Under the watchwords “in your neighborhood and mine” and “connecting people,” this is a social support project which has been implemented in Shinjuku-ku, Machida City, and Higashimurayama City together with partners in various locations in line with its threefold aim: (1) to provide a safe and secure meeting place for youngsters, their guardians and pregnant women to gather together (2) to give all children access to baby theater, and (3) to create hubs for baby theater. The program comprised Baby Mini Theater “Exist” (Potherbs), Baby Mini Theater “Round” (Non Profit Organization Drama Education Lab), Utako’s First Concert “Best Lullabies” (Leaf Planning), Body Song Words of Woods, and First experience for the theater play “Talk” (General Incorporated Association Yamano-Ongakusya). The event also featured a talk between Syoji Itakura, head of Doshisha University Center for Baby Science, and Yasumasa Asano, Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education and Care,Kurashiki City College. A video was also created and streamed of the special discussion “Baby Theater is the art of relationships!”
Regional Baby Theater Executive Committee
Baby theater, performing arts for infants, has spread and developed all over the world. Four organizations which have engaged with baby theater in Japan since 2000 and which have in that time have racked up research and practices in the genre have formed an executive committee to address baby theater projects. The key member organizations are Potherbs, Non Profit Organization Drama Education Lab, General Incorporated Association Yamano-Ongakusya, and Leaf Planning.
Regional Baby Theater Executive Committee
Ai Oosawa
ai.oosawa@gmail.com
Masatoshi Harada
info@yamano-ongakusya.com
Tokyo Toy Museum, Shinjuku City, Tokyo
Fujimi Cultural Center, Higashimurayama City, Tokyo
Naruse Church, Machida City, Tokyo
Machida Civic Hall, Machida City, Tokyo
Ayumino-ie, Higashimurayama City, Tokyo
Corocoro No-mori, Higashimurayama City, Tokyo
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