Prominent members from the Kita Noh School, including Akiyo Tomoeda, Living National Treasure designated by the Japanese government, perform works from noh theater’s classical repertoire: Kotei (The Emperor) and Makura Jido (Chrysanthemum Boy).
Japan Society presents Shomyo: Buddhist Ritual Chant - Spiral Mandala Ceremony, a theatrical audio experience accompanied by innovative, hypnotizing, abstract visuals. Audience members will sit on cushions placed on the stage floor, then be transported into a state of meditative contemplation through the pre-recorded chants of Shomyo No Kai. This on-site performance promises to engages all the senses.
Japan Society presents SHEEP #1, an inventive minimalist performance by NYC-based Japanese artist Sachiyo Takahashi. With two unique programs spanning four performances, SHEEP #1 delivers a one-of-a-kind object-theater performance performed live with musical accompaniment.
This summer Japan Society offers an unconventional presentation of psychiatrist-turned-director/playwright Kuro Tanino s The Dark Master. Inspired by an indie manga, this immersive and humorously dark experimental theater piece engages the audience with sights, sounds and smells.
Through Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, headphones, and live on-stage cooking, the piece positions each audience member in first person perspective as the play s protagonist, an unassuming patron of a Japanese diner. Performed by Tanino s experimental theater company Niwa Gekidan Penino, the story depicts the strange, symbiotic relationship that develops between the customer and the restaurant s owner-chef simply called the Master. Borrowing the dramaturgy of first-person video games, the audience experiences first-hand how the Master s all-consuming persona highjacks the identity of his victims in a novel production that collapses the border between reality and illusion.