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 …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:43AMAfter 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 m…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:49PMAfter 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 b…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:05AMRena 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 01:48AMWhen 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 say…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:34PMWilliam 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 manuscrip…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:48AMColorful 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 …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:18PMHe 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 sli…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:13AMIn 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 soci…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:24AMSometimes 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 09:26AMMaybe 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 wit…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 03:17AMKennosuke 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 gra…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:47AMA 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 …
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 01:21AMMaybe 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 with…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:01AMBack 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 11:53AMPerforming 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 10:01AMThis 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 Tokyo�…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:38AMAs 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 02:07AMTroupes 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 06:48AMOn 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 t…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 04:50PMResponses 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 11:43PMEver 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 01:56PMWith 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 fr…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:18PMIn 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 07:00PMHaruki 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-…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 11:17PMJapanese 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 10:53PMAs 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 mains…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 12:54AMWhat 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 10:37PMThe 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 Fra…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 09:27PMShuntaro 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 Fatze…
SOURCE: thetheatretimes.com at 05:25AM
