Mindblown: a blog about ELICA’s love.
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Lady Gregory of Galway, Ireland
Lady Gregory.Have you ever heard of?If you are an Irish Theatrist, or a Korean theatrist, you may know about her. She is a playwright, producer, and a patron, at the dawn of Irish theatre.She supported various Irish playwrights to make them go famous.She built the first National Theatre in Dublin, for Irish people, when Ireland was still under British Empire’s control.She herself wrote many plays to attract the Irish common audience, when theatre was an aristocratic pleasure. She has been rather long forgotten or hidden behind big Irish names such as WB Yeats, but nowadays, possibly because of BREXIT and recent gender-equal movements, more light is put on her. I […]
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Elica’s Rehearsal in Progress
Do you know Jean Giraudoux, a French playwright of early 20th Century?I will be in one of his plays called La Guerre de Troie N’aura Pas Lieu: The Trojan War will Never Take Place. The play is known and made into many stage productions in English as Tiger At The Gates, translated by Stephen Fry. It is about the very day when the war is outbroken. As Troy has just won a big war in Asian continent, Hector the General really wanted to rest, and came back only to find that his younger brother Paris has abducted the most beautiful Helen of Sparta into Troy, and the whole Greek army […]
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HAPPY MIDSUMMER
It is Summer Solstice. Do you celebrate, and how? Japanese June is quite rainy, very different from Europe and USA.Not much sun, yet very very humid.Which prevents us from celebrate the day as a festival.However, at Ise ([ise]), Wakayama prefecture, where AmaTeras [amateras] the Goddess of the Sun is worshiped, holds an important festival on the sea, and make a prayer to the rising sun. ↑ https://futamiokitamajinja.or.jp/event/guideline_geshisai/ I wish you spend a very happy midsummer, with your favorite fairies.
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Want some information?
Don’t you find it hard to find information in English, on what to watch in theatre, except traditional performing arts such as Kabuki and Noh? I do. And I have been wondering if I could be of a little help in that area through my English blog. Well, there are many things going on, in variety of styles and forms, in Japan. Some may love ANIME, some traditional Japanese, some 2.5 dimension, musicals, operas, ballets. and straight plays. I cannot cover all nor you’d not want to read in one page. So, I will pick up something different, something you could only experience in Tokyo. My country gradually opens and […]
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What is Acting?
Hi from Elica!How are you doing in this world filled with so many problems? First, take a soothing breath in by enjoying my little rose garden. Now I have a question for you. What is acting? Many times I noticed that good directors tend to say “Stop acting!” or “Don’t act!” What does this mean? In Japanese language, “acting” has the same interpretation of faking things, faking their behaviour, or faking the feeling. Isn’t it interesting?Both in English and in Japanese, “acting” has the meaning of faking attitude. But we actors, directors, and the theatrists hate to fake! It’s OK to use the word “acting”, but sometimes we feel the […]
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Japanese Spring with Plum Blossoms
Before anything, I must express my heart filled with sorrow for the people in Ukraine.I am against any form of violence.Though I know violence is quite a main and entertaining part of performing arts, the reason I am in the perfroming art is to make the world peaceful. By saying that, today, I am going to show you peaceful scenes of spring near Tokyo. The beginning of the spring of Japan is symbolized by plum blossoms.Elica has been busy visiting many plum orchards and gardens.Here are some videos of plum orchards. Odawara: Very early. Ogose: Middle Season Fuchu: In Full Bloom ZEN Acting Feel the IKI (breathing) of old trees […]
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Tenkawa Dai BenzaiTen
Travel Japan with ELICA MIWA. This is a very rare place. Not many people, even a Japanese, actually visit, for the place is located really deep in the mountains in deep Nara. It is TenKawa Dai BenZaiTen Shrine.This shrine is the head of all shrines for performing arts!(BenZaiTen is the name of the god of performing arts.) The music behind the video is also made by me ELICA. Only, there was a road construction and you may hear low buzzing noise sometime.Still, you can dip yourself into the summer sound of high mountain in Japan. ENJOY! !ZEN ACTING !Listen to the sound in you.
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Plum Blossoms in Odawara
Before I deliver this blog, I must share my deep sorrow and prayer for UKRAINE who suffer without a reason. I cannot pretend as if nothing is happening and write my usual blog. But at the same time, one may need to stay calm and bless the world. Though the wind and politics are savage, the spring is coming here in Japan. The early rise of spring is traditionally symbolized by plum blossoms. I went to Odawara, two hour drive from central Tokyo, to see the plum orchard.Here is the video. I hope this gives you some relaxing moment. The season has just started, which means not many flowers on […]
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Enjoy Soothing Sunset of Japan
Hello from ELICA MIWA.I have just made a video clip of a beautiful sunset scene in Japan. Filmed at the ancient part of Nara. It is very soothing. I hope you enjoy watching it, probably before going to sleep. For actors, suitable for after acting on stage, too, to bring your soul back to normal daily life and yourself.
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I Left No Ring With Her: Viola’s Ring Speech
HAPPY VALENTINE! I have four news today for you. 1. 7th Februrary was Elica’s birthday! Thank you all for the lovely birthday messages for me through SNS. I love you all and you are my treasure!These days I ponder the reason why I live as I am. What can I do as a theatre director-actor? Why the God(s) gave me this occupation to achieve what?I always think about those questions. 2. Online Workshop for international Japanese actors. I am going to hold onilne workshop for Japanese actors who wish to work with English language. If you are interested in learning Japanese, maybe it is a nice workshop to join. I […]
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