Japan Society Announces Its Spring 2010 Performing Arts Season

Japan Society announces an exciting spring season featuring a variety of art forms, ranging from traditional Japanese comic theater to a weekend of experimental music. The 2010 spring season highlights include a reading of the contemporary Japanese play Women in a Holy Mess written by Ai Nagai, one of the most prominent and beloved female playwrights in Japan today, the centuries-old art of comedic theater, kyogen, performed by the Yamamoto Kyogen Company, and The Play Company's production of Enjoy written by Toshiki Okada, founder of chelfitsch Theater Company (whose North American debut tour was produced by Japan Society in winter 2009), presented in association with Japan Society. The Spring 2010 season concludes with STEIM (Studio of Electro-Instrumental Music), the Amsterdam-based music laboratory of electronic sound and instrument experimentation, in two days of events that culminate in a concert.

All events take place at Japan Society unless otherwise noted.

JAPAN SOCIETY PERFORMING ARTS SEASON (FEBRUARY - MAY 2010)

Play Reading Series: Women in a Holy Mess
Monday, February 22 @ 7:30 PM
Tickets $10/$8 Japan Society members
Ai Nagai's Women in a Holy Mess is a hilarious portrayal of post-menopausal life written by one of the most prominent and beloved female playwrights in Japan today. Tsunko, a woman in her 50s, just broke up with her boyfriend, twenty years her junior. When two of her childhood friends come to her apartment and find it in total disarray, it doesn't take long for them to abandon cleaning the place and start adding to the chaos with their own stories, secrets and losses. Co-founder of the acclaimed Japanese theater company Nito-sha, Nagai has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Kishida Kunio Drama Award, given annually to the best new Japanese play. Women in a Holy Mess features a cast of American actors led by award-winning director Cynthia Croot. A conversation with the artists follows the reading.

Yamamoto Kyogen Company: Traditional Comic Theater of Japan
Friday, March 26 & 27 @ 7:30 PM / Sunday, March 28 at 2:00 PM
Tickets $45/$40 Japan Society members
In the 14th century, satire thrived in the form of kyogen, the Japanese comedic theater. Literally "mad words," kyogen originated during the samurai era and features humorous stories of daily life laced with biting social satire directed against the samurai class that was the main audience for the plays. Along with noh theater, kyogen was designated by UNESCO as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity." Led by Yamamoto Noritoshi-designated as an Intangible Cultural Asset by the Japanese government-Yamamoto Kyogen offers two kyogen comedies:

Shido Hogaku (Stop in Your Tracks): The classic kyogen tale of a master-servant relationship turned on its head. A servant is sent by his callous master on a shameful errand, and in his spite, the servant vows to get his revenge. Hijinks ensue as the two engage in a riotous reversal of station, with the servant getting the last laugh.

Tsukimi Zato (Moon-viewing Blind Man): A farce in which a blind man meets a passerby on the road while enjoying a full moon and quickly becomes the object of a cruel trick perpetrated by the stranger.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

»» Related Event: Pre-Performance Lecture by Samuel L. Leiter, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre, Brooklyn College, CUNY and the Graduate Center, CUNY. One hour before all performances. Free to ticket holders.

Enjoy
Presented by The Play Company in association with Japan Society
Tuesday - Sunday, March 27 through April 25
**Offsite Event
59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Madison & Park Avenues)
Tickets $35/$28 Japan Society members
For tickets, please visit www.ticketcentral.com or call (212) 279-4200.
Following chelfitsch Theater Company's acclaimed North American debut tour produced and presented by Japan Society in winter 2009, The Play Company presents the English-language premiere of Enjoy, a play by playwriting phenomenon and chelfitsch founder Toshiki Okada, and translated by Aya Ogawa. Following the lives and romances of 20- and 30-somethings who work part-time in a manga café in downtown Tokyo, this slacker comedy of manners reveals a portrait of Japanese youth culture adrift, while illustrating the current socio-economic rifts in Japan that have widened the gap between generations. Dan Rothenberg, Co-Artistic Director of Philadelphia's Obie Award-winning Pig Iron Theater Company, directs a cast of American actors.

STEIM: Electronic Music Lab
Friday, May 7 & Saturday, May 8
Main Event Tickets Saturday, May 8: $18/$15 Japan Society members
2-day pass (includes STEIM Artist Talk + demo): $25/$20 Japan Society members
For two days in May, the artists of the Amsterdam-based electronic sound and music laboratory STEIM (Studio of Electro-Instrumental Music) take over Japan Society. For forty years, STEIM has fostered international collaborations between composers, musicians, engineers, installation artists, DJs and VJs in a breeding ground for the creation of high- and low-tech musical tools for live performance. For the main event on May 8 at 7:30 pm, STEIM's Artistic Director, Takuro Mizuta Lippit, who is originally from Japan, has assembled a lineup of groundbreaking international artists from STEIM's roster, including:

• Yutaka Makino (Japan/Netherlands): A composer, technical wizard and pioneer in the blending of music, sculpture and architecture
• ABATTOIR: A duo comprised of Audrey Chen (U.S.), a vocalist, cellist and analog electronics musician/composer and Robert van Heumen (Netherlands), a composer and tinkerer equally at home with a keyboard or a joystick
• A collaboration between digital media composer Yannis Kyriakides (Netherlands) and guitarist Andy Moor (U.K./ Netherlands) of the legendary Dutch punk band The Ex
• dj sniff (Japan/Netherlands), a.k.a. Takuro Mizuta Lippit-turntable musician and Artistic Director of STEIM

