"After a performance at the 232-seat Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris, one of the Japanese staff there said I had a 'splendid voice.' I didn't buy anything in Paris, but that was the best possible souvenir," said Kiyoshi Takahashi, 85, the oldest male member of Saitama Gold Theater.
Seven years before receiving that praise for his international acting debut in May this year, Takahashi had seen a notice in a newspaper announcing two days of open auditions for a new project — the creation of SGT by world-renowned dramatist Yukio Ninagawa, who was then aged 70.
"It said acting experience wasn't required, but applicants had to be at least 55 and physically fit enough. Though I had no stage background, I applied because I knew I would at least meet Ninagawa, who I'd seen on stage in the 1960s," Takahashi explained.