The 10th edition of Kyoto Experiment marked the end of a decade-long labor of love for Yusuke Hashimoto, who stepped down as program director and passed the baton on to three new co-directors. What impact has this performing arts event had at home and abroad? What are some of the milestones in its story so far?
On the Theatre Olympics 2019 at Toga Village, Toyama
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on August 14 2019. Since the late 1970s, people from all over the world have traveled to the village of Toga in rural Toyama Prefecture to attend Tadashi Suzuki’s renowned acting classes or to see the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) and other invited artists…
On the Performing Arts Program at the Aichi Triennale 2019
This article was originally published in The Japan Times newspaper on July 30 2019. The political function of art is a perennial question in the field of aesthetics. In classical Athens, Plato argued that art as a form of imitation was limited in its ability to communicate knowledge about political life. In contrast, Aristotle saw…
Learning to linger: on memory & migration in Eiko Otake’s movement art
Paper given at the Contemporary Japanese Theatre Workshop, Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien, in Tokyo, July 27, 2019. This paper is part of a larger research project, co-conducted with Mika Eglinton, called “Japanese Women on the Move: Migration, Memory and Gender in Contemporary Performance.” The project draws on in-depth interviews with internationally renowned practitioners from Japan…
Re-performing news narratives in an ESL classroom in Japan through Living Newspapers
Article published in the International Association of Performing Language (IAPL) Journal, Issue 3, Dec. 2018. Pp. 1-25. Read the article in full here. Abstract The term “Living Newspaper” or zhivaya gazeta originated in Russia during the October Revolution of 1917. It refers to public readings of party political news for audiences in (mostly) rural locations….
Learner autonomy and applied theatre in the ESL classroom
Paper given at the ILA Conference on Learner Autonomy at Konan Women’s University, September 5th — September 8th, 2018. Abstract In their analysis of autonomy in the educational philosophy of Paulo Freire, Nicolaides and Fernandes (2008) outline two broad strands in the theory and practice of learner autonomy in education. The first follows Henri Holec’s…
Dwelling on the Documentary Body in Takuya Murakawa’s “Independent Living”
Paper given at the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference (IFTR) in Belgrade, July 12, 2018, as part of the Choreography and Corporeality Working Group. The premise behind Takuya Murakawa’s “Independent Living” 2017, is deceptively simple. An audience member is invited to play the role of a patient. S/he is instructed to lie in silence…
Theatre Review: The Winter’s Tale dir. Satoshi Miyagi
Review of The Winter’s Tale, dir. by Satoshi Miyagi at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre, Shizuoka, 11 February 2017. Published in Shakespeare Studies, Vol 55, 2017. Pp. 47-50. Production trailer Time lapse video of the stage construction for The Winter’s Tale
Dance in Asia 2018 – A radical retelling of the Tale of Genji
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on February 20 2018. How do you make a thousand-year-old story resonate with an audience in Osaka today? Tell them that you plan to radically modernize one of the most famous literary works ever to come out of Japan to fit present concerns. The centerpiece…
Profile on Berlin-based visual and performance artist, Naoko Tanaka
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on January 13 2018. A spotlight shines on a miniature primary school chair. Its steel frame is crumpled like a child’s body cowering in fear. Soon, other chairs of differing sizes come into view, lit by a solitary woman, who crawls among them with a…
Andrew Eglinton 