Japan Society Announces its 08-09 Performing Arts Season

For Immediate Release

BEYOND BOUNDARIES: GENRE-BENDING MAVERICKS

Featuring 2008-2009 Performances:

• ARICA PERFORMANCE COMPANY: KIOSK
• GAGAKU REVOLUTION: NEW SOUNDS OF ANCIENT BAMBOO
• TRUE: TAKAYUKI FUJIMOTO, TAKAO KAWAGUCHI & TSUYOSHI SHIRAI
• TZADIK LABEL MUSIC SERIES IV: TRIBUTE TO TEIJI ITO
• CONTEMPORARY DANCE SHOWCASE PHASE 2: JAPAN + EAST ASIA
• CHELFITSCH THEATER COMPANY: FIVE DAYS IN MARCH
• AWAJI PUPPET THEATER COMPANY
• PLAY READING SERIES: TOSHIKI OKADA’S ENJOY
• HIROAKI UMEDA, SOLO PERFORMANCE

New York, NY -- Japan Society's Performing Arts Program announces an electrifying new season of music, theater, dance and more. Under the theme Beyond Boundaries: Genre-Bending Mavericks, productions in the 2008-09 season stretch the boundary lines of conventional performing arts whether melding new technologies with age-old performance techniques, marrying the classical with the ultra-modern, weaving text into dance and the fabric of space itself, or lacing stunning visual effects of light, video and innovative design into live performance.

Beginning September 2008, Beyond Boundaries: Genre-Bending Mavericks celebrates Japanese artists whose works have reached beyond conventional categorizations to define parameters on their own terms, offering unparalleled surprise as well as true artistry. Many of these artists have already received great acclaim in Europe and Asia, and are finally making their long-awaited debut in New York City at Japan Society. Highlights include the spectacular collision of dance and light technology in true (created by Takayuki Fujimoto and Takao Kawaguchi of dumb type); the hyper-colloquial language and exaggerated gesture choreography of chelfitsch, which fuses Japanese youth culture and contemporary theater; Hiroaki Umeda’s extraordinary butoh/street dance-inspired choreography set against flashing cyber-imagery, electronic beats and crackling digital soundscapes; and world premiere commissioned compositions for ancient Japanese gagaku (medieval bamboo instruments) from trailblazing contemporary American composers Ken Ueno, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Gene Coleman, and much more. In addition, Japan Society’s annual commitment to present authentic traditional performing arts brings Awaji Puppet Theater back to New York for the first time in over a decade.


SEPTEMBER 2008 – MAY 2009 PERFORMING ARTS SEASON

ARICA Performance Company: Kiosk
**U.S. Debut**
Thursday September 18 – Saturday, September 20 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $28/$25 Japan Society members
Known for its Beckettian absurdity and stark aesthetic, ARICA Performance Company presents its critically acclaimed work Kiosk. In this highly conceptual and visually arresting one-woman show, the narrative follows a day in the life of a woman working in a humble train station kiosk. Perched in her rolling chair, the woman sells newspapers and water. This simple premise is explored through fierce, physical repetitions and live electronic music that unfolds the complex layers of the human body’s relation to labor in this surreal landscape. ARICA Performance Company is a collective of artists from a variety of disciplines founded in 2001 by designer/director Yasuki Fujita with actress Tomoko Ando, musician Osamu Saruyama, poet Shino Kuraishi and producer Keizo Maeda. Since then, the company has collaboratively created site-specific works in unconventional performance spaces. Kiosk was awarded Best Solo Performance at the 2005 Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival.

Gagaku Revolution: New Sounds of Ancient Bamboo
**3 World Premiere Commissions**
Friday, October 10 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $38/$35 Japan Society members
The otherworldly sounds of ancient Japanese instruments from well more than a century ago are brought into high relief in this rare concert of ultra-modern music. Three instruments, each made of bamboo and exclusively used in medieval Japanese gagaku (the oldest form of ensemble orchestra music in human history that remains unchanged today, developed in the 8th century) are played by Ko Ishikawa (sho), Hitomi Nakamura (hichiriki) and Takeshi Sasamoto (ryuteki), members of Reigaku-sha, the most celebrated gagaku ensemble in Japan known for its activities in performing 20th and 21st century music. The evening features traditional works from the classical gagaku repertory as well as contemporary compositions by Yoshiko Kanda, Mamoru Fujieda and world premiere commissions from three trailblazing American composers: Ken Ueno, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Gene Coleman. In conjunction with Japan Society Gallery's fall exhibition New Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Masters (October 4, 2008–January 11, 2009).

