SHINSAI: Theaters for Japan

A group of us  here in Okinawa are working together to present an evening of theater and live performance as part of Theater Communications Group's benefit SHINSAI:  Theaters for Japan.  We're just at the initial stage, but there is a ton of very good energy already so I'm really excited to see how it will shape up.



Shinsai PSA from Suffolk Street Films on Vimeo.

This benefit we are doing will help rebuild the theater and artist communities in Tohoku that lost everything.  It's a small faction, but the arts are an incredibly important element of the fabric that binds society together.  I hope that this small gesture of solidarity through creative impulse will help. 

(some fragments) At the 高校

I went through a box of old school related Yaeyama photos, mementos and writing from my students. I actually really miss how much closer in some ways I was with my students there than I am here (even though I only visited once in a while, I was able to spend more time with my students at the small island schools). I also feel like I experienced more cultural celebrations and activities -- maybe because I lived on a small island. For instance, last year I celebrated 節分 (Setsubun) with my students. We created masks and threw soybeans (well, we ate more than we threw) and the teachers and students taught me "鬼は外! 福は内!" . Yesterday, it wasn't even mentioned (actually, I mentioned it in relation to bringing fortune/good luck for my students as I was helping them review for their final exam). In many ways, while I had a really hard time dealing with the small island inaka mentality, I am missing the elements of culture that I rarely see while living in Naha. Don't get me wrong, I love living in a city much more than I do a small town on an isolated island (though I did enjoy the beautiful of those islands). I think though, that part of the problem is that I am now at a school that is far too big. I teach close to 500 of them and so I only know a handful of them by name. Another part of it is that I feel like I haven't done a good enough job integrating into the school, at least in getting to know my students beyond the classroom. I guess it's a two-way street though.

昨日 は節分でした.