Collaboration Between NY and Japanese Theater Companies to Premiere Play in NYC

A new play about the medical staff who risked their lives following the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster will premiere in New York for a special performance on the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Japan. The following day, the actors will perform the play,Hikobae, at the United Nations with the Mayor of Soma City, Hidekiyo Tachiya, in attendance. Soma City is the coastal city in the prefecture of Fukushima that was devastated in the tsunami.

Hikobae is a fictionalized story based on recorded interviews with physicians and nurses from Soma City Hospital, a medical center in the Fukushima evacuation zone.  The play is part of an ongoing international collaboration between New York’s Stella Adler Studio of Acting and The Actors Clinic, a prominent acting school in Tokyo led by Toshi Shioya. Graduates from both acting schools are participating in the production.  The performance honors first responders and those who lost so much in the disaster.

 

“In our interviews with Fukushima first responders, we realized that these two experiences were inextricably linked,” said Toshi Shioya of Japan's The Actors Clinic. “We collaborated with the Stella Adler Studio of Acting to honor these heroes and created an American character in the play to echo the first responders of 9/11.”

 

The heroism and response to the 3/11 crisis resonates with New Yorkers, which is why Hikobae is being premiered at Alvin Ailey. Proceeds from the production will benefit the Soma City Earthquake Disaster Orphan Scholarship Fund.  The theater piece will be performed in English and Japanese, with subtitles projected behind the actors.

 

“The world today cries out for compassionate artists to give voice to the disenfranchised” said Tom Oppenheim, the Artistic Director of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. “Toshi Shioya is such an artist and the Hikobae Project will do just that for the people of Soma City and the Fukushima prefecture in Japan.” 

"While discussing with Tom what kind of first projects to do with The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, eastern Japan was struck by an unprecedented earthquake," Shioya said. "Two weeks after the disaster, Soma City Mayor Hidekiyo Tachiya requested that we film the endless struggle in the city. The explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant happened two days after. Tom Oppenheim suggested a theatrical play commemorating the earthquake as our premiere production."

Stella Adler Studio of Acting is one of the world's most famous acting institutions. The nonprofit acting school has trained actors such as Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Elaine Stritch, Benicio del Toro, and Salma Hayek.  Stella Adler Studio also has partnerships in India, the Philippines and Mexico.