Cast and Creatives Announced For TSUNAGU/CONNECT LIVE at New Earth Theatre

New Earth Theatre today announce the cast for Tsunagu/Connect Live, created by Kumiko Mendl and Kazuko Hohki. This theatre production was developed in response to an oral history project launched in 2020, that conducted over 30 interviews with Japanese women living in the UK.

Tsunagu/Connect Live is an immersive, promenade performance using the exhibition as a set for a kaleidoscopic journey across continents and decades, inspired by the interviews running at Shoreditch Town Hall, 23 - 30 April.

The ensemble cast includes Tomoko Komura, Meg Kubota, Yuki Sutton and You-Ri Yamanaka. They will all be taking on multiple roles.

The cast includes:

Tomoko Komura

Tomoko grew up in Yokohama and trained in 'underground' theatre with Theatre Group 'Oct/Pass' in Sendai Japan, before moving to the US to study theatre at the University of Colorado. In 2004 she moved to the UK and gained a Master of Fine Arts in Lecoq-based Physical Theatre at the London International School of Performing Arts. Since then, she has performed in theatre shows with award-winning companies such as Theatre Ad Infinitum, Theatre Témoin, and Out of Chaos. She is one of the few modern benshi, a traditional storyteller and writer for silent films. Her credits include: Benshi for Ozu's Walk Cheerfully (1930), Kameko in We Like to Move It Move It (ice & fire theatre), Takako in Baaba's Footsteps (Susan Hingley), and Young Tomomi in Art of Gaman at Theatre503. Tomoko is a member of the pop performance art group Frank Chickens and plays the piano for bands and live shows. She is also an experienced conference interpreter for Japanese and English, working for the BBC, United Nations, EU Commission, etc.

Meg Kubota

Meg is a British Japanese actress raised predominantly in Japan, but has also lived in South Africa in her early teens for a number of years, where she had the unique experience of living under Apartheid. She has now been living in the UK for over 27 years. She trained at Arts Educational Drama School, after completing MA in Performing Arts at Royal Holloway. She speaks both English and Japanese fluently. Her Film and TV Credits include Good Omens (BBC/Amazon), Teacup Travels (CBeebies), The Day of the Kamikaze (Channel 4), The Girl in a Bubble (Actual Film), All That Remains (Major Oak Entertainment) and The Forest (Lava Bear Films). She can also be seen in the upcoming drama The Power (Amazon). Her theatre credits include Hanjo (Oval House), Festival For the Fish (Wimbledon Theatre), Harajuku Girls (Finborough Theatre), Chotto Desh -as the voice of the Grandmother (Akram Khan Dance Company, Japan tour), and most recently Junko Tabei in Miles Apart Together (Etcetera Theatre). Currently, her voice can be heard on the new children's animation series on Netflix, Team Zenko Go, in which she dubbed the character, Yuki, for the British market. She is also the voice of Dr Ling in Chuggington (CBeebies) and the Japanese wife in Mr Bean The Animated Series (Tiger Aspect Productions). She has been on a number of radio plays and documentary programmes including, A Pale View of the Hills (Radio 4), Fewer Not Less (Radio 4), Ghosts of The Tsunami (Radio 4), The Great Bell (Radio 3) and Wheeling Them In (Radio 4).

Yuki Sutton (She/Her)

Yuki graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2021 with a BA in Musical Theatre.

Theatre credits include Jack and the Beanstalk (Beck Theatre, Hayes), Tokyo Rose (Southwark Playhouse & UK Tour). Television credits include Satanic Panic '87 (Channel 4). Workshops include Gifted (Leading Light Collective).

