An Evening with Japanese Playwright Takeshi Kawamura and Richard Foreman March 19, 2007

An evening with Japanese playwright Takeshi Kawamura, featuring video clips of his past work, readings, and a discussion of his vision and creative process with legendary New York avant-garde director Richard Foreman (Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, New York), moderated by Carol Martin, associate professor of Drama at the Tisch School of the Arts. Readings directed by Aya Ogawa (Knife Inc., N.Y.) and Kenn Watt (Director, N.Y.).

Takeshi Kawamura (Writer/Director) was born in Tokyo in 1959. In 1980, Kawamura founded his theatre company Daisan Erotica with students at Meiji University, and in 2002 he created his production company T-Factory in order to broaden his producing capabilities for his writing and directing work. In 1985 Mr. Kawamura was awarded the prestigious Kishida Kunio Award for Shinjuku Hakken-den Chapter One: Birth of a Dog (Inu no Tanjou). In 1996 he received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council for a New York residency. In 1998, he was invited to teach at New York University as a guest director, where he directed two plays from Yukio Mishima's Modern Noh Plays, Sotoba Komachi and Yoroboshi in English translation. Mr. Kawamura has directed several productions at the Setagaya Public Theatre including Heart of Straw (Wara no shinzou) (2000), which he also wrote, and a staged reading of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Orgia (2003). He was chosen as the participant representing Japan for the Setagaya Public Theatre — Japan Foundation's Asia Contemporary Theatre Collaboration Project.

Richard Foreman founded the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968. In the early 1980s a branch of the theatre was established in Paris and funded by the French government. Since 1992 the theatre has been located in the historic St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, in New York City's East Village neighborhood, and serves as a home to Foreman's annual productions as well as other local and international artists.

Carol Martin was awarded a Visiting Professor Fellowship to Tokyo University for the spring semester of 2005. Her most recent book is Global Foreigners, co-edited with Saviana Stanescu and published by Seagull Press, London, New York, and Calcutta.

6:30pm Monday, March 19, 2007
Elebash Recital Hall. Free

Takeshi Kawamura’s AOI/KOMACHI will be presented at Japan Society (333 East 47 St) March 22-24 at 7:30PM. www.japansociety.org or 212-715-1258 for info & tickets.