Photos from the Performance

Photos from the SHINSAI:  Theaters for Japan performance on March 11th, 2012 in Koza, Okinawa City, Japan.  All photo credits go to either Logan McIntosh or Ron Simms.  Some of the photos can be found at Angi B.'s place (it is from her blog that I borrowed most of them).  

outside the theater in Koza, Okinawa City

Introducing the SHINSAI:  Theaters for Japan Project

SAYONARA II by ORIZA HIRATA

A PROBLEM OF BLOOD by YOJI SAKATE (left photo)
KENJI AND AI by Autumn Widdoes (right photo)

WIND FROM NORTHWEST by KUMIKO SHINOHARA

THE LENGTH OF THIS PLAY HAS THE HALF LIFE OF URANIUM
by SUZAN-LORI PARKS

We love you. 

KENJI AND AI/ 健二と愛

This is the play I wrote.  It's called KENJI AND AI, or   健二と愛 in Japanese. It was presented at  沖縄市中心市街地演劇活動センター on March 11th, 2012 in Koza, Okinawa City, Japan as part of the SHINSAI:  Theaters for Japan benefit to help rebuild theater arts in the Tohoku region that was devastated last year.

KENJI AND AI was translated into Japanese by Masanori with edits by Yuji Nema.  Yuji Nema also performed in the short play as Kenji Miyazaki alongside Shiho Ishigaki who played his younger sister Ai Miyazaki.  The story, for those who cannot understand Japanese, is about two siblings who have relocated to the Southern Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) to live with a distant relative after their entire family went missing during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami that followed.  In the play, they address the trauma of their loss and hopes for their future, while trying to see the beauty in nature despite having seen its destructive side.

I'm going to put up a subtitled version of the video in English soon for those who want to have the original text available while watching the movie. 

I will also post clips from the other plays we presented that day.  They should be up by this weekend.

Remembering the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

I've been silent for a while and there is a good reason as to why.  As I mentioned in the last post, I've been working on producing the SHINSAI:  THEATERS FOR JAPAN project to benefit the Japan Playwrights Associations' funds to help theater artists rebuild and revive theater in the Tohoku region.  We have a week to go before the performances and I'm very excited about what we're doing.  It's been such a wonderful experience so far.  I love how live performance stimulates people and contributes to a sense of community, even amount people who may not know each other well.  I couldn't have put this together myself, so I have to thank many individuals who have enabled it to happen (and I am very thankful that they saw the possibilities and need for it to happen). It's such a great experience to be able to do this while also knowing it will help communities who have been through such a traumatic experience.  It also, in many ways, is helping us think about last year's tragedy and address the social and political issues that the earthquake raised. It also gives us a chance to open up about our feelings -- our empathy for and connection to those affected by it and our own fears regarding what happened last year.