In 1980, Gary Perlman, 66, moved from Alabama to Tokyo, where he eventually established himself as a translator. While most of his career has been in the financial sector, a passion for theater has led him to write and produce plays as well, with his productions appearing at Tokyo’s New National Theatre and New York’s Off Broadway. Most recently, he has developed a kabuki adaptation of “Madame Butterfly” that will be performed at Kyoto’s Minamiza Theater this December — the first time a work conceived by a non-Japanese will be shown at a major kabuki theater.
1. When did you start taking an interest in foreign culture and language? During my time at Duke University, I had the opportunity to study British literature on a summer program at Oxford University. Having an American perspective, I quickly realized that, even though I was reading the same language, everything was rooted in a culture very different from my own.
2. Did this experience inform your decision to move to Tokyo? It got me interested in going overseas and learning about different cultures. If two countries seemingly so close in culture could be so far apart, I wondered what it would be like to live in a country totally foreign to me. I applied for English teaching positions all over the place and was accepted for spots in Amsterdam and Tokyo. I knew I’d end up speaking lots of English if I went to Amsterdam, so Tokyo it was.
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