Announcing our 2013 Noh Costuming Workshop: June 12-18, 2013, in Kyoto and Fukuyama, Japan. Following a highly successful 2012 premiere, our workshop will include:

Comprehensive lectures (in English) on costuming in noh; guided tours to textile and other facilities, the opportunity to meet and observe highly skilled artisans at their work; an invitation to attend a noh rehearsal (moshiawase,) as well as hands-on instruction in the traditional choreographed process of dressing and being dressed in authentic noh costumes conducted by professional noh actors.

Leading the lectures and guided tours in Kyoto will be well-known author, scholar and practitioner of noh, Monica Bethe. In Fukuyama, professional actors of the Oshima Noh family (including noh actress Kinue Oshima) will guide participants in hands-on demonstration of the many costumes, their functions and proper use. Also participating will be author, long-time practitioner and Theatre Nohgaku founding artistic director, Richard Emmert.

To see more photos and hear stories about our 2012 workshop, please visit our blog:

Quick Facts:

Theatre Nohgaku Noh Costuming Workshop

Location:

Kyoto and Fukuyama, Japan

Dates:

June 12-18, 2013 (arrival June 11, departure June 19)

Price

¥85,000 or US $1100 (US $1135 if by PayPal) includes all lectures, performances, workshops and various other workshop-related activities. Travel, lodging and food are not included, but assistance will be available for arranging hotel accommodations and ground-transport (within Japan.)

To register, or for more information about the workshop (including cost estimates of workshop-related lodging and travel in Japan, etc.,) please contact Tom O'Connor at

TN Newsletter Vol. 7 Nos. 1-2:
In this issue:

Pagoda the Work,
Pagoda the Collaboration:
Reflections on the 2011 Asian Tour
Kevin Salfen

Ambitious Program Realized at
Hampden-Sydney College
Matthew R. Dubroff

Spring 2012 Noh Music Workshop
in San Francisco, CA
Morit Gaifman

Feature: Atsumori (kuse)
Zeami, translated and adapted by David Crandall

Brown University Hosts Theatre
Nohgaku’s 2012 Writer’s Workshop
Matthew Kelty

“Hen na kanji”:
TN Remembers the 2011 Asian Tour
Kevin Salfen

Bringing the ghost of Atsumori back to life! Our recent performances of Atsumori were a success!

On August 3 & 4, 2012, we partnered with the Noh Training Project in a full production of Atsumori at Bloomsburg Town Park in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Mentored by noh performers Akira Matsui and Kinue Oshima and directed by Richard Emmert, two performances of Atsumori were held free to the public in an outdoor torchlight performance on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

The play tells the story of Atsumori, a young warrior and musician, who appears as a ghost before Kumagai, who killed him in battle years before. A remorseful Kumagai has returned to the site of the battle as a Buddhist priest to pray for his former enemy

Members of Theatre Nohgaku joined the 18th annual Noh Training Project (NTP) in performing this honored 15th century classic. The Noh Training Project - (a Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble educational program) offers the only US-based intensive training in the dance, chant, music and performance history of noh. We take pleasure in joining with NTP to support the training they offer and to continue to bring the art of noh to the community they serve in rural Pennsylvania.

Your generosity in our recent Kickstarter campaign told us there is a loyal audience for noh theatre. Keeping a classical tradition like noh alive is our passion. It nurtures and enriches our artistic, as well as personal lives. It has created a community of like-minded people who believe in the power of noh to bring depth and meaning to a contemporary world that more than ever needs the space and time for reflection.

Thank you all for your kind support in gathering together a group of dedicated and skilled performers who will once again bring alive the beauty and mystery of this ancient art.

With partial support from the Japan Foundation New York, Theatre Nohgaku is happy to be given to opportunity to present workshops and a performance as part of the Hampden-Sydney College Music Series in March, 2012 in Hampden-Sydney Virginia. Led by Artistic Director Richard Emmert, the activities will include the premiere performance of the chamber piece Atsumori in Japanese and English.

On March 19th TN members will visit classrooms and present workshops to introduce students to the fundamental components of noh music including voice and the four instruments (taiko, otsuzumi, kotsuzumi and nohkan.) A variety of topics related to the Japanese art of noh and TN’s work in English will also be presented.

A performance will be held the evening of the 19th featuring several shimai in both Japanese and English, as well as maibayashi. The chamber piece Atsumori will be performed as part of a new initiative to present smaller scale productions in both Japanese and English as part of our mission to share noh with new and wider audiences worldwide.