Tokyo-born Sachiko Hara, 46, was the apple of her ordinary, working-parents' eye. She was encouraged to get a degree in German studies from the prestigious Sophia University, and after that it seemed some sort of high-flying career was hers for the taking.
But during her time at Sophia, Hara developed another interest, which began with acting in small underground theater productions. After graduation, she first became heavily involved in Tokyo's thriving small-scale avant-garde drama scene, next came Japanese TV-drama roles, and then she joined the cast of a play performed in Germany.
It was during that 1999 working visit to Germany that Hara auditioned, in German, for a new play by Christoph Schlingensief, an acclaimed cutting-edge stage and film director and icon of contemporary German culture. Since landing that role, Hara has lived and mainly worked in Germany. Her radical portrayal of a raven-haired, Lolita-type Polly Peachum, the main character in Bertolt Brecht's masterpiece, "Die Dreigroschen Oper" ("The Threepenny Opera") at the Hanover State Theater, directed by the rising star Nicholas Stemann, propelled Hara to the leading position in German theater she has occupied since.