Collaborative project with non-native Japanese speakers
*Information at the time of adoption.
- Name of the organization or individual
- Chelfitsch
- subsidy category
- Creation Grant
- Grant Type
- long-term
Reiwa 2 (2020) Creation Grant [Long-term Grant Program]
Business Overview
[Outline of the project in the first year] (1) Research content: We conducted research on organizations and people with deep ties to educational institutions in Japan and the foreign community in Japan, and made a list of places and opportunities to meet people who could be participants in creative activities. Conducted interviews with individuals who have worked with foreign residents in Japan on cultural activities, and conducted surveys from an academic perspective on language usage, issues in collaboration, and the diversity of the Japanese language. We also conducted a survey on how non-native speakers are involved in productions in domestic and international theater scenes. Date: Sunday, November 1, 2020 – Saturday, July 31, 2021 Venue: Online, Tokyo (2) First Workshop Content: This workshop was held for high school students and older who are interested in "expression" such as drama, dance, art, and literature, and for those who do not feel that Japanese is their first language. Date: Friday, September 10, 2021 – Sunday, September 12 Friday, September 17, 2021 – Sunday, September 19 Saturday, October 2, 2021 – Sunday, October 10 Venue: Online, Yamabuki Factory (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) Facilitator: Toshinori Okada [Outline of the second year project] (1) Second workshop Content: In order to meet new non-native Japanese speakers, we held a workshop using Okada's methodology of imagination. Participants described room layouts by imagining their own homes, including houses they have lived in in the past and now, and learned about using "imagination" to speak to an audience and create movement (choreography). Date: Monday, April 11, 2022 – Thursday, April 14 Thursday, May 19, 2022 – Saturday, May 21 Venue: Shinjuku Bunka Center Rehearsal Room (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) Facilitators: Toshinori Okada, Mari Ando, Yukirion Yonekawa (2) Content of the talk event: As a place to share the awareness of the issues raised by this project with mainly those concerned in the field of theater and expression, we held a talk event with an audience and streamed live online. Gi Uchino (theater researcher/professor of Gakushuin Women's University) and Kyoko Tokunaga (theater journalist) were invited as guests, and it was a place for lively discussion not only about the expressive activities of non-native speakers of Japanese, but also about the issues of the language itself and the differences between native and non-native speakers. Date: Sunday, July 17, 2022 Venue: Shinjuku Bunka Center, Small Hall (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo), Online (3) Third workshop Content: In order to expand further encounters, we held a workshop using "imagination" like previous workshops. Actors Yukirion Yonekawa and Mari Ando were invited as facilitators, and in order to complete the performance, the participants were more conscious of sharing their imagination with others. Date: Sunday, July 31, 2022 – Tuesday, August 2 Venue: Miraikan Daimei 201 (Toshima-ku, Tokyo) Facilitators: Toshinori Okada, Mari Ando, Yukirion Yonekawa (4) Fourth workshop Content: Continuing from the third workshop, Yukirion Yonekawa and Mari Ando were invited as facilitators, and held a workshop to spread the purpose of this project and Okada's theory of theater to as many people as possible. In addition, he met many new people and gained a new understanding of the project's philosophy and Okada's methodology toward the third year of auditions. Date: Friday, October 21, 2022 – Sunday, October 23 Venue: Yamabuki Factory (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) Facilitators: Mari Ando, Yukirion Yonekawa 【 Outline of the 3rd year project 】 (1) Tokyo Content of the performances: From August 4, 2023 to 7, a total of 6 performances will be held at Kichijoji Theater. During the preparation period, the group was selected through auditions of past workshop participants and an open call for assistant directors, and from mid-June, the production was completed for about a month and a half. Before the performance, two outside directors held a workshop for non-native Japanese speakers. It became a creative process with an awareness of opening to the outside world, such as accepting a wide range of training-room tours. Date: Friday, August 4, 2023 –7 (Mon) Venue: Kichijoji Theater (Musashino, Tokyo) (2) Project Report Content: In order to spread the significance of this project more widely, we introduced the project by the participants of the first and second year workshops, and published the workshop report by the outside director in "Cherfitsch note". By keeping objective records on the Internet that can be accessed by anyone, the project will be used to acquire partners for continuous collaboration that can foster a foundation for theater activities by non-native Japanese speakers even after the project ends, and to recognize and share awareness of issues throughout the industry. Date: Released August 2023
- Period of Activity / Project
- Venues
Profile
[General Incorporated Association Cherfitsch]
It was established in 1997 as a theater company in which Toshinori Okada wrote and directed all works. Its purpose is to contribute to the promotion of artistic and cultural activities. Aiming to create a play in response to modern society with a new method, it incorporates modern "language" and modern "body" into extremely everyday subjects to express contemporary social concepts more realistically. His unique method of using language and physical relationships has been highly praised, and he is attracting attention both at home and abroad as a leading contemporary theater company.
[Toshinori Okada]
Born in Yokohama in 1973, lives in Kumamoto. He won the 49 Kishida Kunio Drama Prize for "5 Days in March." Won the second Oe Kenzaburo Prize for his collection of novels, The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed. Won the 27 Yomiuri Engeki Taisho (Yomiuri Theater Awards) Special Prize for "Pratana: Portrait of Possession." He won the 72 Yomiuri Literary Awards for Drama and Scenarios for his collection of plays, "Yuren-no-yurei to monster-Katsuba/Tsuruga."