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August 15, 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
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 21, 2010
'Obsession' eyes values through the lens of dance
Saburo Teshigawara's first-ever duet dance program, titled "Obsession" — with his regular ensemble partner Rihoko Sato — is now being staged at Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya after an ecstatically received May 2009 premiere at the Art Rock Festival in St. Brieuc in Brittany, France.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 14, 2010
Here comes 'Othello': 'the best play ever'
"The tragedy 'Othello' was written by Shakespeare at the height of his powers [around 1602], its poetry is finer than 'Hamlet,' its psychology deeper than 'Macbeth,' its love story more compelling than 'Romeo and Juliet,' its heartbreaking tragedy more moving than 'King Lear.' 'Othello' might be the...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 7, 2010
Showing the drama of Japan's office politics
Yokohama-based Chelfitsch theater company is currently staging a short Tokyo season prior to a European tour with its highly acclaimed "Hotpepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech," which premiered at the Hebbel am Ufer Theatre (HAU) in Berlin last October.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 7, 2010
Understanding the bank crisis via the stage
"If you want to understand the banking crisis, you should go to the theater" — this isn't a blurb for an economics book, it's from a review for "The Power of Yes," the latest work by English playwright David Hare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2010
Director-actor Hideto Iwai proves that anything is possible when you come out of hiding
Tokyo-based Hi-bye, whose name means "crawling-death" (from the Japanese hi-hi, meaning "to crawl," and the English farewell, "bye-bye") was founded in 2003 by playwright, director and actor Hideto Iwai, 35, and has built a reputation for its keen observations of the darker and weaker aspects of humans...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 9, 2010
Go Gaga over Israeli troupe Batsheva
On a map of the current contemporary dance world, Israel would be a key hub.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 26, 2010
Theater group does drama for scientists
Kicking off the 2010-11 season at the Komaba Agora Theater in Tokyo's central Meguro Ward, a student troupe from the University of Hull in northeast England will present "Kagaku Suru Kokoro," an early masterpiece by leading Japanese contemporary playwright Oriza Hirata, in its English-language translation,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 19, 2010
Japanese bureaucracy can be incredibly frustrating, but it also makes great entertainment
In the early summer of 2008, Japan's theater world was agog as details emerged of a decision by senior board members of the New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT) to replace Hitoshi Uyama, its acclaimed artistic director, barely a year into the job, with the mainstream director Keiko Miyata from September...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 12, 2010
Dancer Rizzi brings unique story to Japan
"Why go to a performance instead of renting a DVD and staying at home?" ponders 44-year-old dancer, choreographer, actor and visual artist Antony Rizzi on the Boston Cyberarts Festival Web site. Rizzi feels that this is an exciting time for dance to do battle with the lethargic pull of the home entertainment...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 5, 2010
Renowned dramatist to bring Kafka to life
An international stage collaboration is on hand as renowned English dramatist Steven Berkoff directs a Japanese cast in his own adaptation of "The Metamorphosis," a novella by Czech author Franz Kafka.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 26, 2010
One of a kind
Theater programs the world over list the writer, director, cast members, designers, lighting specialists and such in their credits. Lately in Japan, though, a new role has begun to appear in among those credits — that of "dramaturge."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 7, 2010
Taeko Tomiyama: Brushing with authority
I will never forget the day I went to a show titled "Embracing Asia: Taeko Tomiyama Retrospective 1950-2009," which was one of 370 art exhibits by creators from 40 countries comprising the fourth Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial staged over 50 days last autumn at locations across a huge area of rural Niigata...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2010
Theater star brings new tricks to the stage
In the summer of 2008, a shockwave hit the world of Japanese theater when Keishi Nagatsuka announced he was taking a yearlong break from the stage to take a government-sponsored sabbatical in London.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2009
Cuts fear clouds a year of diversity and innovation in Japan theater
Following the landmark change of government in August, meetings of its Budget Screening Committee have for the first time been opened to the public. Sadly, though, when that committee got round to arts financing in November, many members harshly criticized the amount awarded to the public theater sector....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2009
U.K. 'samurai' lands in Japan
When U.S. President Barack Obama bowed to the Emperor during his visit to Japan last month, the headline of The Japan Times read: "U.S. conservatives: Obama bowed too deeply to Emperor." While some Americans accused the U.S. commander in chief of "groveling to a foreign leader," however, the Japanese...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 27, 2009
Choreographer finds harmony in simplicity
Mention Belgium and you might think of chocolate or beer, but it also occupies a special position in the world of contemporary dance.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 20, 2009
Asian Performing Arts Festival has works from seven nations
If you'd like to sample some of the best contemporary performing arts that Asia has to offer — without leaving Japan — then check out the Asian Performing Arts Festival 2009.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2009
England's War of the Roses is being fought in modern-day Tokyo
Back in July, at a New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT) press conference to herald this autumn's special staging of William Shakespeare's nine-hour-long "Henry VI" trilogy, Hitoshi Uyama, 56, its director, declared his intention to go beneath and beyond the blood, guts and gore of the famous epic set during...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2009
Tokyo theater scene gets kiss of life
The Edinburgh theater and street-performance festival in Scotland annually sends a buzz round the arts world; France's Avignon invariably features a cordon bleu international menu; and Adelaide and Singapore vie for the Asia-Pacific spotlight.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 9, 2009
Butoh master Maro finds 'G'
Just seven months after the box-office and critical success of his magnificent and divine dance program "Symphony M," Akaji Maro is set to stage a new production.
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

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