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May 16, 2024
 

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Nobuko Tanaka

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Nobuko Tanaka
Nobuko Tanaka is a stage writer who has regularly contributed contemporary theater and dance articles to The Japan Times since 2001. She also writes for several Japanese and overseas magazines and web sites. As a promoter, she takes Japanese artists to foreign theater festivals.
For Nobuko Tanaka's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 18, 2013
What goes around comes around in Nagatsuka's 'Macbeth'
Whether he likes it or not, unassuming Keishi Nagatsuka is widely seen as being foremost among the coming generation in Japan's contemporary theater world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2013
'Don Quixote' as never before
Paris comes to Tokyo this week with a production from the Théâtre National de Chaillot of a "choreographic essay" by José Montalvo, one of its artistic directors. Featuring 13 dancers and Patrice Thibaud, an actor routinely dubbed a genius, the premiere of "Don Quichotte du Trocadéro" in January met with extraordinary acclaim. Since then, this version of "Don Quixote" has toured in France, Germany, Italy, England — and to Edinburgh, where it wowed the world's largest art festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2013
Yoji Sakate celebrates in style
To celebrate its 30th anniversary this year, the Tokyo-based Rinkogun theater company determined to present four original plays by its founder, the renowned playwright and director Yoji Sakate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2013
Director Ogawa sublimely cracks Mamet's code
First impressions can, of course, be deceiving, but mine of 65-year-old David Mamet's play "The Cryptogram," whose world premiere was at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1994, was simply how unhelpful and knotty a work it was.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 6, 2013
Theater of protest boosts rising new hub
Ikebukuro boasts Tokyo's second-busiest rail station after Shinjuku, and until recently it was just a transport hub people passed through between their jobs in the city and homes in suburbs to the north.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 31, 2013
Festival/Tokyo pushes a return to storytelling
In 2009, when Festival/Tokyo took over from the annual Tokyo International Arts Festival, it burst forth with the slogan "Towards a New Real" and the resolve to stamp the city's name on the global arts map.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2013
Fraught reunions
Her long-term boyfriend's death spurs concert pianist Charlotte into visiting her eldest daughter Eva, from whom she's been estranged for seven years. At Eva's house she also meets Helena, her severely disabled other daughter whom she had confined to a hospital for life, but whose care Eva has taken over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 16, 2013
'Edward II': The director's take
Two years ago, Shintaro Mori made his directorial debut at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, with a minimalist production of Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece "Waiting for Godot." Now, at age 37, he's back there at the helm of probably one of the West's first-ever plays with an openly gay theme — the rarely staged classic, "Edward II," by Christopher Marlowe (1564-93).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 18, 2013
It doesn't have to be all true to be the life of Akihiro Miwa
"Miwa has carried on being a true monster (kaibutsu), whereas many amazingly talented freaks have gone back to looking and behaving normally after enjoying a brief boom in popularity," said dramatist Hideki Noda at a press conference last month for "Miwa," his play based on the real-life 78-year-old chanson singer, actor and director Akihiro Miwa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 29, 2013
Japan's love affair with Chekhov
"I have rarely seen a great production of any Chekhov play in Japan. Sometimes, I've even wanted to ask how they managed to make them so tedious."
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Aug 22, 2013
Choreographer takes a Shakespeare piece and positively reworks it
Take one contemporary-dance choreographer (Mikuni Yanaihara) and apply her cutting-edge work and rapid-fire script to William Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" — what do you get? Well, what you get is an award.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2013
Jeté-ing from ballet to kitchen-sink drama
Though she's moved from elegant arabesques to doing the washing up, former prima ballerina Tamiyo Kusakari is stealing the show in "Ani Kaeru (The Older Brother Returns)," a kitchen-sink drama playing every night through Sept. 1 at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 10, 2013
Ninagawa's golden oldies reach a whole new stage in life
"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.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 10, 2013
Seven years on, and everyone's itching for more
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 3, 2013
Matthew Bourne's 'Dorian Gray' will never grow old, says its lead dancer, Richard Winsor
"Matthew and I are very excited to see how Japanese audiences react — but I think everyone is absolutely going to love this show," English dancer Richard Winsor said at a Tokyo press conference held in May to preview next week's season of Matthew Bourne's "Dorian Gray," in which he plays the title role.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 20, 2013
For a nonverbal theater group, The Original Tempo has a lot to say
"The Yellow Raincoat Squad' is charming and engaging. This is another one of those productions that defies description but is a must-see for all ages," wrote Catherine Lamm in The British Theatre Guide in August, 2009. Lamm was reviewing one of Japan's best-kept theatrical secrets: The Original Tempo (TOT), a nonverbal but highly kinetic Osaka-based performance-arts group whose multi-media shows are founded on the concept: Let's play — and have fun — with plays.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 24, 2013
Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the "best birthday party ever" when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2013
Flamenco queen shares 'Utopia'
Sitting in an interview room at the Bunkamura cultural complex in Tokyo's Shibuya district, Maru00eda Pagu00e9s leans forward, smiles and tells me: 'Flamenco is my language.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 16, 2013
The comedy and drama of Takashi Fujii
At age 41, Takashi Fujii has quite the resume. In 2000 and 2001, he appeared on national broadcaster NHK's annual top-rated New Year's variety show, "Kohaku Utagassen" ("Red and White Song Battle"); he toured abroad as a pop singer in 2004, including shows in Los Angeles and Shanghai; and in 2009 he starred in the Japanese version of 2005's smash-hit Broadway musical "Spelling Bee."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 19, 2013
U.K. stage group to rework 'Mononoke' magic
If anyone understands the truth in the phrase, "It doesn't hurt to ask" — it's Alexandra Rutter.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Japan concerned over U.S. officials' remarks on atomic bombings
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to reporters during a news conference in Washington on Thursday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.
In a rare event, the Northern Lights show up in Hokkaido
The Northern Lights in Nayoro, Hokkaido, on Saturday
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.

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