» Related Event:
Gagaku Workshop for Composers
Wednesday, October 8 at 1:30-5:30 pm
Tickets $35/$30 Japan Society members
Presented in association with Columbia University
This rare intensive for music professionals and composers focuses on the three gagaku instruments made of bamboo—sho, hichiriki and ryuteki—and their particular pitches, scales and playing techniques. Offering hands-on opportunities to work with these instruments, the workshop is led by master musicians Ko Ishikawa, Hitomi Nakamura and Takeshi Sasamoto, with guest composers Mamoru Fujieda, Gene Coleman, Ken Ueno and Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez for discussion. The session is geared towards developing new compositions for these ancient instruments. Maximum 14 people.

» Related Event for Japan Society MEMBERS ONLY:
Gagaku Salon Concert
Wednesday, October 8
Session I: Concert 7 pm, Sake reception 7:45 pm
Session II: Sake reception 7:45 pm, Concert 8:30 pm
Tickets $50 Japan Society Members Only
Master musicians of gagaku perform on and discuss bamboo instruments from medieval Japan in an intimate salon setting: inside the Japan Society Gallery exhibition New Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Masters. Featuring Ko Ishikawa on sho, Hitomi Nakamura on hichiriki and Takeshi Sasamoto on ryuteki. Includes sake reception with musicians. Limited to 30 Japan Society members per session. For membership info, visit www.japansociety.org/join.

true
By Takayuki Fujimoto, Tsuyoshi Shirai & Takao Kawaguchi
Thursday, November 13 – Saturday, 15 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $35/$30 Japan Society members
The surreal world of true turns assumptions about time, space, sound, gravity and what is "true" inside out. A spectacular collision of dance and technology, true, winner at the 2006 Toyota Choreography Awards, is an extraordinary collaboration between three remarkable artists. Two artists from the internationally acclaimed multimedia performance company dumb type—lighting designer Takayuki Fujimoto and performer Takao Kawaguchi—team up with unparalleled choreographer/dancer/video artist Tsuyoshi Shirai for a jaw-dropping revelation of lights, sound, video and the human body. With high-tech design and impeccable performance, true leads the audience through a shocking and sophisticated wonderland.

Tzadik Music Label Series IV
Tribute to Teiji Ito – Featuring Guy Klucevsek & Steve Gorn
Friday, December 12 at 7:30 – 11 pm
Tickets $35/$30 Japan Society members
The late Japanese American composer Teiji Ito (1935–82) was known as the founding composer of the experimental new music scene and for his scores for the avant-garde films by Maya Deren. The fourth in the Tzadik Music Label Series curated by John Zorn, this is the first ever large-scale tribute to the music of Ito, one of the pioneering composers who incorporated musical instruments from many world cultures into his work. Creating an innovative combination of sounds, Ito had a diverse career composing music for stage and film, including the original Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The marathon evening is divided into three programs, exploring the range of Ito’s music as performed by renowned musicians including Guy Klucevsek and Steve Gorn and also features a discussion with John Zorn and the musicians who worked with Ito himself. The evening includes Music for Theater: The Coach with the Six Insides with music from King Ubu both performed by Guy Klucevsek and ensemble; Music for Film with music from Lifelines (Ed Emshwiller, 1960), Meditation on Violence (Maya Deren, 1948) / Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (Marie Menken, 1961), and Moonplay (Marie Menken, 1964–66); and Music for Dance with Watermill performed by Watermill Ensemble & directed by Steve Gorn.

