To date, including his all-male production of "The Merchant of Venice" that's set to run next month at Sainokuni Saitama Arts Theater outside Tokyo, Yukio Ninagawa will have staged 29 of the 38 plays attributed to William Shakespeare — and his ambition to direct the entire oeuvre remains undimmed.
Besides pursuing that goal, however, the unrivaled icon of Japanese drama is no less passionate about Saitama Gold Theater — a side project for seniors with little or no acting experience that he launched seven years ago thinking it would just run for 12 months.
And despite his perpetually crushing, self-inflicted workload, this renowned human dynamo who turns 78 in October was so courteous as to grant an interview at short notice last week to tell JT readers what it's like to work with his golden oldies based at the Saitama theater where he is artistic director.