You-Ri Yamanaka (She/Her)

You-Ri is a Japanese actress, movement director, voiceover and acting teacher working in the U.K., Europe, Japan and Egypt. She has trained in Kabuki dance and Butoh in Japan, and also trained at LAMDA, Le Coq and Michael Chekhov in the U.K, Europe and US. She has been exploring the meeting points between the East and the West. Theatre includes: The Mistake (Jatinder Verma Productions), The Art of Gaman (Theatre 503), The Jungle Book (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), Underground (dreamthinkspeak/BITE Barbican International Theatre Events), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Southwark Playhouse), A Few Little Drops (Volcano Theatre/Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Island Chains (New Earth Theatre), Hell Screen by Mishima (Stonecrabs Theatre), The Princess And The Pea (Polka Theatre), Sea of Silence (Quicksilver Theatre/Leicester Haymarket), Blue Beards Castle (ICA), AJAX (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Suppliants (Gilded Balloon Theatre, Edinburgh). Film and television include: The Wheel of Time (Amazon Prime), Silent Witness, Spirit Warriors, Reunited Panorama, Japanorama (BBC), The Last Enemy (BBC Films), YUKI (Northern Ireland Screen) and Winterstoke House (Aviary Films). Movement Director/Coach/Choreographer work includes: Dido and Aeneas (Temple Middle Hall, Temple Festival), Magic Flute (New National Theatre Tokyo), Madam Butterfly (ENO) and Illyria (Theatre Royal Bath). You-Ri will be joining a new production from the Royal Shakespeare Company in summer 2022.

The creative team includes:

Kumiko Mendl, Co-creator

Kumiko Mendl has worked as an actor, director, producer and teacher for more than thirty years. She is a founding member of New Earth Theatre and has been Artistic Director since 2011. She trained at the Jacques Lecoq Theatre School in Paris and worked as an actor with many theatres including The National Theatre, The Young Vic, Soho Theatre, The Gate, Northampton Royal & Derngate, Polka Theatre and The Unicorn as well as for television and radio. She co-directed Flight Paths, The Last Days of Limehouse and directed Yeh Shen and Why the Lion Danced as well as numerous play readings for the company. She has taught at numerous drama schools including Mountview, Central School of Speech and Drama, Arts Ed and ALRA and was core tutor at Clean Break Theatre for over 10 years. In recent years she has rediscovered her love of masks and had been teaching annually in Japan until the pandemic hit. Kumiko is also co-Artistic Director of A Thousand Cranes, a company she set up with children's director Vicky Ireland, to bring the stories and art forms of Japan to UK young audiences. She is a trustee for Curious Directive and True Heart Theatre.

Kazuko Hohki, Co-creator

Kazuko is originally from Japan and moved to London from Tokyo in 1978. She founded London based Japanese cult-alternative pop performance group Frank Chickens, who had an UK independent chart hit with We Are Ninja, released 5 albums and toured worldwide. In 2010, Frank Chickens were awarded the Edinburgh Comedy God Award. Following more than two decades of success in music, film and TV, Kazuko has been making theatre since the late 1990s. Fusing idiosyncratic storytelling with multimedia, film, animation, interventions and original music, Kazuko has created numerous award-winning performance works, such as The Evidence For The Existence Of Borrowers, Toothless and Great Escape - Borrower's Tale, commissioned by UK venues, including Battersea Arts Centre, MAC, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Chelsea Theatre, Jacksons Lane and Farnham Maltings. These works have been performed to critical acclaim here and abroad. Lately she is focusing on participatory projects, devising performances via community and school workshops. www.kazukohohki.com

TK Hay, Designer

TK is a theatre designer from Singapore and won the Linbury Prize in 2019 for Vinay Patel's An Adventure at the Bolton Octagon. He is interested in the application of technology in theatre design practice and is currently pursuing an MA in Design for Performance (Virtual Reality).

Stewart Melton, Dramaturg and Contributing Writer

Stewart is a writer, director and dramaturg. He scripted Islander, which was selected for the Made In Scotland 2019 showcase and won Musical Theatre Review's Best Musical Award. His other scripts include Seesaw (Unicorn Theatre), Time Lapse (Southwark Playhouse), Phoenix and Turtle (Little Angel Theatre). He has worked as a dramaturg with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Old Vic, Hull Truck, Ovalhouse and Arcola.

