Kabuki-West
Page 7
APPENDIX
SHOZO SATO - BIO
Shozo Sato, a master of Zen arts, was officially adopted into the Kabuki family of Nakamura and is a master of the highest order of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, ikebana (flower arrangement), and sumi-e (black ink painting), and has published many books on these subjects.
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Sato is the founding director of Japan House at the University of Illinois, where he is a professor emeritus. In 2004, Sato was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the emperor of Japan, and in 1992, the minister of foreign affairs of Japan awarded him a Certificate of Commendation for his promotion of Japanese culture throughout the world. In 2003, he received the first Cultural Achievement Award from the Japan America Society of Chicago.
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Sato has received national and international recognition for creating a new form of kabuki through adaptations of the plots of well-known Western classics. He has conceived, designed, and directed award-winning productions that have been seen in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and the United States. He resides in northern California, where he established a center for Japanese Arts, and freelances as a director and visiting professor in theatre and Japanese arts
AUTHOR NOTES
THE PLAYWRIGHT TO HERSELF (on writing Kabuki Macbeth)
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Recreate Macbeth? Sure. Very Funny. I know it backwards. Played the Lady in three separate productions. But to redo it? Impossible.
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No matter what I say, the original will haunt me. And it's a very bad luck piece, Macbeth. The Brits won't even say the name aloud.
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Ok, but Kabuki needs something different: straight to the point, simple, short, more like lyrics - they jazz around with their voices, you know. It's sex and violence with an ethereal wash of Zen.
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So I've done it. And luckily, words are not the main thing in Kabuki. I mean, it's a sensual feast. Of course "hearing" is a sense, but to feed the hearing you also have music, sound, rhythm, voices. And where we must have words, yes, I've tried to find some.
TO THE VIRGIN VIEWER (who's seeing the Sato/Sunde Macbeth)
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In Kabuki Macbeth, you'll see a story that comes from Scottish history. We know it because Shakespeare wrote a play called Macbeth.
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In Kabuki Macbeth the story is retold, and in a form that is to the Japanese as "westerns" or musicals are to us: cultural wellsprings, sheer entertainments that celebrate who we are, how we live, and what we like to believe. In it you'll find purity, evil, beauty, violence, mystery, heroism, passion.
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It is a world completely strange. Don't be thrown. Just?take a breath, deep as your belly, and let yourself sink - into the brilliant pool of colors. Then, as with your first glimpse of a geisha girl, a samurai film, a plate of sushi - then, slipping into that pool, you'll begin to experience Kabuki.
ACHILLES - playwright to audience
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THE ILIAD, with its hero Achilles, is the first, and many would say, still, the greatest work of Western literature. A story of warriors and honor, this epic song echoes the heroic traditions of both East and West.
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THE ILIAD celebrates violence - contains passages so graphic even media-soaked hearers squirm. Yet, while it entertains us with gore, it also questions. Of the many nations comprising the Greek armies, and the many nations on the Trojans' side, none is the favorite, none shown finally right or wrong. And this epic does not end in victory, but pitifully, quietly, with an enemy's embrace.
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THE ILIAD speaks to our time of worldwide violence balanced crazily against worldwide longing to be done with war. So why not make Kabuki theatre? Why not make a cultural crossing place from this warrior's song? KS
Karen Sunde, a playwright and screenwriter, lives in New York
ASTERISKS in Play List below indicate published plays available for purchase at: https://www.broadwayplaypubl.com/alphlist.htm * https://www.dramaticpublishing.com **
For descriptions of all works, see https://www.karensunde.com. Some screenplays are at https://www.howardshulman.com
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PLAYS BY KAREN SUNDE
LIBERTY
BALLOON *
DARK LADY **
TO MOSCOW **
SWEET LAND OF FIRE
HAITI: A DREAM (in Facing Forward) *
NATIVE LAND
OH WILD WEST WIND (in Rowing to America) **
ANTON, HIMSELF
MASHA, TOO
PLEASE GOD, NO WEDDING OR SHOOTING AT THE END
IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA (in Plays by Karen Sunde) *
HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM *
TRUTH TAKES A HOLIDAY (in Plays by Karen Sunde) *
GENTLEMAN JOHNNY
ME & JOAN (of Arc)
WHEN REAL LIFE BEGINS
TRACKING BLOOD WHITE
DEBORAH: THE ADVENTURES OF A SOLDIER
2020 SEXCARE
THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE **
KABUKI OTHELLO **
KABUKI MACBETH
KABUKI KING RICHARD
ACHILLES
KABUKI LADY MACBETH **
QUASIMODO (a musical)
SPA (an opera)
THE SOUND OF SAND
SCREENPLAYS BY KAREN SUNDE
UNDERCOVER PATRIOT
COUNTDOWN
OVER THE RAINBOW
BOULE DE SUIF
SECRET SHIP
HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM
IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA
THE LINE
PARALLEL LOVES
DREAM HOUSE
FINAL QUEST: THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GODS
TRIPPING TAMMY
THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE
LOVE HITS EARTH (& Other Disasters)
NEXT!