plays, and stakeholding public (I once saw a vehement claim that the photographer’s pachipachi sounds were disturbing them!). But recently, the shows have shifted to four plays in a row, rather than the 15 minute pre-show lecture performed so ably by Sennojo, a m...

Senrei Nishikawa  is gone, master artist and teacher On December 6, Senrei Nishikawa passed away. I had not seen her for over a year. She was sick, but apparently in good spirits, spending her time in the mountain home she loved, in northwest Kyoto.             Her manager Takae Hoshino only informed the world ten days later, enough time to prepare for the non-funeral home-visit. The path next to her house led to a lovely bamboo garden, low benches and even a heater for those waiting to enter a 4 tatami room and view the photo, urn, and sign a mourner’s book. Takae, looking worn and grateful, greeted visitors, who streamed in by twos and threes while I was there. The photo, Senrei looking hopefully in profile, in pastel kimono, and urn-bag embroidered were chosen by Sensei: a director to the end. I lit some incense and thanked her for her art and friendship. T.T.T. teacher       ...

The Graduate In the Fall of 1977 I was considering my options after graduation. Having been gone the previous spring to London, I fell into senior year with the excitement of renewing acquaintances (and a fantastic corner dormsuite), but less lead-time to the end of College days than others. Suddenly everyone around me seemed to be talking a bewildering alphabet soup of tests: MBA, GRE, MCAT, etc… or interviewing at grown-up companies like Hewlett-Packard. Doing good in the world? Sure, but we want to get paid for it, seemed to be the general drift. I felt like the game I had been playing seriously for the last three years turned out to only a training camp for the Future, whereas I thought it was the aim itself. Then I became aware of a program that appealed to my instincts to wander the world, see lots of art and music and theatre, and hone my craft as theatre critic and director. The Watson Fellowship allows undergraduates at select colleges to wander the world with a blank check,...