Recently, while looking through a handful of upcoming production flyers displayed in a cozy, small-scale theater, I noticed to my surprise that one name kept reappearing: Norihito Nakayashiki.
The founder of the Kaki kuu Kyaku theater company, Nakayashiki has been working particularly hard, producing brand new plays to a notably hectic schedule. Since he formed Kaki kuu Kyaku seven years ago with a group of his favorite — meaning very physical — actors, the company has been building a reputation founded on imaginative story lines, meticulously directed dance-like physical movements and the use of kitsch, robotic speech. Nakayashiki, 26, also wrote all of the company's works.
In 2008, Kaki kuu Kyaku debuted in France and was greeted with cheering audiences. In 2010, it made a second trip to France plus a tour of Turkey. That year, it also staged a tri-national collaboration work in Tokyo involving a Japanese-Chinese-Korean cast. Titled "Wannabe," the play explored the lives of students sharing a flat in a foreign country, with the cast using "broken English."