Tag - akira-shirai

 
 

AKIRA SHIRAI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 11, 2018
'Ballyturk' delivers a surreal yet exciting challenge
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."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 2, 2017
Love is in the air as racy play 'Spring Awakening' comes to theaters
The old never give the young an easy time. "They think they know everything," "They're lazy" — the cross-generational gripes have been around as long as people have.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 22, 2016
Strindberg's surrealistic 'Dream' heralds a pivotal era for KAAT
He doesn't officially become Kanagawa Arts Theatre's artistic director until April 1, but Akira Shirai wasn't fooling when he declared, "I aim to make KAAT (the official acronym of his Yokohama base) a place where we take a whole fresh look at theater's role in today's Japan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 18, 2015
'Mercury Fur' exposes a caring kind of depravity
After the premiere of "Mercury Fur" at Theatre Tram in Tokyo's lively Sangenjaya district this month, Issey Takahashi, who stars in that dystopian 2005 play by Philip Ridley, declared: "I think this is a very dark prophecy, but as I was acting my character Elliot today, I also felt it's a story of hope — or perhaps I should say that, as actors, we should make it a hopeful story."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 21, 2014
Shirai triumphs with 'The Tempest'
"I'd like 'The Tempest' I am creating to be on the smallest scale ever, but as it's a very spacious stage at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, it won't have the most compact set. Nonetheless, I will try to present it as stories from within the confines of one man's memory."

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on