Tag - theatre

 
 

THEATRE

CULTURE / Stage
Jan 1, 2015
Kansai region on course to enhance its blossoming arts renaissance
In its 2013 policy report, the Agency for Cultural Affairs vowed to build "a nation based on culture and the arts" through the promotion of regional festivals, artist-in-residence programs and other events.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 26, 2014
French idol reflects on her Japanese droid son
As a playwright, stage director, Osaka University professor, manager of the Komaba Agora Theater in Tokyo and leader of the city's Seinendan theater company he formed in 1983, Oriza Hirata — whose "contemporary colloquial theater" set the scene for much of Japan's new drama over the last 20 years — has long been in the forefront of Japan's theater world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 19, 2014
Asia enriches the Bard's work-in-progress
Whatever would William Shakespeare make of it all if he were to journey now through Asia, where the interpretations of his works differ so much across vast regions, ethnic groups, cultures and languages?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 19, 2014
New 'Dick Whittington' pantomime spells fun for all the family
Now a language-school teacher in Tokyo, Gareth Hinchley worked for Britain's chief forestry agency before coming to Japan in 2005. Originally from Manchester, he'd done a bit of writing as a child but hadn't pursued it seriously before he wrote "Dick Whittington," the upcoming production by Tokyo Theatre for Children.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2014
Maestro Taijiro Iimori will mark his NNTT debut with Wagner's 'Parsifal'
The New National Theatre, Tokyo, will open its 2014-15 season with "Parsifal," the last completed opera by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-83). While opera fans will no doubt be thrilled at the long-awaited performance of this piece at the theater, they can expect an additional treat as Taijiro Iimori makes his debut as NNTT's new artistic director of opera, conducting the piece himself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 10, 2014
DNA eyes its Tokyo dance legacy
An exciting new dance festival named Dance New Air will debut in Tokyo from Sept. 12, featuring performances, symposia, workshops and film screenings at venues in the central Aoyama district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 3, 2014
'Hamlet' marks take #18 in Shakespeare for Children series
"When I acted a nursemaid in 'Romeo and Juliet' in the first program of this Shakespeare for Children series, I was surprised that no children made fun of a man in that role — they naturally accepted that theater is fundamentally fiction and just enjoyed the play," Seisuke Yamasaki recalled in a recent interview.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 6, 2014
Theater's magic brings wonderful 'War Horse' to life
It is now 100 years since the start of World War I, which claimed close to 17 million lives before it ended in November 1918. Hence the Tokyo opening of "War Horse" — a play set during that so-called "war to end war" — serves in part as a memorial to the awful conflict.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 6, 2014
Europe's rich tapestry unites two contrasting theater fests
As I often go to theater festivals in Europe, I was delighted to hear about the Schweizer Theatertreffen (Swiss Theater Encounter), a brand-new event being held in May. And since I'd already planned a trip that month to the Berlin Theater Festival, it was a no-brainer to check out this new Swiss kid on the block as well.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 11, 2014
David Bintley bows out with a 'Pagoda' set in Japan
Challenge is intrinsic to artistic creation, but David Bintley relishes it so much that he specializes in conceiving the unlikely.
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."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 7, 2014
Pioneering woman leads London's Royal Court Theatre into new realms
Since she took a first degree in drama at Manchester University, then a master's in directing after she realized she wasn't cut out to be an actress, Vicky Featherstone — the first female artistic director of London's hugely prestigious Royal Court Theatre in the heart of upper-crust Chelsea — has seemed to make light of glass ceilings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 30, 2014
TACT promises a globe-trotting Golden Week glow for all ages
"Baaa, baaa, ba-aaa" — many Tokyoites sheepishly making their way from JR Ikebukuro Station to their workplaces or the shops stopped in their tracks when they heard a strange bleating coming from the open-plan plaza basement of Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre by West Gate Park in this seriously nonrural district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 26, 2014
Chasing a Phantom of success
Based on "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra," a 1911 novel by the French author of detective fiction, Gaston Leroux, and transformed into a musical composed, co-written and produced by Englishman Andrew Lloyd Webber (now Baron Lloyd-Webber), "The Phantom of the Opera" was first produced in London in 1986 and went on to be a huge hit worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 19, 2014
Tohoku school's plays tell how it is
"We always start creating our next work by having a meeting with everyone involved in the drama club," high school teacher Michiko Ishii explained.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 19, 2014
ABT brings 'magical moments' to Japan
Last August, with summer sweltering the city, I met Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews, two soloists from the New York-based American Ballet Theatre, one of the word's top-four classical companies along with the Royal Ballet in London, Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi in Moscow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 19, 2014
Young K-Ballet School dancers get set for the big time
The splendid news about two Japanese high school students' outstanding achievement swept around the world this month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 19, 2014
NNTT debut peers behind the masks of 'Condemned' Sartre family
Until Japan was opened to the West in the mid-19th century, its theater culture mainly comprised traditional forms such as kabuki, comic kyōgen, bunraku (puppet theater) and noh.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014
Double-take for a new one-woman 'Tinkerbell'
Life is hard for Marcello Magni. Not only is he directing a production separately starring famed actress Tomoko Mariya and upcoming talent Kae Okumura, but the work, in Japanese, is also his brand-new version of an early play by his great friend — and Japan's leading contemporary dramatist — Hideki Noda.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2014
First female conductor at NNTT performs 'Madama Butterfly'
Japanese audiences, especially women, may have mixed feelings about Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly."

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