Monday, April 4, 2022
It's an age-old question: Which is more important in determining the course of our lives, nature or nurture? Actors Hayato Kakizawa and Eiji Wentz grapple with this absorbing issue in the mu…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:43AM[SHARE]Saturday, January 15, 2022
After 15 years of entertaining audiences in Japan and abroad, the actors of Saitama Gold Theater will take the stage for the last time with "Mizu no Eki" ("The Water Station") this month. Fe…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:49PM[SHARE]Sunday, December 5, 2021
After its premiere at north London's Almeida Theatre in 2019, Robert Icke's The Doctor earned glowing reviews and plaudits, most notably Olivier Award nominations for best new play and best …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:05AM[SHARE]Monday, November 29, 2021
Rena Matsui always knew she wanted to enter the acting world, and launching her career by performing in idol-pop groups was all part of her plan. She started out as a member of the Nagoya-ba…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:48AM[SHARE]Monday, September 27, 2021
When Keito Okamoto was offered the title role in French dramatist Florian Zeller's latest work, The Son, he felt the play was written about him. "It was completely astonishing," he says. And…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:34PM[SHARE]Sunday, July 25, 2021
William Shakespeare is one of the world's most influential playwrights, but his life continues to be shrouded in mystery. Since his death in 1616 at the age of 52, no handwritten manuscripts…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Colorful graffiti marks the facade of a shuttered shopping mall. People navigate their way around chain partitions and orange traffic cones. It's a scene that looks familiar to anyone who ha…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:18PM[SHARE]Saturday, March 6, 2021
He may live in New York, but playwright J.T. Rogers has spent a lot of time in Japan over the past few years, and it's not just because he loves the food there ("especially the white sliced …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:13AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 6, 2021
In his 1964 anthem, "The Times They Are A-Changin'," Bob Dylan sings: "As the present now / Will later be past / The order is rapidly fadin'…" At the time, he may have had social turmoil i…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:24AM[SHARE]Friday, December 11, 2020
Sometimes a gesture of gratitude comes in the form of a carte blanche. Akira Shirai, the departing artistic director of Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT), decided to show thanks to his long-time …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:26AM[SHARE]Saturday, November 14, 2020
Maybe 13Â is an unlucky number? Contemporary theater's annual Festival/Tokyo is known for its focus on young artists and edgy productions, but, for its 13th edition, it has had to deal wit…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:17AM[SHARE]Saturday, November 7, 2020
Kennosuke Nakamori's sonorous voice fills a small room as he practices the lines of a traditional noh play, even though he hasn't performed before a live audience in months. He moves gracefu…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:47AM[SHARE]Friday, November 6, 2020
A Midsummer Night's Dream has the makings of a fairy tale: a forest full of meddling fairies, magic potions that spark romantic fancies, a series of comedic errors and a happy ending. And ye…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:21AM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Maybe 13 is an unlucky number? Contemporary theater's annual Festival/Tokyo is known for its focus on young artists and edgy productions, but for its 13th edition it has had to deal wi…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:01AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 22, 2020
Back in January, when English director Lindsay Posner visited Tokyo for preparatory meetings to stage the iconic courtroom drama Twelve Angry Men at Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya Ward,…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:53AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Performing arts festivals and opportunities to enjoy live entertainment have been few and far between this year due to the ongoing pandemic, but dramatist Oriza Hirata, 57, has hopes for his…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:01AM[SHARE]Saturday, August 8, 2020
This past week, health officials called for more than 800 theatergoers to be tested for COVID-19 after at least 59 cases were traced back to performances of a play titled Werewolf in Toky…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:38AM[SHARE]Friday, July 24, 2020
As the new reality of daily life amid a global pandemic settles in, many people are getting accustomed to somewhat isolated lifestyles as they abide by social distancing measures and work re…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 02:07AM[SHARE]Monday, June 15, 2020
Troupes turn to telework in a bid to keep audiences entertained The performing arts are built on interactions between live audiences and artists " whether ballet dancers, circus performers, …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 06:48AM[SHARE]Thursday, June 11, 2020
On April 3, Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) announced the cancellation of this year's edition of its annual World Theatre Festival Shizuoka, which was due to be held from April 25 to …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:50PM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Responses to the spread of the COVID-19 virus have varied widely from country to country and are changing from one day to the next. So, while Broadway shows in New York have shut down for at…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:43PM[SHARE]Friday, March 27, 2020
Ever since his Oscar-nominated Hollywood debut as Lord Katsumoto in 2003's The Last Samurai, Ken Watanabe has been the best-known Japanese actor in the world. Along with other memorable s…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:56PM[SHARE]Thursday, February 27, 2020
With William Shakespeare's iconic use of English lost in translation, bold and reimagined versions of his works have long blossomed in Japan, as dramatists have mainly taken inspiration from…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:18PM[SHARE]Monday, February 24, 2020
In theater, as in daily life, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Such was the case with Tempo 12-nen no Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Year 12 of the Tempo Era) by dramatist and w…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 07:00PM[SHARE]Saturday, February 8, 2020
Haruki Murakami is probably Japan's best-known living writer " a worldwide bestseller with novels translated into at least 50 languages. Yet, despite that, dramatizations of the 71-year-old …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:17PM[SHARE]Friday, January 24, 2020
Japanese theater gets off to a flying start in 2020 with a collaboration between leading British and Japanese creators on the world premiere of a major new play being staged in Japanese. Pos…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:53PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 7, 2020
As the curtain falls on 2019's theater scene in Japan, a continuing rise in the popularity of musicals now sees them clearly positioned at the center of the country's entertainment mainstrea…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:54AM[SHARE]Friday, December 27, 2019
What is it about stories from the ancient world that attracts contemporary dramatists? One person well-placed to address that question is 37-year-old Japanese theater director Kunio Sugihara…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 10:37PM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 25, 2019
The starting point for Dr. Hoffmann's Sanatorium was, according to the play's Japanese creator, Keralino Sandorovich, the idea that "someone found an unpublished novel by the great Franz Kaf…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:27PM[SHARE]Saturday, December 21, 2019
Shuntaro Matsubara's first contact with live theatre was in 2014, when he saw a production of German dramatist Bertolt Brecht's 1930 play Fatzer (aka Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer) a…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 05:25AM[SHARE] 