12th Annual Contemporary Dance Showcase: Phase 2: Japan + East Asia
Friday, January 9 at 7:30 pm / Saturday, January 10 at 5:00 & 8:00 pm
Tickets $28/$25 Japan Society members
This annual favorite displays the most cutting-edge dance from Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Highlights include a world premiere from butoh great Ko Murobushi for his company of three male dancers Ko & Edge Co.; chelfitsch’s dance-theater duet Air Conditioner, which was a finalist in the 2005 Toyota Choreography Awards; and the violent and striking solo work E/G created and performed by Yoko Higashino, winner at the 2004 Toyota Choreography Awards and founder of Baby-Q with electric guitar improviser Toshio Kajiwara. The evening also features Jang Eun Jung Dance Company from Korea with their subtle yet provocative Several Questions and Optic Fun from Taiwan’s Wind Dance Theatre, led by former principal dancer and rehearsal director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Wu I-Fang.

chelfitsch theater company: Five Days in March
Written & directed by Toshiki Okada
**Part of a Seven-City North American Tour Organized by Japan Society**
Thursday, February 5 - Saturday, February 7 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $35/$32 Japan Society members
In the days before the U.S. began its war against Iraq in March 2003, two Japanese urban hipsters meet at a post-rock show and get swept up into a one-night stand that turns into five days’ continuous sex. Such is the story in Five Days in March, the prestigious Kishida Kunio Drama Award-winning play by Toshiki Okada. Characterized by seemingly insubstantial narrative accompanied by exaggerated fidgeting gestures-turned-choreography, the ground-breaking and modern works of chelfitsch theater company have made them one of the most talked-about theater companies in Japan and much acclaimed in theater festivals throughout Europe. The story unfolds through actors who slip in and out of character while casually narrating and playing out scenes. Oblivious to the imminent invasion of Iraq, the slackers obsess over the details of a love affair, perfectly capturing the irony and impotency of Generation Y in Japan today.

Awaji Puppet Theater Company
Thursday, March 5 – Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 pm
Family Matinee on Saturday, March 7 at 2:30 pm
**Part of a Seven-City North American Tour Organized by Japan Society**
Tickets $42/$38 Japan Society members
Family Matinee Tickets $10 for children 12 and under
For the first time in 10 years, Awaji Puppet Theater Company, designated an Intangible Folk Asset by the Japanese government, returns to New York with a stunning program. Often referred to as the origin of bunraku puppetry, the Awaji performance traditions passed down for over 500 years share the ancient technique of three-man manipulation of puppets. The company performs segments from classical dance pieces including Ebisu-Mai (Dance of the Fisherman God) and Hidaka-gawa Iriaizakura, based on the famous folktale of a lovelorn woman and her transformation into a serpent, as well as an excerpt from the traditional drama Tsubosaka Reigen-ki about the double suicide of a blind masseuse and his wife, and the divine miracle that brings them back to life. This intricate program highlights the Awaji puppet’s elaborate theater sets and props, and the highly refined mechanisms that manipulate the facial expressions of the puppets. This performance features live chanting and shamisen accompaniment.

» Related Event: Pre-performance Lecture at 6:30 PM for all evening performances by puppet scholar Jane Marie Law of Cornell University and the artists, free to ticket holders.

» Related Event: Pre-performance Demonstration for Children at 1:30 pm on March 7 before the Family Matinee by the artists. Open to families with children’s tickets only.

Play Reading Series: Contemporary Japanese Plays in English Translation
Enjoy by Toshiki Okada
Monday, April 13 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $10/$8 Japan Society members
Three Tokyo men, all approaching or just turning the corner on their 30-year mark, work at a manga (comic book) café. The three fall into the category of NEET, a term first coined in the UK for “Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training.” Ostensibly a comic and disturbing love story, the play follows the three NEETs as one of them reveals his relationship with a much younger café worker. Enjoy unfolds through Toshiki Okada’s trademark writing style of super-colloquial language, revealing a greater crisis in the socio-economic condition of the younger generation in Japan and many other developed countries as evidenced by the labor riots in France in 2006. Originally commissioned and premiered in 2006 at the New National Theater in Tokyo, Enjoy, by Okada’s chelfitsch Theater Company, received highly controversial reviews. The reading is performed by American actors and directed by Dan Rothenberg, founding member and Co-Artistic Director of the Obie-Award-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company. Rothenberg will direct the full production of Enjoy in the fall of 2009 for The Play Company.

Hiroaki Umeda
Thursday, May 14 – Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $28/$25 Japan Society members
Multidisciplinary solo artist Hiroaki Umeda commands all elements of his unique spectacle: choreography, dance, lights and computerized video images. Minimal and radical, subtle and violent, Umeda’s extraordinary butoh/hip-hop-inspired choreography appears within an environment of sparse, dramatic lighting, flashing cyber-imagery, electronic beats and crackling digital soundscapes. Based in Tokyo, Umeda studied photography and began dancing at the age of 20, delving into his own extraordinary original movement and refining a powerful sensuality in his work. Umeda founded his company S20 in 2000 and has since created numerous works that have been presented at dance festivals and theaters throughout Europe, Asia and South America.


