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
Tag: Shakespeare
Is all the World Still a Stage? Shakespeare and ESL in Higher Education in Japan
Roundtable panel discussion, part of the Japanese Society for Theatre Research Conference held at Kyoto Sangyo University, December 3-4 2016. Panel rationale Student-led productions of Shakespeare were a common feature in post-war Japanese universities. Shakespeare was still widely seen as the centre of the western literary canon, and English literature departments took pride in…
50 Years of Shakespeare at Konan Women’s University
Drawing on a range of interviews with past and present students and teachers, this book charts 50 years of annual student Shakespeare productions performed in English as a second language at Konan Women’s University in Kobe, Japan. When I began conducting interviews for this commemorative book in late 2014, I had three goals in mind. First, to…
Konan W.U. students mark 50 years of Shakespeare in English
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on March 31 2015. In 1964, the late Polish theater scholar Jan Kott wrote “Shakespeare, Our Contemporary,” an influential book that questioned the processes of producing Shakespeare in the here and now and whether the Bard’s texts should serve as clues for an archeological dig…
"Twelfth Night" and "I, Malvolio" at ACM Theater, Art Tower Mito
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on Feb 4 2015. Over the past decade, Shintaro Mori has made a name for himself in Japan’s theater world as a director with a passion for plays in translation. So, true to form, next month at the ACM Theater in Art Tower Mito he…
On the Asian Shakespeare Association's first Conference and the new Owl Spot Shakespeare Festival (Tokyo)
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on Nov 19 2014. 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? Since the 1990s, in the field of Shakespeare…
Nomura Mansai's "Suitcase Macbeth"
This article was originally published in the Japan Times newspaper on July 16 2014. Cultures collide on the small square stage of Mansai Nomura’s pared-down “Macbeth,” in which the actor/director draws on the restrained aesthetics of noh and the agility and wit of kyōgen traditional comic theater as he transplants his version of Shakespeare’s blood-soaked Scottish play to medieval…
Andrew Eglinton 