Nobuko Tanaka - The Japan Times

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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

Aug 11, 2004

Clever plot of "Dumb Animal" play

It was two years ago, that the three main actors in "Donju (Dumb Animal)," currently running at the Parco Theater, met up over a drink or three. Arata Furuta, Katsuhisa Namase and Narushi Ikeda, are all now in their late 30s and early 40s, but were very prominent in the energetic 1980s Shogekijo (small theater) movement. Although they had gone their separate ways for a decade or more, they started to talk about working together.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jul 28, 2004

Docu-dramas protest war in Iraq

When U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage reportedly said last week that Article 9 of Japan's war-renouncing Constitution "is becoming an obstacle to strengthening the Japan-United States alliance," nobody, let alone the mass media in Japan, seemed to be too shocked.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jul 21, 2004

Too deep for tears

Greece has been buzzing with excitement following the Euro 2004 victory and before the countdown to this summer's Olympics. When I arrived in Athens on July 1, it looked like the whole city was being given a long overdue clean-up. After strolling around the Acropolis gardens where people were chatting as the heat of the day subsided, and children kicked up the dust playing soccer, the buzz was back at the entrance to the Herodes Atticus Odeon, where Yukio Ninagawa's "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (496?-406B.C.) was being staged July 1-3.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jun 30, 2004

Mizu to Abura mix mime and the surreal

Formed in 1995 by Jun Takahashi, Shuji Onodera and Momoko Fujita, who graduated that year from the Nihon Mime Kenkyujo (Japan Mime Institute), Mizu to Abura (Water and Oil) became a foursome three years later when Reina Suga, another institute graduate, joined them.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jun 23, 2004

Putting it in motion

When the British choreographer Matthew Bourne first staged his "Swan Lake" in 1995 at the off-West End Sadler's Wells Theatre, most critics and members of the dance establishment simply didn't know what to make of it. That, however, didn't stop the production becoming an instant hit in the West End when it moved there the following year. It went on to become one of the decade's outstanding international stage successes.

CULTURE / Stage

Jun 16, 2004

If you go into the woods today . . .

Whether "Into the Woods" works as meaningful entertainment for adults rather than just a musical confection of assorted fairy tales for children is the question hovering over this clever and complex Broadway musical scripted by James Lapine, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. First staged and directed on Broadway by Lapine in 1987, "Into the Woods" scooped three Tony awards, before picking up another for best revival in 2002.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jun 2, 2004

The lush samurai

Take a cast of stars, any of whom could fill a theater on their own, add a couple of Oscar winners -- costume designer Emi Wada ("Ran," 1985) and songwriter Ryuichi Sakamoto ("The Last Emperor," 1987) -- garnish with an A-list director (Kazuya Yamada), scriptwriter (Nozomi Makino) and art director (Yukio Horio), stir the emotions with a rousing tale of wronged ronin (masterless samurai) in the dying days of Japan's feudal era, and what do you get?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

May 26, 2004

A hard man-woman is good to find

Casting is all in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," but here all's very well indeed.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

May 12, 2004

Beastly love story 'beyond good and evil'

He is a 50-year-old world-famous American architect; she is Sylvia, his first lover as a married man. But who is Sylvia and what is unspeakable about his passion for her? Is she a much younger woman? Perhaps foreign, or colored? Or even a man?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Apr 21, 2004

A balancing act of inspiration

"Othello" director Gregory Doran, 45, has been hailed by London critics as "the redeemer of the RSC." He joined the company in 1987 as an actor, but soon turned to directing and often works in collaboration with his partner, Antony Sher. Last year he received Britain's top theater honor, an Olivier Award, for his season of "Jacobethan" drama.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Apr 21, 2004

Not quite now, but for all time

Why could Othello not believe in Desdemona's fidelity, even though she loved and trusted him blindly? The causes were deep-rooted in his psyche, boring into his soul regardless of what his senses should have told him.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Apr 21, 2004

A look on the dark side of life

Sir Antony Sher was born near Cape Town, South Africa, in 1949. He moved to Britain in 1968 to attend drama school. His breakthrough performance was as Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984-5. Since then he has received many acting honors and was knighted in 2000.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Apr 14, 2004

Lessons still unlearned

Timely or what! Just as Japan's autocratic leaders appear to have junked war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution -- with news last week of SDF aircraft even having transported armed U.S. soldiers into Iraq -- along comes "Taiko Tataite Fue Fuite (Playing Drum and Flute)," which vividly portrays the average citizen's helpless confusion as the government committed the nation's last great military mistake.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Mar 24, 2004

Japan sells its soul, again and again

Thirteen years ago, when Hideki Noda's Yumeno Yuminsha theater company was all the rage, the acclaim that greeted his then-new play "Tomei Ningen no Yuge (The Hot Air of an Invisible Man)" caused him nothing but artistic distress.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Mar 17, 2004

A 'kitchen sink' filled deep

Strange, but true: These days, the chance of seeing a quality Japanese "kitchen sink" (domestic) drama about ordinary people's everyday lives is rarer than the opportunity of watching yet another reworking of Shakespeare, Chekhov or Tennessee Williams. Now, though, and until the end of the month, theatergoers have the chance to enjoy a first-class example of this neglected genre, in a reprise of acclaimed playwright Ai Nagai's 2001 award-winning "Konnichi Wa Kasan (Hello Mum)" at the New National Theater.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Mar 14, 2004

Dance magic in the air

Famed at home in Taiwan, and increasingly hailed in Western and other Asian countries, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre wafted ethereally through Tokyo at the end of last month for just four breathtakingly beautiful stagings at Shinjuku Culture Center.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 25, 2004

International theater festival takes Japan to a new stage

I recently read a book about a mass breakout by Japanese from an Australian prisoner-of-war camp on Aug. 5, 1944. Some 1,100 Japanese tried to escape, but none succeeded -- indeed, 231 died, many by their own hand using prison-issue cutlery. "Voyage from Shame" by Harry Gordon (1995) portrays this breakout as a quest for death to avoid the dishonor of capture, by people whose world view remained as blinkered as during their country's centuries of isolation before the 1868 Meiji Restoration.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 11, 2004

Timeless message of divine 'Angels' rings loud and clear

They've pulled it off again! Almost exactly a year ago the team at tpt (Theatre Project Tokyo), led by the renowned American director Robert Allan Ackerman, got Tokyo theater in 2003 off to a great start with their stunningly moving production of "Bent," cast entirely from the young actors who took part in an experimental workshop Ackerman had run at tpt. Now the director is back at Benisan Pit, tpt's unique theatrical space in downtown Morishita.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 11, 2004

Dreams with wings

Last month, Brooklyn-born director Robert Allan Ackerman was in New York for the prestigious Golden Globe Awards, for which he had nominations for his TV movie of Tennessee Williams' "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and his TV miniseries, "The Reagans," which CBS refused to screen. This month he is in Tokyo directing a new stage production of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" -- which won a TV miniseries Golden Globe for director Mike Nichols -- with a Japanese cast for tpt (Theatre Project Tokyo).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jan 28, 2004

Nothing lost in Johnnys R+J translation

Since Shakespeare got through the notoriously long wait for foreigners at Japanese immigration and started to settle down and assimilate the local culture, what sort of changes have been wrought on him by his extended sojourn on these shores?

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

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