Stage

Tetsuya Kumakawa speaks about his most recent project, "Cleopatra," in a way that's as grand as the Egyptian queen herself. "Nobody except me could have created this fantastic work," he tells The Japan Times. "I hope it remains a ballet classic for hundreds of years, ...

The 72nd annual Tony Awards are being presented at New York City's storied Radio City Music Hall on June 11 (8 a.m. Japan time), but that doesn't mean those of us in Japan have to miss out. Wowow is rolling out its red carpet to ...

When Ludwig van Beethoven dipped his toe into the world of opera in the early 19th century, the composer may have had the concept of freedom on his mind. There's a fantastic moment in "Fidelio" when prisoners emerge from a dungeon and begin to sing. ...

Contemporary dance seemed to enter the wider arts consciousness in Japan around the turn of the century, when there was a pronounced upsurge in the number of performances, festivals and competitions. Reflecting that rising enthusiasm, Takao Norikoshi published the encyclopedic "Contemporary Dance Thorough Guide" in ...

For casual fans of film, the name Martin McDonagh only became familiar after the movie he wrote, directed and produced, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," became the talk of this year's awards season. Actors Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell both won Oscars for their performances ...

When Cirque du Soleil was founded in Canada in 1984, it redefined the idea of the circus. Its latest show, "Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities," lives up to the troupe's unique reputation of being about more than just jugglers and acrobats — though those characters ...

This hasn't been a great year for social media. Internet addiction has been a hot topic, as have privacy issues, and there has even been a movement to #DeleteFacebook. Last month, Satoshi Miyagi, artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center, which runs World Theatre ...

When Akira Shirai first read the script for "Ballyturk," he quickly understood why its creator, Irish playwright Enda Walsh, said the work "should bypass the intellect and go straight into your bones." The 60-year-old artistic director at Kanagawa Arts Theatre in Yokohama was mulling over ...

A new play based on the abduction of Japanese citizens to North Korea has been captivating and educating audiences at the National Theatre in London. "The Great Wave," which tells the fictional story of one family's fight to find out what happened to their missing ...

There are mutual squeals of delight when Belgian dance artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Spanish flamenco dancer Maria Pages are reunited after "far too long" at a Tokyo rehearsal studio. Pages, 54, has flown in from Madrid to promote the pair's 2009 work "Dunas" ("Dunes"), ...

Following a January press conference in which the New National Theatre, Tokyo, announced that Dairakudakan, one of the world's leading butoh companies, would be staging two performances of "Tsumi to Batsu" ("Crime and Punishment") in March, troupe founder Akaji Maro delivered a triumphant statement. "Having ...

Noh performer Hisa Uzawa has spent her life devoted to an art form that — with its slow and steady movements, sparse staging and ancient chanting — may at first seem staid. In her hands, however, the 650-year-old tradition becomes relentlessly contemporary. Uzawa was born ...