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November 23, 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
May 29, 2019
The return of the Beatles to Japanese stages with 'Backbeat'
As a concept, "if" may be mere conjecture in real life. In fact, though, if Stuart Sutcliffe hadn't taken his best friend John Lennon's advice back in 1960 and left art school to play bass guitar in his band, the music world would now be quite different.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 30, 2019
It's Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' but not as you know it
With praise for his "Hamlet" with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2016 still ringing in his ears — and the plum job of artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. awaiting him in August — Simon Godwin is an undoubted darling of English theater these days.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2019
Absurdist comedy 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour' gets its Japan debut
Tom Stoppard is one of the most influential figures in theater today and one of the most internationally performed postwar dramatists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 12, 2019
Transforming the traditional world of kabuki with Kinoshita-Kabuki
For many people, the mention of kabuki brings to mind images of exaggerated makeup on actors' white-painted faces, beautiful kimono costumes and colorful sets with dramatic backdrops.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 6, 2019
Creating opportunities for 'inclusive dance' with Stopgap Dance Company
"I believe people with almost any kind of physique can do contemporary dance. Yet though there are many courses for able-bodied people, there is almost nothing for people with disabilities," says Sho Shibata, executive producer of U.K.-based Stopgap Dance Company.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2019
'Kinkakuji': Staging a Japanese classic with a German twist
A new opera based on the quintessentially Japanese novel "Kinkakuji" is set to open in Tokyo following a premiere held not in Kyoto, where the famed golden pavilion of its title is to be found, but at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, France.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 5, 2019
The actors hoping to save Kyoto University's Yoshida Dormitory
Students and stage fans will see whether a hastily arranged series of performances of Bertolt Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera" this weekend can break a decades-long standoff over the closure of Japan's oldest student dormitory: the wooden Yoshida ryō (Yoshida Dormitory) at Kyoto University.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2019
The 'King' returns and theaters look to Russia for 2019
Whether it's regular theater that gets you going these days — or you're skipping along more to musicals — as 2019's curtains rise, variety will be the spice of live stages this coming year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 8, 2019
'Crime and Punishment': The crime you'll be glad you were a witness to
In a scoop for Tokyo, Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya Ward is set to mark the new year with the world premiere of a new production of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" in an original production by English director Phillip Breen with a Japanese cast.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2018
2018 was the year in Japan that saw the stage sing, while contemporary drama barely made a squeak
Musicals have flourished in 2018, with many young stars also helping to sell out straight plays in which they appeared. However, the contemporary drama scene in Japan has been unusually quiet this year in terms of new works and writers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2018
On the road to new experiences, post-SMAP, with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi
It has been almost two years since pop group SMAP split up, but its demise after over two decades at the forefront of entertainment in Japan is still fresh in everyone's memory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2018
'An Enemy of the People': The not-so-silent majority speaks out again
In one bound, the rising English director Jonathan Munby found himself in the spotlight of Britain's theater scene in 2017 when his smash-hit production of "King Lear," with Sir Ian McKellen in the title role, transferred straight from the rural Chichester Festival Theatre to the West End.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 11, 2018
Tokyo Festival looks to throw open some doors with fringe elements
If the inclusion of Festival/Tokyo in Tokyo Festival's diverse program of performing arts is any indication, theater events in Tokyo have been evolving over the past decade or so.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage / Backstage Pass
Oct 4, 2018
'Hurricane — The Life of Tian Han' tells the story of the father of contemporary Chinese theater
There has always been a considerable amount of cultural exchange between China and Japan, but we've recently been seeing it take place in new areas like underground music, blockbuster films and contemporary theater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 20, 2018
Golden oldies: A Saitama theater festival for elderly actors welcomes seniors from around the world
Renowned theater director Yukio Ninagawa broke new ground when he launched Saitama Gold Theater in 2006. Instead of seasoned actors, he filled his troupe with amateurs who were all older than 55.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2018
Akinori Nakagawa captures Frankie Valli's voice in 'Jersey Boys'
Nothing sounds quite like the early 1960s more than the vocals of Frankie Valli. As lead singer of The Four Seasons, his falsetto remains an unmistakable part of classic tunes such as "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don't Cry," though it's also his remarkable voice, in a lower register, behind hits like "Can't...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 4, 2018
'Swimming With Sharks': A horrible boss is truly universal
The lobby of the Setagaya Public Theatre in Tokyo teemed with women on Sept. 1, each eager to see Kei Tanaka in action. The 34-year-old actor — and judging by the buzz in the lobby, bona fide dreamboat — recently captured hearts in "Ossan's Love," a TV Asahi rom-com in which he played a cute gay...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 15, 2018
Dramatist Hideto Iwai connects with his audiences in ways he never could have imagined by being honest about his own life experiences
When he was 16, Hideto Iwai was perplexed as to why everyone around him unquestioningly jumped onto society's student-to-salaryman conveyor belt. So, he broke free, dropping out of high school and picking up casual jobs where he could find them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 8, 2018
Could Japan have its own Cirque du Soleil?
When the circus comes to town in most parts of the world these days, you won't see elephants, tigers or clowns with big red noses.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 18, 2018
Drum Tao aims for blockbuster grandeur in its latest production
Based in mountainous Oita Prefecture in northeastern Kyushu, the privately owned and run Drum Tao company has barely paused from pounding away at the international entertainment market since it launched its overseas ambitions with a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004.
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Saitama court bans demonstrations over anti-Kurd hate speech
Kurdish people in Japan in 2015. A court injunction has banned acts that defame the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association and are disrespectful, such as putting up banner flags or handing out fliers with hate speech like “Refugees should go back to their home countries.”
China reinstates visa-free travel for Japanese nationals
Beijing Daxing International Airport
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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