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July 16, 2024
 

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Nobuko Tanaka

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Nobuko Tanaka
Nobuko Tanaka is a stage writer who has regularly contributed contemporary theater and dance articles to The Japan Times since 2001. She also writes for several Japanese and overseas magazines and web sites. As a promoter, she takes Japanese artists to foreign theater festivals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 13, 2009
Theater unchained in Marx-themed play
The grave of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, North London, is marked by a bronze bust of the German political philosopher and economist atop a massive granite block on which is inscribed: "Workers of all lands unite."
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 6, 2009
Silence is golden all over the world
Who are these two guys — one has a red Mohawk, the other a yellow one? They are popping up everywhere these days on TV sporting black shades and tight mod suits — even advertising potato snacks. Well, the red one's Ketch, the other is Hiro-pon, and together they are Gamarjobat ("Hello" in...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 6, 2009
Silence is golden all over the world
Who are these two guys — one has a red Mohawk, the other a yellow one? They are popping up everywhere these days on TV sporting black shades and tight mod suits — even advertising potato snacks. Well, the red one's Ketch, the other is Hiro-pon, and together they are Gamarjobat ("Hello" in...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2009
Drama outsider takes a step into the theater
Kuro Tanino leaped into the spotlight in November 2007 with a production of Henrik Ibsen's tragicomedy "The Wild Duck" that was almost sold out for a month at Theater 1010 in Tokyo's Kitasenju.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 9, 2009
Simple stage for classic poem
If soaring words and soulful music are what you seek from theatergoing, then look no further than "Enoch Arden," the first program in Tokyo-based production company Total Stage Produce's series, titled "A Link Between Words/Language and Music."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 1, 2009
Hidenori Inoue takes a stab at Richard III
During his final year at Osaka University of Arts in 1980, Hidenori Inoue founded the Gekidan★Shinkansen theater company with several classmates. The 48-year-old native of Fukuoka in Kyushu hasn't looked back since.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2008
Originality and flair hits 2008
A year ago, I was sad to report on the sluggish condition of the Japanese contemporary theater world. Now, I am delighted to have had to struggle to select just five of the best of plays of 2008 from so many worthy contenders — many of them new and original works concerned with the current social...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 12, 2008
Marriage is no bed of roses
This is great news for all those who have despaired at the tiny portion of straightforward, high-quality, "grownup" stage entertainment that gets served up to theatergoers in Japan — as opposed to all those dollops of third-rate faux Broadway and facile star vehicles.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 5, 2008
'Kuroneko' plays on Poe's thriller
One of Japan's most in-demand young creators, 38-year-old visual designer and film director Shutaro Oku, is currently debuting as a theater director with "Kuroneko," his adaptation of 19th century American author Edgar Allan Poe's short thriller masterpiece "The Black Cat."
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 14, 2008
Spanish dance troupe retells a modern 'Romeo and Juliet'
William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet," about the fate of a young couple whose rival families in medieval Italy forbid their relationship, has inspired many artists in many fields.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2008
Going abroad to make it at home
Mugensha Theatre Company is based in Tokyo, but it is probably better known in Britain. The company has played three London seasons — in 2002, '05 and '06 — since it was founded by director and actor Soun Kotakebayashi in 1995 with the intention of taking contemporary Japanese drama to Europe....
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 10, 2008
Pappa Tarahumara stages quirky take on 'Gulliver' tale
Hiroshi Koike, founder of the internationally renowned Pappa Tarahumara performing- arts company, says on its Web site that he has been interested in Irish satirist and cleric Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) for more than 20 years.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 26, 2008
Which way blows the wind?
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2008
Lindsay Kemp's Virgin Queen comes to Japan
It was a scorching day in July and the air in Tokyo's concrete jungle was shimmering in the heat. But on a visit here prior to next month's opening of his voluptuous production "Elizabeth I: the Last Dance" at Theatre Cocoon, avant-garde performance-art icon Lindsay Kemp — a self-described "stranger...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 25, 2008
An incomprehensible answer for modernity
Check the film listings and you'll find Akira Emoto cast in at least 10 movies playing this autumn. Since winning the Japan Academy Awards prize for supporting actor in 1983 and '97 and for leading actor in '98 — for his role in "Kanzo Sensei (Dr. Liver)" — Emoto has become one of Japan's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 21, 2008
A linguistic boxing match from a true classic
Internationally acclaimed English theater director David Leveaux first visited Japan 20 years ago as the substitute director of "Dangerous Liaisons" after an English colleague had to pull out. Now Leveaux, 50, is back in his second home after a bewildering series of trips from his London base to Vienna,...
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2008
Staffing decisions at the NNTT cause a stir in theater world
The Japanese theater world is currently in crisis over the question of to whom public theaters belong, since the decision by the New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT) to appoint new artistic directors for each of its three divisions. The disquiet has been caused by revelations following a June 30 announcement...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 25, 2008
Bungaku-za to stage 'Tom's Midnight Garden'
School holidays are here, and as part of the International Family Festival that it has staged annually since 1993, the Nissay Theatre in Hibiya, Tokyo, this year includes in its program a rare production of "Tom's Midnight Garden" by the long-established Bungaku-za theater company.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 27, 2008
Revel in Lock's fusion of dance
For more than 25 years, the Canadian troupe La La La Human Steps has been hailed as one of the world's leading and most radical contemporary dance companies since it was founded by Moroccan-born Edouard Lock in 1980.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 19, 2008
Tracing political cause and effect
Dramatists in their 30s have moved to the forefront of Japanese contemporary theater in recent years. Since 2004, the country's most prestigious theater accolade, the Kishida Drama Award, has gone to thirtysomething playwright/ directors Daisuke Miura, Toshiki Okada and Shiro Maeda. Also, the New National...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

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Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
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