On November 6, Kyoko Iwaki’s book Tokyo Theatre Today: Conversations with Eight Emerging Theatre Artists will be published in Tokyo, followed by a UK book launch on November 30.
In the words of the author:
The eight playwrights and directors featured in this collection of interviews are the leading Tokyo contemporary theatre practitioners, who are now all being frequently invited to international theatre festivals. Here they discuss their backgrounds, core conceptual ideas, rehearsal techniques, and key works, in conversation with a journalist with over ten years’ experience covering the Japanese performing arts scene.
Fully bilingual in English and Japanese, this is the first book published in years to introduce the Japanese contemporary theatre scene to the foreign readers. It is an essential text for understanding Tokyo’s emerging theatre talent as well as important recent cultural trends in Japan.
There are interviews with: Akira Takayama (Port B), Shu Matsui (Sample), Toshiki Okada (chelfitsch), Hideto Iwai (Hi-bye), Tomohiro Maekawa (Ikiume), Daisuke Miura (potudo-ru), Kuro Tanino (Niwa Gekidan Penino), and Shiro Maeda (Gotanndadan).
The book will be available on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.co.jp, at NADiff a/p/a/r/t branches and other major booksellers in Tokyo, and is set to be sold in independent art bookstores in Europe from December.
[Full disclosure: I assisted with the English translations!]
Tokyo Stages 