Nao Nagai, Lighting Designer

Nao is a London-based lighting designer and collaborator from Japan. Since emigrating to the UK solely at the age of 15, she trained at Rose Bruford College in Lighting Design and she's been lighting and making multiple genres of performances, nationally and internationally. Credits include Trouble in Mind (National Theatre), Last Gasp Recalibration (Split Britches), Scenes with Girls, Living Newspaper (Royal Court), Love Letter to the Lovable Future (Metis), Ceremonial Blue (Barbican Centre), Copyright Christmas (Duckie), Madama Butterfly, Tosca (Arcola Theatre), Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto (Bury Court Opera), Yellowman (Young Vic), OUT, Night Clubbing (Rachel Young),Two Moths (Thick and Tights), The Moment I saw You I know I could Love you (curious international), Fake it Till You Make it (Bryony Kimmings), Putting Words in your Mouth (Scottee), Dr.Carnesky's Bleeding Woman (Carnesky Production), Last Gasp WFH (Film), and many more. Nao also performs regularly with the cult pop performance group Frank Chickens (winner of Foster's Comedy God Awards). She is a tutor in Lighting at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Tingying Dong, Sound Designer

Ting trained at LAMDA and is a sound designer, composer, and theatre maker. She co-founded Out of the Blue Theatre in 2020 in the aim of making bold, playful, and accessible work. Recent productions include After The End, The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Peggy For You, Folk (Hampstead Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Composer, Nottingham Playhouse/Alexandra Palace); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre); Antigone (Storyhouse); Klippies (Young Vic); A Whole New World, Breathe (Donmar Warehouse Online); My Son's A Queer (But What Can You Do) (Turbine Theatre); ENG-ER-LAND (Jermyn Street/UK Tour); Bin Juice, Kraken, The First (Vaults Festival); We Like To Move It Move It (Ice and Fire); Blood Orange (Old Red Lion); Jerker (King's Head Theatre); Chamber 404 (Camden People's Theatre); Imaginarium (Online World Tour); Mr Kolpert, Yen, The Arsonists, Julius Caesar, Hamlet (LAMDA). Radio includes Humane. Short Films include Medea/Worn; My Last Duchess. Nominations include Off West End Award for Best Sound Design (The Sun, the Moon and the Stars; Jerker).

Sachi Kimura, Movement Director

Sachi Kimura is a movement practitioner, movement director and theatre-maker/director. She trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Shiki theatre company (Japan), Ecole de Phillipe Gaulier and Scola Commedia Dell'arte (Italy). Over her 26 year performing career, she has worked in theatre, films and TV, in the UK, Europe and Japan and has regularly collaborated with companies such as Fevered Sleep and The Clod Ensemble. Her directing and movement direction credits include Missing People (Leeds Playhouse), GLOW (Brighton Festival, Argus Theatre Award winner) and Stars above the Sand (Space Zatsuyu, Tokyo). Since 2003, she has been teaching at various drama institutions including Mountview Academy, Met Film School and New National Theatre, Tokyo.

Anna Smith, Production Manager

Anna works collaboratively across live art, theatre and community arts as a producer and production manager. She has co-run the performance company Unfinished Business since 2010 and previously produced the work of performance maker Ray Young (2015-19). She recently completed an MA at Goldsmith in Applied Anthropology and Community Arts, which led her to work as a producer with the community storytelling company, take stock exchange. She works regularly as a freelance production manager and is the resident production manager for MA: Advanced Theatre Practice at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she supports students to develop experimental performance work.

Zoe Smith, Stage Manager

Zoe has been working in theatre since 2014, starting as a Stage Manager for dance festivals. Zoe is a Stage Manager, Production Manager, and Producer, based in Nottingham. Her previous credits include: It's Not Rocket Science (Letter for Letter Theatre); Mercutio (Anegada Theatre); Flight, and Eulogy (Darkfield); Fix (Unbroken Theatre); and Incognito, Grant Meets Death, and Timon/Titus (all The Nottingham New Theatre).

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