Comments on: What’s the deal with being an actor in Tokyo? Part 2

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:53:00 +0000

So rude. So disrespectful. So disappointing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:03:00 +0000

MKP, how rude of you not to wish me happy holidays too! NOW who’s the a**hole?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:03:00 +0000

MKP, I have an answer for you. See post below.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Yes, thank you for your thoughts/insight into English theater in Japan – very interesting.
I just helped out working props with the Nagoya Players (another English-based theater co.) and it sounds like they run a similar set up to the Tokyo company. Nagoya Players originally started by serving the universities – offering English plays/short scenes, etc… and this was quite successful (both in influential and financial terms). But from what I am told, the pool of funding for this kind of English program in a university dried up – so the Players morphed into more of a community theater for the Expat and Returnees (Japanese who study English abroad) groups. Their most recent production, “The Boys Next Door” (very good show) reached around 800-900 people in total – not bad, but just a drop in the population bucket really. I do think that English theater can play a role in helping to spark discussion on the many social issues that Japan faces, but doesn’t face, if you know what I mean. I think English theater has never been afraid to explore the good bad and ugly of humanity. Sadly, the superficiality of Hollywood (in English) seems needed here. So, maybe Japanese are ready for some deeper material – good plays that can probe deeper into the Japanese Psyche.

By: Lindsay Price

Lindsay Price — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:05:00 +0000

This has been a great read. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Japan seems like, I don’t know – ‘strange’ is completely the wrong word, it’s just so far from what we know. I’m loving a peek into someone’s first hand experience.

By: Paul Rekk

Paul Rekk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:48:00 +0000

Ah, gotcha.

I missed that conception and was reading it as a "how can we bring English-language theatre to Japan?" piece. My mistake.

By: Michael Wheeler

Michael Wheeler — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Hey Paul,

I don't think Benjamin, expected a thriving English language theatre scene in Japanese society. I asked him (through the comments section of a different post actually), to write a couple of pieces on what it was like for a Westerner who is limited by his ability to communicate to act and create theatre there (Okay not in those words, but that was what I was hoping for.). So these posts are his report on that experience.

I am hoping to have more pieces from other artists in other places in the world. Some of them them will be by authors who can communicate fully with the culture and some will not. Obviously, this fact will change the context of the pieces significantly.

By: Paul Rekk

Paul Rekk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:27:00 +0000

I’m willing to admit that I may be missing a vital part of this study, but I’m afraid I don’t understand why a healthy English-language theatre scene in Japan would be expected. We don’t have a healthy Japanese-language theatre scene in the U.S. (or in Canada, I’m assuming). Hell, the States don’t even have a ‘healthy’ Spanish-language theatre scene, and that’s something I could understand the reasoning behind.

Granted, the business practices in the arts in Japan is a fascinating (albeit scary) read, but to the greater point of the piece — an English-speaking-ex-pat actor should expect to not get a lot of work, I would imagine. You don’t move to Japan to speak to the mass population in English.