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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
Oct 9, 2009
It is in the East and Juliet is a ballet dancer named Shoko
Shoko Nakamura, the 29-year-old principal dancer of the Staatsballett Berlin, is back in Japan for a well-earned vacation and to make her debut in a classic role.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009
Making sure nothing is lost in translation
"The Coast of Utopia" a 10-hour-long trilogy of plays — comprising "Voyage," "Shipwreck" and "Salvage" — was originally written in 2002 by Tom Stoppard for the National Theatre in London. An award-winning English playwright, Stoppard first shot to fame with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 11, 2009
'Soldier's Tale' to hit Japan
Tokyo audiences have an opportunity this weekend to see a stage gem performed only 12 times before — and always in its birthplace of the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, home of the fabled Royal Ballet.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 21, 2009
Be a fool and dance Bon-odori
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2009
Playwright Tomohiro Maekawa finds the uncanny in the mundane
In February this year, 35-year-old Tomohiro Maekawa's reputation was given a boost when he was nominated in both the best-playwright and best-director categories of the prestigious Yomiuri Theater Awards. Although Maekawa didn't walk away with an award; the nominations, coming just six years after he...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 17, 2009
East German backs Japan's public theaters
Peter Goesnner was born in Leipzig, in the former communist East Germany, in 1962. His dream was to be a great football player, but 40 years later, the witty, easy-going German is in Tokyo directing "Sekishoku Elegy" ("Red Elegy") by absurdist playwright Minoru Betsuyaku. Staged in 1980 for only one...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 3, 2009
Propeller puts an old spin back on the Bard
"Propeller may be another English group of actors doing a play by their compatriot, Shakespeare, but this is something quite different. How different? . . . Well, you will understand what I mean if you see it!"
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 26, 2009
Noh, Shakespeare joined in a 'Tempest'
The acclaimed Noh stagings of Shakespeare by Ryutopia (Niigata Prefecture's public theater) resume next month both at home and in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 26, 2009
How to conjure worlds from the fewest words
One evening in late May, a cozy rehearsal room in Yokohama was more like a drill hall as Mikuni Yanaihara called for another run through a dance scene in her latest play, "Gonin Shimai" ("Five Sisters").
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 5, 2009
See a rising ballet star
After staging "Tales of Beatrix Potter," a cheerful program for kids of all ages in February, then the beautiful and tragic love story of classical-dance masterpiece "Giselle" in May, K-Ballet's offering for just four days this month is "Symphony No. 9" by its 37-year-old founder, artistic director and...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 5, 2009
Toilet humor set for Tokyo theater
The title may be cheesy, but there's plenty that's memorable about the content of this politically astute musical, too.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 22, 2009
A mother alone
To launch Za Koenji, the new public theater in Suginami Ward designed by Toyo Ito, artistic director Makoto Sato made the bold decision to present "Keshou Two Acts" ("Makeup"), a one-woman play by renowned writer and director Hisashi Inoue that stars Misako Watanabe. Now 76, the veteran actress first...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 24, 2009
Wishing Chong: from barbecue to demons
2008 was undoubtedly the year of "Yakiniku Dragon" ("Korean Barbecue Dragon"), a realistic, autobiographical work by the Korean-Japanese playwright Wishing Chong that premiered April 17 in the New National Theatre's Pit. When the curtain came down that night on the NNT/Seoul Arts Center collaboration...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 10, 2009
Dance meets theater
Long ago, 52-year-old Belgian choreographer Alain Platel was an orthopedic therapist. Then, in 1984, he founded his performing troupe called "Les Ballets C. de la B." Now his company — whose strikingly original approach to contemporary dance positions it, along with the likes of German dance legend...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 3, 2009
Swords and slapstick
In Los Angeles last week, the showdown in the World Baseball Classic between Japan's "Samurai" and their South Korean rivals had TV audiences gripped. So, too, were those at Saitama Arts Theater, who witnessed an acting duel between 26-year-olds Tatsuya Fujiwara and Shun Oguri in "Musashi," a hilarious...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 6, 2009
Juliette Binoche takes to the stage — this time to dance
The Oscars are still in the air, and not just in Hollywood, as Tokyo is set to host Juliette Binoche — winner of Best Supporting Actress in 1996 for her role in "The English Patient" — in a weeklong run of "in-i," a dance work she created and is performing with Akram Khan, one of England's...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 27, 2009
In a world first, Tokyo produces Tennessee Williams' 'Mrs. Stone' for stage
The premiere of a stage production based on a major work of fiction is a major event. If the work is "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," a 1950 novel by Tennessee Williams — one of the giants of modern theater — it is all the more remarkable.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2009
Its director's cut on new Festival/Tokyo
Japan may be floundering politically and economically, but amid all the uncertainties it is a joy to report the sparkling rebirth of a major international theater event in Tokyo.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 20, 2009
Butoh master shows his class
Akaji Maro, founder of the Dairakudakan (Great Camel Ship) company, and one of Japan's revered icons of the butoh dance form, is known for often speaking rather obliquely. Speaking during rehearsals last July for the world premier of his company's "Secrets of Mankind" at the American Dance Festival's...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 13, 2009
The old ones are the best
More than three years ago, theater director Sho Ryuzanji launched Paradise Ichiza, a professional company whose cast was comprised of veteran dramatists who had only ever before been involved off stage, as theater owners, lighting specialists, voice actors, directors or in academia. When Ryuzani, 61,...
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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Longform

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'
By Tomoko Otake

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Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals
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