Theatre Communications Group Announces Shinsai: Theaters for Japan

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre has announced Shinsai: Theaters for Japan. On March 11, 2012, the first anniversary of the earthquakes, theatres everywhere are invited to stage fundraising events featuring a menu of 10-minute plays and songs commissioned from major American and Japanese artists. Led by a growing nation-wide consortium of theatre organizations, Shinsai will raise relief funds for the Japanese theatre community affected by the disaster through audience donations distributed though the Japan Playwrights Association.

Shinsai [SHEEN-sigh] means great quake in Japanese. The genesis of the event began shortly after the disaster when actor James Yaegashi, whose family is from a nearby area, called friends in the New York theatre to say, "We as a theatre community have to do something to help our fellow artists on the other side of the world."

Six months later, a consortium of over a dozen organizations has come together to catalyze a nation-wide effort, including the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, The Atlantic Theater, The Cooper Union, The Dramatists Guild, The Dramatists Guild Fund, Japan Playwrights Association, Japan Society, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Play Company, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, The Martin E. Segal Theater Center, New York Theatre Workshop and TCG.

Using the model of 365 Days/365 Plays, theatres everywhere are invited to craft their own event, drawing from the commissioned plays and from work generated by their own resident artists. The commissioned artists include Edward Albee, Philip Kan Gotanda, Richard Greenberg, John Guare, Oriza Hirata, Naomi Iizuka, Nen Ishihara, Shoji Kokami, Tony Kushner, Jeanine Tesori, Toshiki Okada, Yoji Sakate, Kumiko Shinohara, Toshiro Suzue, Suzan-Lori Parks, Doug Wright, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.

“The international solidarity of artists is a vital model for the international solidarity of all humanity,” said Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater. “The American theater community is proud to offer support and partnership to our Japanese colleagues.”

“Shinsai: Theaters for Japan is part of TCG’s efforts to help theatres in this country and across the globe become more resilient in the face of adversity and disaster,” said Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of TCG. “Our National Theatre is increasingly connected to the worldwide theatre community, and Shinsai is an important step to strengthening that interdependence through supporting those theatres in Japan struggling to recover.”

For more information about Shinsai, visit: www.tcg.org/shinsai.

For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 13,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the US Center of the InterNational Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America’s largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. For more information visit www.tcg.org