»» Related Event: STEIM Artist Talk + Demo; Friday, May 7 @ 7:00 PM
STEIM artists Yutaka Makino and dj sniff discuss the process of creating their innovative electronic music and share their perspectives on the latest international collaborations. Japanese sound poet Tomomi Adachi joins them to demonstrate his wildly imaginative self-made instruments. Tickets $12/$10 Japan Society members

»» Related Event: STEIM Mobile Touch Exhibition; Friday, May 7 from 12:00-9:30 PM / Saturday, May 8 from 12:00-5:00 PM & 6:00-10:00 PM
Please touch! A rare opportunity to make your own music on STEIM's wild collection of invented electronic instruments including the Finger Web, the Cracklebox, the Voice Scratcher and the Headbanger, signature innovations of the STEIM laboratory. FREE.

»» Related Event: Workshop for Youth - STEIM Mobile Touch Workshop
Saturday, May 8; 11-11:45 AM: Ages 10-14; 5:00-5:45 PM: Ages 15-18
Young people get a peek behind the curtain at STEIM's methods of musical invention in this hands-on workshop. Participants will learn about several instruments, including the Cracklebox-a touch synthesizer that uses the body as a circuit-and the Headbanger-an instrument that allows the player to create music with head movements. Tickets $10/$8 Japan Society members.

PERFORMING ARTS WORKSHOP:

Workshop with Toshiki Okada
Monday, March 29, 5:00-8:00 PM
Tickets $38/$28 Japan Society members
In conjunction with The Play Company's production Enjoy, Japanese playwright, director and choreographer Toshiki Okada, founder of the red-hot theater company chelfitsch, leads an intensive workshop for choreographers, dancers and physical theater artists. Okada, whose award-winning play Five Days in March garnered significant attention at Japan Society last year, has become a widely referenced theater artist in Japan and Europe for his use of "super-real" dialogue accompanied by a choreography made up of exaggerated everyday gestures of fidgets and twitches. Okada's workshop opens up the possibility of theater and dance vocabulary to include these quotidian movements, and to go beyond "real" to find the hyper-real. Maximum 15 people, performance or directing experience required, observer tickets may be available for these workshops after regular tickets have sold out.

SPRING 2010 INAUGURAL OPEN HOUSE

j-CATION
Saturday, April 10, 1 PM - 1 AM
This all-day event is open to the public ($5 suggested donation).
Taste Japan and a bit of everything Japan Society has to offer at j-CATION, a one-day open house festival taking over the Society's theater, gallery, lounge and classrooms. Taste buds jet to Japan as the inaugural j-CATION digs into the theme of Japanese food. Feast your eyes on films with culinary themes in an afternoon of Edible Cinema, drool over innovative bento box creations and "how-to" demonstrations, savor tastings and dig in to talks given by star speakers. While authentic and unusual drinks and bites satisfy curious cravings throughout the day, the evening explodes into a smorgasbord of music as the delicious sounds of the band Asobi Seksu* are served up for all and a guest DJ's sweet beats rock into the night. www.japansociety.org/j-cation

*Brooklyn-based dream-pop band Asobi Seksu (colloquial Japanese for "playful sex") released its self-titled debut album in 2004 to critical acclaim. Their live shows quickly became a favorite in the New York scene. The band's second album, Citrus, received worldwide praise in 2006, and expanded Asobi Seksu's fan base all over the United States, and also into Europe, Japan, Australia, Korea and Mexico. Their album, Hush, came out in February 2009 and in November 2009, Asobi Seksu released Rewolf, an album of acoustic takes on songs spanning their career.

About Japan Society's Performing Arts Program: Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced more than 600 of Japan's finest performing arts to an extensive American audience. Programs range from the traditional arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-edge theater, dance and music. The Program also commissions new works, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs. "At once diverse and daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today" (Back Stage).

About Japan Society: Established in 1907, Japan Society has evolved into North America's major producer of high-quality content on Japan for an English-speaking audience. Presenting over 100 events annually through well established Corporate, Education, Film, Gallery, Language, Lectures, Performing Arts and Innovators Network programs, the Society is an internationally recognized nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that provides access to information on Japan, offers opportunities to experience Japanese culture, and fosters sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia. On the occasion of Japan Society's 2007 centennial, American Theatre noted: "For a hundred years now, the Japan Society of New York has been a think tank for policy works, entrepreneurs, diplomats and Japanophiles. But the jewel in its crown has always been the performing arts program."

Unless otherwise noted, tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258 or in person at Japan Society (M-F 11am-6 pm and Sat-Sun 11 am-5pm). Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between First and Second Avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E and V at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street). For more info call (212) 832 -1155 or visit www.japansociety.org.

The play reading series of Woman in a Holy Mess is made possible in part by The Saison Foundation. The six-city North American tour of Yamamoto Kyogen Company is organized and produced by Japan Society, New York, and is supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The Play Company's production of Enjoy is supported by The Japan Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. STEIM is made possible by The Jebediah Foundation and The Netherland-America Foundation with special thanks to the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.Major support for Japan Society 2009-2010 Performing Arts Programs is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and the Endowment for the Performing Arts, established with leadership gifts from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Kyocera Corporation, The Starr Foundation and Toyota Motor Corporation. Additional support is provided by The Globus Family, Dr. John K. Gillespie, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. Transportation assistance is provided by All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.

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