From 16th to 19th September 2021, a theatre festival was held in Tokyo.
The Japanese Centre for International Theatre Institute (ITIJ) participated in to present “Plays 4 COVID”.
ITIJ searched new plays written under the curse of COVID-19, and picked up short plays from USA, China, Germany, and Ireland.
I, as the board member of ITIJ, was appointed to direct and perform the German play, written by Dea Loher.
The piece I put it as a play was originally a speech Ms Loher wrote for the opening ceremony of a theatre festival held in Berlin in October, 2020. Yes, it was when the European world just came out of 6 months of strict and tragical lockdown.
When I first read the text, what came up to my mind how to direct it as a play was that I was to put it as kind of TED speech to present an academic research, using alide shows, and the speaker-character as a doctor.
But as I kept reading it, different ideas appeared.
A goddess of theatre, who couldn’t reach us because the theatres were closed.
The goddess found a box filled with secret scrolls.
And she starts to talk to the audience.
Well, I was not sure if my interpretation and direction was right, but I was sure that I chose an honest decision.
The performance on stage was distibuted live-online, and I heard Ms Dea Loher saw it and liked it. Thank youxxx
You can see the photos of my performance (I directed it and performed as the character, too) and may get some ideas.
All photos: Kaku Watanabe
