Shizuoka Performing Arts Center Brings MEDEA To Japan Society 9/23-25

Japan Society presents the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) production of Medea as the launch to its Fall 2011/Spring 2012 Performing Arts Season. Reinterpreted and directed by Satoshi Miyagi, celebrated Artistic Director of SPAC and successor to the legendary Tadashi Suzuki, Medea makes its North American premiere at Japan Society playing three performances only: Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, September 25 at 5:00 PM.

Satoshi Miyagi's Medea is a visual feast on the scale of a kabuki play. Transforming Euripides' masterpiece into a play-within-a-play, the story is set in a late 19th-century traditional Japanese restaurant, where male members of the establishment call upon the female waitresses for entertainment. Performed with live musical accompaniment and incorporating Miyagi's signature bunraku puppet theater-inspired style that utilizes two actors per role -- one to speak and one to move -- the classic Greek tragedy takes on new life revealed through the lens of Japan's imperialist, gender-divided late Meiji era. Featuring a cast of 19, this internationally acclaimed production has appeared in 20 cities and 11 countries since its premiere in 1999. Performed in Japanese with English subtitles.

Directed by Satoshi Miyagi, Medea features Kazunori Abe (Medea speaker), Micari (Medea mover), Kouichi Ohtaka, Maki Honda, Tomokuni Nakaya, Sachiko Kataoka, Soichiro Yoshiue, Momoyo Tateno, Miki Takii, Yuumi Sakakibara, Keita Mishima, Kenji Nagai, Yoichi Wakamiya, Yu Sakurauchi, Naomi Akamatsu, Ayako Terauchi, Kotoko Kiuchi, Moemi Ishii and Kana Tamotsu. *For a full cast list please see below.

Satoshi Miyagi, General Artistic Director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), was born in 1959 in Tokyo. He studied aesthetics at Tokyo University where he created a performance group beginning his career as a director and actor, and developed a training method for actors based on Eastern gymnastics. In 1986 he began performing solo in performances based on modern novels. In 1990, Miyagi founded a new theater company callEd Ku Na'uka, which focused on Greek tragedies, Shakespeare and other classics, fusing aspects of Japanese traditional theater style with European texts. Ku Na'uka was invited regularly to appear in locations abroad including France, Italy, Spain, U.S., China, Korea and India.

In 1995, Miyagi directed Elektra by SCOT (Suzuki Company of Toga) with Tadashi Suzuki at Greece's 1st Theater Olympics. In 2003, Miyagi's Tenshu Monogatari (The Castle Tower) was performed at Japan Society in New York. Of that production, The New York Times wrote, "The total effect is otherworldly, as the elaborately costumed nonspeaking performers at the center of the stage deliver choreographically precise gazes and gestures in tandem with the Japanese words spoken by actors at either side of the action." Miyagi's work won the Grand Prix of the 3rd Asahi Performing Arts Awards in 2004 and the 2nd Asahi Art Prize in 2005. Ku Na'uka was chosen to open for the Paris Claude Lévi-Strauss Theater in Quai Branly, where they performed Mahabharata in October 2006. Among Miyagi's best-known works are adaptations of Sophocles' Antigone, Euripides' Medea, Shakespeare's Othello, Kyoka Izumi's Tenshu Monogatari (The Castle Tower) and Yukio Mishima's The Tropical Tree. Miyagi was a committee member for the Japan Performing Arts Foundation, and a representative on the Japan committee for BeSeTo (Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo) Theatre Festival international committee until 2007.

In April 2007, Miyagi was appointed General Artistic Director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), successor to the legendary Tadashi Suzuki. He has worked with its residential company, the Shizuoka Performing Arts Company, to perform masterpieces like Kyoka Izumi's Yashagaike (The Demon Lake), Shakespeare's Hamlet, Juro Kara's Two Ladies and Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt. He organizes an annual international theater festival, World Theater Festival Shizuoka, which presents productions by some of the most-talked-about International Artists such as Olivier Py, Daniel Jeanneteau, Gert Voss and Peter Brook.

The Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) was founded in 1995 by the Shizuoka Prefectural government. It is one of the first publicly funded performing arts organizations in Japan that employs actors-in-residence as well as technical and production staff to work in their own venues and facilities. The mission of SPAC is to create original theatrical productions, invite highly acclaimed artistic companies and individuals to its spaces, and to develop resources for those seeking expression through performing arts. SPAC's resident company has been invited to perform around the world at locations in the U.S., Colombia and Russia. In 2001, SPAC brought its productions of Electra and Oedipus Rex to Japan Society and toured to Pennsylvania, Delaware, Iowa and California.

SPAC's inaugural Artistic Director, Tadashi Suzuki was appointed in 1997, when SPAC became a fully operational organization creating, producing and presenting work in its three theaters. In April 2007, Satoshi Miyagi was appointed as the General Artistic Director, leading the Center into a new phase of development.

About Japan Society's Performing Arts Program: Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced more than 600 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, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs. "At once diverse and daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today" (Back Stage).

The current Fall 2011/Spring 2012 Performing Arts Season presents works by visionary artists in theater, music and dance. Following the presentation of Medea, the season continues with two not-to-be-missed music events: J-Music Ride featuring Cibo Matto & Yu Sakai (October) and Turntable Duo: Otomo Yoshihide + Christian Marclay (November) which is part of the Performa 11 biennial. In January, Japan Society presents two exciting theatrical productions as part of The Public Theater's Under The Radar Festival 2012: The Bee (a co-production with the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and London's Soho Theatre) and chelfitsch Theater Company's Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech. Next in the theatrical arena is a staged reading of Yukio Shiba's Our Planet, directed by 2010 Obie award winner Alec Duffy as part of the ongoing Play Reading Series: Contemporary Japanese Plays in English Translation (February). Spring ushers in two premier dance events: Kabuki Dance featuring the famed traditional Japanese dancer Bando Kotoji with live musicians (March), and Bessie Award winner Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug's (glowing) (April), arriving at Japan Society as part of its world premiere tour (co-commissioned by Japan Society and The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center - EMPAC), as well as the hotly-anticipated annual Spring open house event j-CATION, offering a full day of events, performances, workshops, food and drinks, all organized around a specific theme.
About Japan Society: Founded in 1907, Japan Society has evolved into a world-class, multidisciplinary hub for global leaders, artists, scholars, educators, and English and Japanese-speaking audiences. At the Society, more than 100 events each year feature sophisticated, topically relevant presentations of Japanese art and culture and open, critical dialogue on issues of vital importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia. An American nonprofit, nonpolitical organization, the Society cultivates a constructive, resonant and dynamic relationship between the people of the U.S. and Japan.

MEDEA RELATED EVENT / MEET THE ARTISTS: WORKSHOP
OFF-SITE EVENT
Theater Movement Workshop with Satoshi Miyagi / co-presented with Dance New Amsterdam
In conjunction with Shizuoka Performing Arts Center's Medea
Saturday, September 24, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM, with discussion: 12:45 - 1:45 PM
Tickets: $20/$16 Japan Society members
Contact: www.dnadance.org or 212-227-9856
Celebrated SPAC Artistic Director Satoshi Miyagi leads an exploratory workshop of his theater movement method, which incorporates elements of the legendary Suzuki Method together with his own unique techniques. Off-site location: Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway.

Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC): Medea
Friday, September 23* & Saturday, September 24 @ 7:30 PM, Sunday, September 25 @ 5:00 PM.
Tickets $32/$25 Japan Society members
*followed by a members-only MetLife Meet-the-Artists Reception
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258 or in person at Japan Society (M-F 11:00 AM-6:00 PM and Sat-Sun 11:00 AM-5:00 PM). 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 and V at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street).
For tickets or more information, call the box office at 212-715-1258.
For general information call 212-832-1155 or visit www.japansociety.org.

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