Time Capsule Project at Chain Theatre

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Welcome to our first annual Time Capsule Project!

Our Mission is to empower our participating artists to become the next generation of creative leaders in the theatrical industry both in New York and Japan.  We provide an intimate, supportive network and a creative space that will serve to inspire and entertain our audiences. 

Our featured and guest artists are young, emerging creatives who are taking their first wishful steps along what we hope will be a long, and prosperous career.  It can be quite challenging, even overwhelming, and sometimes simply impossible to produce your own work all by yourself.  Thus, we provide all we can to help these artists begin with a positive and successful window of opportunity to showcase their unique skills and abilities.

For you, dear audience member, by witnessing our festival works, we hope to introduce you to a new generation of brilliant creatives. We hope that you will be inspired to continue seeing new and passionate performances and be proud to have witnessed these artists showcasing their work with the Time Capsule Project.

Like looking upon trinkets hidden for a while away in a time capsule, we are confident that Artists and Audiences alike will always cherish the memories made with Time Capsule Project.

Executive Director of Time Capsule Project

Ai Toyoshima

Cast and Creative team for Time Capsule Project at Chain Theatre

Cast

Mai Ozeki

Featured Artist

MAI OZEKI is a Japanese actor based in New York City.She moved to New York City in 2022 .She was trained at HB Studio and studied the Uta Hagen Acting Technique.She has performed in wide variety of productions in Tokyo, Japan, including "The Atami Murder Case"（Candy Project）, "Welcome to Kasumi-so","STAY ALIVE","The room where we can not see ghosts"（Theater Company Petti ）etc... She also loves singing with a band and has participated in many concerts, including musical, show choir and gospel choir.She performed Japanese plays "The Dressing Room"（Written by Kunio Shimizu ）and "The Hunting Gun"（Written by Yasushi Inoue） at HB playwright theater while studinging at HB Studio.She started working professionally in New York City from this spring.She is also about to start her own project "Mainyan Project".MAI is so thrilled to perform at Time Capsule Project.She is greatful to my friends and family for their love and support and thank all those involved in this project!

Manatsu Aminaga

Featured Artist

Manatsu Aminaga was born and raised in Japan. She received a scholarship for the Peridance Center Certificate Program in 2021. Manatsu joined FJK Dance in 2023 and has performed with them several times since then. She made her musical debut in “Ice Queen” with the 92 nd Street Y under the direction of Megan Doyle. Currently, Manatsu appears in I Enjoy Being A Girl, a video directed and choreographed by Preston Mui on Playbill, which celebrates the 65 th anniversary of Flower Drum Song and Pat Suzuki who made the song such a huge hit.

Mayu Nakaya

Featured Artist

Mayu Nakaya(she/her) is a professional contemporary dancer and choreographer originally from Japan based in New York. She has worked with Helen Simoneau Danse, Obremski/Works, SAXYN Dance Work, Rogue Wave with Catherine Messina, iKADA Contemporary Dance Company, sarAika Movement Collective, One Day Dance, Yoshito Sakuraba, and Faustine Lavie. As a choreographer, Mayu performed at several dance festivals in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Japan, also received awards as a dancer and choreographer in several competitions in Japan and South Korea. Mayu is an artist who always pursues physical expression and is interested in collaborating with artists of various genres. Starting with this show, "MNiverse" will carry on as a collaborative production led by Mayu.

Yurika Ono

Featured Artist

Yurika Ono is a dancer and choreographer based in NYC, originally from Tokyo. She has performed in Lincoln Center (Dancer), Chicago 25th anniversary Parade (Dancer), Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Opening number (Dancer), and won the Crowd Favorite Award in World of Dance in 2019 as a team. She has been educated by Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway. Currently, she graduated from Amda and started Optional Practical Training.

Momo Akashi

Guest Artist

Momo Akashi is a New York-based book writer and lyricist. She specializes in creating stories that include the concept of “East-Meets-West”, a blossoming collaboration between Japanese Culture and American Culture. She completed her master’s degree in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU Tisch. Momo recently wrote a full-length musical, MINORU: Scrape the Sky, about the architect of the World Trade Center; this work was previewed at the Tank in New York City, and some songs were presented at New York City’s Feinstein'/54 Below. Her original play about climate change, The Show Must Go On, was chosen for the Sixth Festival and premiered at Theatre 80 in New York. For her work, Momo has won the Shubert Foundation Scholarship and the Tisch Graduate Student Organization Grant Award. She has also penned opera librettos as part of the American Opera Project.

Miho Ryu

Guest Artist

Miho Ryu is a performing artist, choreographer, and educator, originally from Tokyo. She holds BA in Drama from Waseda University and received Best Dance Choreography Award from Oniros Film Awards® in 2018. Miho has choreographed and performed more than 100 works including of live performances, films, music videos, and interactive installations, across the continents: Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and the US. In addition to 20 years of experience in teaching technique classes in Japan, she has also held Choreography/Improvisation workshops at Wiz World Dance Festival in Korea, Asia Tri Jogja in Indonesia, Japan Athletic Federation. In 2024, she moved back to New York, the land where she studied dance from 2000-2004 and where she first encountered contemporary dance. She will continue to present works with her own project-based dance company, Physical Expression Research Group, and will collaborate with a variety of other cross-genre artists.

Creative Team

Ai Toyoshima

Producer/Executive Artistic Director

Ai Toyoshima is a New York based performer, stage manager and choreographer. Her works has been seen from off-Broadway productions to her own dance film project “Moses,” which brought her several nominations and awards at the Hollywood　International Golden Age Festival, San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival and more. Favorite credits include; House of Telescopes (Pipeline Theatre Company/ A.R.T/New York) “Yuki” in Irving Berlin’s Land That I Love (Inside Broadway) Kaze No Denwa (theBring About) Burned (Pregones /PRTT) Tootsie (Ogunquit Playhouse, Regional Premier) How I Disappeared (CHUANG Stage) and Woman in Motion (second season). She is a founder and an artistic director of I Art Collaborative and aims to create a “truer diversity" by providing New York based performance opportunities for international theatrical artists. @toyosienne

Miku Hirayama

Associate Producer/Marketing Designer

Miku Hirayama is an artist based in NYC, originally from Yamaguchi Japan. In 2019, she moved to Kanagawa, Japan to train at the Y Dance Company. In 2020, she moved to New York to train at the Peridance Center. She graduated from Peridance certificate program in 2022 and immediately joined Nimbus 2 and PCDC. Currently, She performed with PCDC and several dance projects in New York and New Jersey.

Co-Producer

Mariko Shibata

Seisa Ito

Box Office Manager