Last month in Berlin, in a conversation with Annemie Vanackere, artistic director at the city's cutting-edge Hebbel am Ufer company, she was saying how she loved contemporary Japanese theater, and how HAU had worked with several Japanese dramatists. Then she suddenly asked me: "Why were they all men? Are there any great women playwrights or directors there?"
While assuring her that women had long been prominent in theater in Japan, back in Tokyo I arranged to meet three rising female dramatists set to present their new works this summer and autumn at Za-Koenji, a major publicly-financed theater in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, to get their take on such matters.
Straight off, Vanackere will surely be pleased to hear that each of these Tokyo-based thirtysomething artists has not only started her own theater company, but they are also aiming to make their mark at home and overseas.