“My Directorial Debut: Kodo Workshop Performances” by Eri Uchida
Thank you very much to everyone who came to see our Workshop Performance in Kyoto on Dec. 7.
Dec. 7 (Sun), 2014 Kyoto Performing Arts Center Shunjuza, Kyoto City
It was my first time to direct a Kodo Workshop Performance, so I was really anxious. But the theater staff gave us such great support and we had a wonderful time working with them at Shunjuza. We had rehearsals right up until just before the performance, so it must have been physically and mentally challenging for the cast, but they all did wonderfully on stage!
While we were creating the stage lighting for this performance, I realized that even though I want to try all kinds of things as a director, the main things I want to show are people and sound.
On stage, all of us do our very best as we face the taiko drums, each other, and ourselves, head on.
I hope that this performance also creates a chance for the staff involved and the audience to discover or realize something within themselves.
As the director, I created the programme’s framework, but it is the cast and staff, and the audience, who actually breathe life in to it. I felt that physically as gratitude welled up from within me as the performance came to an end.
When I open up myself to see what others express from a neutral position, I see those expressions react with each other and create a chemical change, and the programme morphs into a world I couldn’t have imagined myself.
I still have a long way to go, but will continue to do my best. I hope you will cheer us on.
I will make the most of what I learned here today, and use it to fuel our School Workshop Performances nationwide!
*These photos from our rehearsals on Sado Island. (Photos: Takashi Okamoto)
▶Kodo School Workshop Performances