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November 22, 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.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 25, 2006
Euripides transported
As one of the three great tragedians of ancient Greece, along with Sophocles and Aischylos, Euripides is well-known to modern theatergoers through masterworks such as "Electra." From Aug. 26-Sept. 10, Theatre Project Tokyo will present one of Euripides' later -- and lesser-known -- works, "Bakxai," at...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 17, 2006
Filtering Shakespeare with noh
Despite the variety of attempts, few productions of Shakespeare succeed in bringing new insight to the playwright's works. In May 2004, though, when director Yoshihiro Kurita presented "Macbeth" in a traditional noh theatrical style at the Ryutopia Theater in Niigata, audiences and critics alike were...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 27, 2006
The revenge of the Red Demon
Playwright, actor and director Hideki Noda has been the undisputed leader of the Japanese contemporary theater world for 30 years. In that time he has written, directed and often acted in more than 60 plays in Japan -- all of them hits or superhits among his mushrooming fanbase. In fact, Noda has been...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 21, 2006
Celtic epic set in Ryukyu
In an outdoor treat to rival summer's traditional fireworks displays, Satoshi Miyagi's renowned Ku Na'uka contemporary theater company is this week staging its version of the Celtic chivalry epic,"Tristan and Isolde" in the grounds of the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno from July 24-30.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 14, 2006
Summer's door
"Natsu no Tobira (Door to Summer)," a play by Osaka-based theater company Ishinha, premiered at the Cervantino Arts Festival in Mexico in October 2005 before touring Brazil. Ishinha is now back in its homeland for its Japan debut -- limited to five performances in Osaka only.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 13, 2006
Antiestablishment for all
Founded in 1970 by director Sho Ryuzanji, the Engekidan company was a natural bridge between two major theatrical movements in postwar Japan: the 1960s underground scene of dramatists such as Shuji Terayama and Juro Kara and the so-called "small-scale theater movement" started in the 1980s by the likes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 22, 2006
Bringing "Lepage magic" to Tokyo
Last year, to mark the bicentennial of the birth of author Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75), Denmark held a yearlong celebration titled "Andersen Project 2005." Part of the project was a special commission to French-Canadian dramatist Robert Lepage to create a play commemorating the author's life and...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 9, 2006
Journalists capture life through a lens
The monthly photojournalism magazine Days Japan is currently exhibiting award-winning images from its 2nd International Photojournalism Awards at the Konica Minolta Plaza in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The exhibition, titled "Living on Earth 2006," runs through June 19.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 4, 2006
How shall we dance?
This summer, the movie that shot Johnny Depp to Hollywood stardom, Tim Burton's 1990 fantasy "Edward Scissorhands," comes to Japan as a live dance stage created and directed by Matthew Bourne.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 2, 2006
Hit fairy tale musical returns
Voted Best Musical of 2004 by the vernacular magazine Musical, "Into the Woods" returns to the New National Theatre with even greater verve than before, boosted by an increased confidence and greater experience second time around.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 1, 2006
Addressing social issues with drama
The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is often dubbed "the father of modern drama" for being one of the first to place ordinary people squarely center stage. Forty-four-year-old Yoji Sakate, founder of the Rinkogun theater company, has now created not just an homage to this Scandinavian icon,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 12, 2006
Pages stages world premiere
Avant-garde Spanish flamenco dancer Maria Pages stages the world premiere of her production "Sevilla" in Tokyo from May 14 to 16.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 5, 2006
Shakespeare with a smile
The International Theatre Company London (ITCL) returns to Japan this month with its production of Shakespeare's early comedy "The Taming of the Shrew," a politically incorrect ode to the achievement of hierarchical social harmony as portrayed through men's efforts to control the passions of feisty heroine...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 7, 2006
Flamenco dances with betrayal
Aida Gomez, the young and brilliant new star of flamenco, returns to Japan with her latest self-choreographed production of Georges Bizet's "Carmen" as well as her famed "Salome." Her run of performances starts April 14 in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 6, 2006
Soylent green is now money
Written in 2003 by German playwright Rene Pollesch, "Soylent Green ist Menschenfleisch, sagt es allen weiter! (Soylent Green is people, tell everybody!)" is like a great sand dune full of hidden diamonds. Four actors -- three anonymous women and a man -- speak in monologues to each other and the audience...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 24, 2006
Bedtime stories
When the small-scale production "Philippine Bedtime Stories," an omnibus of three short plays by Filipino writers about male-female relationships, played in Tokyo in November 2004, word-of-mouth spread quickly, especially to audiences younger than the usual theater crowd in tune with its controversial...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 23, 2006
A grand splash
Just before Japan's economy took a downturn, the Tokyu railroad conglomerate celebrated good times with the construction of the splendidly designed Bunkamura arts complex just behind its flagship department store in Tokyo's Shibuya district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 23, 2006
Dueling kabuki in Shibuya
Currently at the Parco Theatre, a short distance across Shibuya from Theatre Cocoon, is further evidence of the vitality of contemporary kabuki. However, unlike Kazuyoshi Kushida's re-imaginings of "Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Tokaido Ghost Story)," "Ketto! Takadanobaba (Duel in Takadanobaba)" at Parco is...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 10, 2006
Dancer brings the supernaturalto creature at bottom of garden
After a two-week run playing to full houses and widespread acclaim in December, "Skellig" is back. Based on British novelist David Almond's book, which won the author the Whitbread and the Carnegie children's book prizes in 1998, "Skellig" is a play that tells the story of the hero Michael (Konousuke...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2006
Access to comic noh drama gets easier
Setagaya Public Theatre's next program in its kyogen (comic drama) series, "The Kyogen Theatre Vol. 3.," runs March 2 through March 12.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia launched intercontinental ballistic missile during attack on Ukraine, Kyiv says
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is launched during a test from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Northern Arkhangelsk region of Russia, in this still image captured from video released on Oct. 29.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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Longform

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