SITI Company's HANJO Kicks Off Tonight at Japan Society

Japan Society presents the New York City premiere of Siti Company's striking interpretation of Yukio Mishima's play Hanjo, created and performed by the internationally acclaimed ensemble theater Siti Company, in a new English Translation by SITI Co-Artistic Director Leon Ingulsrud, who also directs.

Arriving as part of the NOH-NOW Series within Japan Society's Fall 2017-Winter 2017 Performing Arts Season, coinciding with the Society's 110th Anniversary, this production will have three performances, tonight, December 7, through December 9, at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street).

Hanjo, by provocative Japanese author Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), is based on a 14th-century noh play of the same title by Motohiko Zeami with the same title. This timeless tale of love, loneliness and betrayal features a young woman, Hanako, whose endless waiting for her lover transports her into a state of insanity. Hauntingly enigmatic, subtle and beautiful, this masterpiece reaches back into ancient myth, and brings into the modern world a story that is part fairytale, part surreal drama. Using noh as a springboard, Yukio Mishima confronts issues of gender, identity and how we play roles within each other's lives. This new production, directed by Leon Ingulsrud, weaves noh theater's elegance, expressiveness and economy together with techniques of contemporary theater, as Mishima's mysterious and poetic play is unveiled as a bilingual triptych in which the actors rotate through each character role. Performed in English and Japanese.

Director Leon Ingulsrud, who contributed the new English translation of the play, observes, "Zeami's noh play is one of the very few plays in that tradition with a happy ending, but Mishima complicates and darkens the story, not only by updating it to 20th century Japan, but by denying the central character Hanako the reunion she longs for. Hanjo offers a fascinating way to introduce American audiences to noh. The play weaves together traditional forms with modern issues of translation, be they linguistic, intercultural, inter-era, inter-gender and ultimately interpersonal."

This production of Hanjo, part of Siti Company's 25th Anniversary season, premiered at The Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York on October 6, 2017. The presentation at Japan Society marks the New York City premiere.

Hanjo is performed by Akiko Aizawa, Gian-Murray Gianino and Stephen Duff Webber while sound designer and composer Christian Frederickson accompanies the performance with original compositions on viola. Scenic/Lighting Design is by Brian H Scott. Costume Design is by Mariko Ohigashi. Choreography is by Wendell Beavers. The Production Stage Manager is Ellen Mezzera and the Sound Engineer is Valentine Monfeuga.

Born Kimitake Hiraoka (1925-1970), Yukio Mishima authored approximately 40 novels, as well as numerous plays (including in the traditional noh and kabuki styles), books of short stories and essays, which have elicited extreme responses over the decades. He also acted in and directed several films. Many of his works were translated into English, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. Internationally, he was probably the most well-known Japanese writer of the twentieth century. Between 1950 and 1960, he wrote a total of eight modern noh plays that were radical adaptations of the seminal noh classics, pitting stark traditional ideals against the dullness of modern existence.

Leon Ingulsrud is a multidisciplinary theater actor, director and teacher. He was born in Japan as the son of Lutheran missionaries and lived most of his life there until moving to New York City in 1993. He was a member of the Suzuki Company Of Toga (SCOT) before helping found Siti Company, where he serves as one of the three Co-Artistic Directors. He has served as a resident director at the Mito Art Tower in Mito, Japan, as well as one of the artistic directors of Swine Palace in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ingulsrud holds an MFA in directing from Columbia University. With SITI, Ingulsrud has appeared in Orestes, Seven Deadly Sins (New York City Opera), Nicholas & Alexandra (LA Opera), bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, Under Construction, Who Do You Think You Are, Radio Macbeth, Antigone, American Document with the Martha Graham Dance Company, War of the Worlds, War of the Worlds-The Radio Play, Trojan Women (After Euripides), Cafe Variations, Continuous Replay and A Rite with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Persians and the theater is a blank page. Directorial credits include Endgame, The Hairy Ape, Macbeth, Short Stories, Martini Ceremony, Medea, Angel/Babel, The Sea, The Grapes of Wrath, three different original adaptations of Moby Dick, The Tempest, Death of a Salesman, Saint Joan, Our Town, Laramie Project, Eurydice, Psyche, Callie's Tally, Big Love, A Show Of Force, Jamestown, Dr. Faustus, 23 Seconds About John Cage, Mad Forest, The Blue Bear and All Under The World. In addition to directing, acting and teaching, Ingulsrud has translated nine Japanese contemporary plays for English publication or production. He also appears in AMC's western series Hell On Wheels.

