This musical drama was staged overseas as the new work in the troupe’s initiative, Eurasian Opera Project. The script was built around the orally-transmitted Japanese folk tale Sanshô Dayû against the backdrop of traditions, beliefs and history from East Asia, Central Asia and Siberia. The performance was an international collaboration with artists from various countries in these regions.
With a continued focus on voice-oriented ensembles, ethnicity and community, the group held a festival-style event in Tokyo on the theme of “Asia, Community, Voice” in collaboration with tsumugine, an organization that uses different approaches to reconsider music culture and performing arts, and Silk road Noh gakkai. In addition to performances of each group’s pieces, the event included audience-participation-style workshops and collaborations, presenting to the world a Tokyo outlook on contemporary culture.
Core program
• SanshôDayû in Kazakhstan
• Kotan
• Dōjōji (Silk road Noh gakkai)
• Workshop +◎(tsumugine)
Principle artists and staff members
Jun Kawasaki (Direction, Composition, Contrabass), Aya (Butoh), Hiroyo Miura (Dance), Choi Jae Chol (Korean instruments), Akira Yoshimatsu (Japanese traditional vocal, Actor), Hideto Miyuki (Video)
Jinya Imai (Director of Silk road Noh gakkai / Tsuzumi, Japanese traditional vocal), YasunoMiyauchi(Director of tsumugine / Composition)
Sergey Letov (Sax, Flute), Alina Mikhaylova(Dance), MariyaKorneva (Vocal),GulzhanAmanzhol (Kobyz),Kate Dzvonik (Choreography, Produce), Anya Tchaykovskaya(Vocal), SainkhoNamtchylak(Vocal)
Jun Kawasaki, Music and Poetic Drama Laboratory
We are making Music and Poetic Drama — new kind of theatre music combining songs, body, and voice — directed and composed by Jun Kawasaki. Since 2016, we have had collaborative performances with various artists from Armenia, Russia, Buryatia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Based on traditional arts and folklore from all over the world including Japan, we invent and use our unique choral system without relying on any ethnic or religious or classic music. The theatre music is said to be ‘Asian Magic Realism’ relating to creations of Latin American artist Gabriel García Márquez or Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and so on.
Jun Kawasaki
Director
Jun Kawasaki, Music and Poetic Drama Laboratory
E-mail: info@musicpoeticdrama.com
■ March 8, 2019
Chamberlain Country Club, Almaty, Kazakhstan
■ March 9 – 10, 2019
Transforma, Almaty, Kazakhstan
■ March 14, 2019
Contemporary Culture Center SMENA, Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia
■ March 17, 2019
Open film studio LENDOK, Saint Petersburg, Russia
■ March 18, 2019
Kozlov Club, Moscow, Russia
■ March 19 – 21, 2019
GROUND Khodynka, Moscow, Russia
■ March 21, 2019
Cultural Center Come-In, Moscow, Russia
■ March 23 – 24, 2019
Art Residence Guslitsa, Russia
■ March 23, 2019
DOM Cultural Center, Moscow, Russia
■ May 29, 2019
Chaabee, Koto City, Tokyo
■ June 16, 28 – 30, 2019
Koen-dori Classics, Shibuya City, Tokyo
■ June 28 – 30, 2019
Half Moon Hall, Setagaya City, Tokyo