Kabuki-West

Kabuki plays “dazzling” “haiku-like” Chicago Sun-Times “best of two worlds, fascinating” Oakland Tribune “resounds with Kabuki’s passion, fascination...in Sunde's adaptation, Zen philosophy is engrained into story, not imposed” L.A.Daily News “Essence of passion. Sunde's play compresses Homeric epic, is lucid and direct, makes you see and hear with awakened eyes and ears." Philadelphia InquirerKabuki versions of classic stories in which – ghostly spinners of fate, with KABUKI MACBETH’s severed heads, hanging sword and resounding temple bell recount humans metamorphosing to demons, while KABUKI RICHARD III presents him as Shiva, the god dancing creation and destruction, and exposes a hidden family drama to make the Borgias blush, and ACHILLES’ war-prize concubine relates his rage, his sea goddess mother enchants, he dances his fight with a corpse-choked river, his race before mangling great Hector of Troy, to finally find peace in his enemy's embrace.These plays were originally created for professional American actors working in a Japanese tradition, directed by Shozo Sato, a master of Zen arts awarded the “Order of the Sacred Treasure” by the Emperor of Japan. Since then, other college, high school, even grade school students have taken exuberant delight (with their audiences) in creating their own productions of Kabuki plays I’ve written. KABUKI OTHELLO and KABUKI LADY MACBETH, not included here, are available from www.dramaticpublishing.com