Siti Company, now in its 25th year, is an ensemble-based theater company founded in 1992 as the Saratoga International Theater Institute by Anne Bogart, Tadashi Suzuki and a group of like-minded artists. Led today by Co-Artistic Directors Anne Bogart, Leon Ingulsrud and Ellen Lauren, the company creates new work, trains young theater artists and has a strong commitment to international collaboration. SITI has toured to 27 countries on five continents and created more than 45 new productions including such iconic works as Under Construction (2009), The Medium (1994), Death and the Ploughman (2004), bobrauschenbergamerica (2001), War of the Worlds-The Radio Play (1999), Hotel Cassiopeia (2006) and a triptych of solo pieces inspired by great artists: Bob (1998), Room (2000) and Score (2002). SITI has also engaged in collaborations with artists including the Martha Graham Dance Company (American Document, 2010), the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (A Rite, 2013), visual artist Ann Hamilton (the theater is a blank page, 2015) and Bang on a Can (Steel Hammer, 2014). Among the countless accolades SITI as a company as well as its members individually have garnered are: seven OBIE awards, two Guggenheim Fellowships, Doris Duke Artist Award, USA Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, American Theatre Wing's Henry Hewes design award, Best Foreign Production at the Dublin Festival and several Drama Desk Award nominations. Siti Company seeks to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States through an emphasis on international cultural exchange and collaboration. Through the Company's performances, educational programs and collaborations with other artists and thinkers, SITI continues to challenge the status quo, train to achieve artistic excellence in every aspect of its work and offer new ways of seeing and of being both as artists and as global citizens.

Japan Society's Fall 2017-Winter 2018 Performing Arts Season includes the second installment of the NOH-NOW Series, featuring four extraordinary events in dance and theater. The Series launched with the North American premiere of Luca Veggetti's Left-Right-Left (October 13-14, 2017) and continued with Rikyu-Enoura: A New Noh Play by Hiroshi Sugimoto (November 3-5, 2017). Following this presentation of Siti Company's Hanjo (December 7-9, 2017), the series concludes with Satoshi Miyagi's Mugen Noh Othello (January 11-14, 2018). Japan Society's current Performing Arts Season kicked off in September with the North American Premiere of Moto Osada's opera, Four Nights of Dream, (September 13-16, 2017). These events, coinciding with Japan Society's milestone 110th Anniversary, bring together celebrated artists from the U.S. and Japan, delivering world class cultural offerings while continuing Japan Society's mission to deepen mutual understanding between the two nations into the Society's twelfth decade. The popular NOH-NOW Series debuted to much acclaim in 2007 timed to Japan Society's centennial, and now, ten years later, the Society proudly serves up a new edition with a slate of performances highlighting how contemporary artists draw inspiration from Japan's centuries-old traditions.

Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced nearly 700 of Japan's finest performing arts to an extensive American audience. Programs range from the traditional arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-Edge Theater, dance and music. The Program also commissions new works to non-Japanese artists, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs.

Founded in 1907, Japan Society in New York City presents sophisticated, topical and accessible experiences of Japanese art and culture, and facilitates the exchange of ideas, knowledge and innovation between the U.S. and Japan. More than 200 events annually encompass world-class exhibitions, dynamic classical and cutting-edge contemporary performing arts, film premieres and retrospectives, workshops and demonstrations, tastings, family activities, language classes, and a range of high-profile talks and expert panels that present open, critical dialogue on issues of vital importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia.

During the 2017-18 season, Japan Society celebrates its 110th anniversary with expanded programming that builds toward a richer, more globally interconnected 21st century: groundbreaking creativity in the visual and performing arts, unique access to business insiders and cultural influencers, and critical focus on social and educational innovation, illuminating our world beyond borders.

Hanjo plays Thursday, December 7 at 7:30pm (followed by a MetLife Meet-the-Artists Reception), Friday, December 8 at 7:30pm (followed by an artist Q&A) and Saturday, December 9 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $35/$30 Japan Society members. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258 or in person at Japan Society (M-F 11:00am - 7:00pm and Sat-Sun 11:00am - 5:00pm). For further details, or information on packages including the NOH-NOW Series, visit www.japansociety.org, or call 212-715-1258. Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between First and Second Avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street). For general information, contact 212-832-1155 or www.japansociety.org.