2008-2009 PERFORMING ARTS LECTURES

An Evening with Conductor Alan Gilbert
**In conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera’s new production Dr. Atomic
Monday, October 27 at 6:30 pm
Tickets $20/$15 Japan Society members
One season before assuming the Music Director position of the New York Philharmonic in 2009, Alan Gilbert, one of the most sought-after young conductors today, will make his Metropolitan Opera debut this fall with Dr. Atomic. Composed by the celebrated John Adams and premiered in San Francisco in 2005, Dr. Atomic follows the invention of the atomic bomb and the unbearable tension in the final hours before it was dropped on Japan in World War II. Born into a "Philharmonic" family (his father a former and his mother a current New York Philharmonic violinist) and half Japanese himself, Gilbert discusses his cultural and musical background, life and career. The evening features a special live performance.

Frank L. Ellsworth Performing Arts Lecture Series
Inside the Mind of Basil Twist
Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $18/$15 Japan Society members
Spend an intimate evening with award-winning puppet artist Basil Twist as he discusses the influence of international puppetry traditions on his own work and other emerging puppet artists in the U.S. With live demonstration/excerpt performances from Awaji Puppet Theater Company, where Twist had a residency in 2003 during his research trip to Japan, the evening is moderated by Cheryl Henson, President of the Jim Henson Foundation and daughter of Jim Henson, the father of puppet arts in America.

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About Japan Society’s Performing Arts Program
Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced more than 500 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" (Leonard Jacobs, Back Stage).

About Japan Society
Founded in 1907 by prominent New York City business people and philanthropists, Japan Society has evolved over 100 years into an internationally recognized nonprofit organization presenting a full range of programs in arts, business, education and public policy. Through over 100 events annually, the Society creates rich encounters and exchanges that offer opportunities to experience Japanese culture, foster sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia, and improve access to information on Japan. On the occasion of Japan Society's 2007 centennial celebration, American Theatre noted: "For a hundred years now, the Japan Society of New York has been a think tank for policy works, entrepreneurs, diplomats and Japanophiles. But the jewel in its crown has always been the performing arts program."

Tickets & Information
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at (212) 715-1258 or in person at Japan Society (M-F, 11-6 pm and Saturday and Sunday 11-5 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 St.) For more info call (212) 832 -1155 or visit www.japansociety.org.

Support for ARICA Performance Company’s Kiosk is provided by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. New compositions by Ken Ueno, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Gene Coleman were commissioned by Japan Society and supported by the Jebediah Foundation: New Music Commissions. Performances of true are supported by the Metropolitan Government of Tokyo, Toyota Motor Corporation and the Asahi Beer Arts Foundation. Yoko Higashino’s performance is supported by The Saison Foundation. The Contemporary Dance Showcase is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Korea; Korea Arts Management Service; Korean Cultural Service, NY; Council for Cultural Affairs, ROC Taiwan; and the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York. The seven-city North American tour of chelfitsch theater company is organized and produced by Japan Society and is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan; The Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN Program; and The Saison Foundation for the Japan Society’s Japanese Theater NOW initiative. The seven-city North American tour of Awaji Puppet Theater Company is organized and produced by the Japan Society, New York, in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan; The Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program; The Jim Henson Foundation; and Awaji Ningyo Shibai Support Group. The Play Reading Series is supported, in part, by the Kinokuniya Bookstore. Major support for Japan Society 2008-2009 Performing Arts Programs is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund, The Starr Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Endowment for the Performing Arts. Additional support is provided by The Globus Family, Dr. John K. Gillespie, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. Transportation assistance provided by ANA, All Nippon Airways. Plasma display provided by Pioneer Electronics, USA

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For further information, images and interview requests, please refer to:

Bridget Klapinski/Meg Owen
The Karpel Group
P: (212) 505-2900
F: (212) 505-2950
E: mowen@thekarpelgroup.com

Aya Akeura
Japan Society
T: 212-715-1292
F: (212) 715-1262
E: aakeura@japansociety.org