Imagining The Nation

This from Jo Kukathas who urges you to sign up quickly if you are interested as places are very limited :

Imagining the Nation: A Play-writing Workshop with Sakate Yoji

Epitaph For The Whales/ Breathless/The Attic - the plays of Sakate Yoji

THE PLAYS OF SAKATE YOJI

Most of Mr. Sakate's works are based on real political history and events and social issues in Japan - the rise of garbage, the rise of Japanese cults, and the phenomenon of "hikikomori," or the "withdrawal" of people into their homes - young people who refuse to come out and engage with society. He focuses on how myths - national, traditional and social - lead people to believe in false realities. He writes plays that lay bare a more bizarre reality. He has created and directed several masterpieces in theatre by introducing his own particular method of documentary writing, myth-making.

At the same time, his plays are inspired by the dramaturgy of traditional Japanese Noh theatre, established by Zeeami. He structures social issues as well as mythological visions of Japanese people - these two strands run parallel in his plays and are based on his unique dramaturgy inspired by Noh.

THE WORKSHOP

This two day workshop will focus on Mr Sakate's play-writing technique and style. Participants are required to attend his talk on Jan 8 where Sakate will introduce his work and Matsui Kentaro will give a talk about Japanese theatre.

INTRODUCTION and TALK

Jan 8 830pm

IMAGINING THE NATION: A history of Japanese theatre - Continuity and Discontinuity

A talk by MATSUI KENTARO producer and dramaturg and Director of The Asia Centre for Creation and Research, Tokyo on the history of Japanese theatre from noh to the present day.

"Imagining the Nation is based on the idea that language is a means for the making the notion of the “nation state”. From the perspective of theatre as the art of language, the theatre has to have its own particular function to be able to develop the notion of “nation” and “nation state” through making and presenting plays. It doesn't only mean using languages for writing plays - rather theatre has its own theatrical language with spaces, acting, directing, musical elements and so on. These theatrical languages have been influential to people to get the images of 'nation'."

NARRATING THE NATION: The Plays of Sakate Yoji - Epitaph For The Whales/ Breathless/The Attic

A presentation by Sakate Yoji playwright/ director of theatre company RIN KO GUN and President of the Playwrights Association of Japan who shares his body of work and talks about the contemporary theatre movement in Japan.


PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP PART 1 with SAKATE YOJI

Jan 9 1030am - 3pm

An introduction to the work of Sakate Yoji - political realism, documentary and mythology in a single play. The parallel worlds of Sakate Yoji's plays.


PLAYWRIGHTS WORKSHOP PART 1 with SAKATE YOJI

Jan 10 1030am - 3pm

A more in-depth look at the marriage of style, technique and content.


(Closed event. Participants must register first. Please e mail jokukathas@gmail.com to register)

WORKSHOP FEE:: RM80 inclusive of lunch


THIS EVENT HAS A SISTER EVENT: X CHANGE!

A MALAYSIAN JAPANESE THEATRE EXCHANGE

Is the NATION a FICTION or a REALITY? And who creates the NATION?

Who creates the fiction of a nation? Who dreams these things up? Who dreams up a One Malaysia or a Rising Sun? Of a Vision 2020 or A Malaysia Truly Asia?

Theatre is one place where alternative realities of a country are imagined and therefore created. It is a country of Gold Rain and Hailstones. A Country which dreams of Atomic Jaya. A Country where the Death of a Patriot is not the death of a Patriot and where you cannot **** Mr Birch. It is Brickfields, The Sandpit and Bolehwood, a place where Pak Dogol, Tok Perak, Athan and Ang Tau Mui live out their lives in the margins of the main narrative.

In this Exchange between Malaysian and Japanese speakers we ask how theatre can and should create strong alternative fictions to any fiction of One-ness.

CHECK OUT OUR EVENT PAGE ON THIS - COMING SOON.

PROFILES

SAKATE YOJI

Was born in 1962, in Okayama. He grew up in the region before went to Tokyo to study Japanese literature at Keio University. In 1981, he became a member of Transposition 21 Theatre Company while he was still a university student.

Transposition 21 was led by YAMAZAKI Tetsu, who was born in 1947, a playwright and director. YAMAZAKI is one of the leading figures of the second generation of the little theatre movement (shogekijo undo) or post-shingeki movement which began in 1960s. This is the theatre which SAKATE first came across and which influenced him.

In 1983, SAKATE formed a new theatre group, the Theatre Company RINKOGUN with himself as leader, playwright and director. He is politically active and his plays, like YAMAZAKI’s, have strong views on contemporary political and social issue in Japan. RINKOGUN’s productions are the result of an innovative collaboration among its residential artists including the stage and lighting designers.

SAKATE has achieved his first major breakthrough with two plays, The Tokyo Trial and A Dangerous Story, which he wrote in 1988. Both plays are about the injustices of the legal system. He wrote a play about lesbians, Come Out in 1989, and Breathless in 1991. Breathless, which discusses the problem of the garbage in Tokyo and the religious cult, Aum Shinrikyo (threatened the Japanese nation with their poison gas murder of Tokyo subway commuters in 1995), had received the Thirty-fifth Kishida Drama Award.

SAKATE wrote Epitaph of the Whales and The Capital of the Kingdom of the Gods in 1993. He continues his experiments in the use of noh in Capital of the Kingdom of the Gods. The play is about Lafcadio Hearn, a writer who came to Japan at the end of 19th century. The production toured in Europe and U.S.A in 1994, 1995 and 1998 to great acclaim. The Boiling Point of the Sea (Umi no futten) in 1997 discusses the situation of the land and the people of Okinawa, Japan’s most southern and newest prefecture.

In 2001, the group traveled to Berlin, Leipzig, Krakow, and Warsaw with their production of Breathless. The company has also created work in collaboration with theatre artists from abroad. Whalers in the South Seas, a work produced in 2000 is created with actors from Indonesia, Philippines and U.S.A.. The company's acclaimed production of The Attic was appeared in Pittsburgh, Miami, Los Angeles and New York in February 2005.

AWARDS
2000:
- Winner, 7th Yomiuri Theater Award for Best Direction - The Emperor and The Kiss (Tenno to Seppun)

- Nominee, 7th Yomiuri Theater Award for Best Production, RINKOGUN - The Emperor and The Kiss

2003:
- Winner, 10th Yomiuri Theater Award for Best Direction, Yoji Sakate - The Attic (Yaneura), Until the Last Person Standing (Saigo no Hitori Made ga Zentai de Aru), Charlie Victor Romeo, Abe Sada and Mutsuo (Abe Sada to Mutsuo)

- Winner, 54th Yomiuri Literature Prize (Drama), Yoji Sakate - The Attic (Yaneura) http://www.curtainup.com/attic.html

- Winner, 37th Kinokuniya Theater Award for Individual Achievement, Yoji Sakate - The Attic (Yaneura), Until the Last Person Standing and Blind Touch (produced by Theatre group EN)

- Nominee, 10th Yomiuri Theater Award for Best Production, RINKOGUN - Until the Last Person Standing (Saigo no Hitori Made ga Zentai de Aru)

MATSUI KENTARO

Mr Matsui set up the Asia Centre For Creation and Research to help develop Exchanges between Asian countries. His long-term goal is to facilitate intellectual and creative exchange between Asian producers, researchers and artists. He has worked extensively with Asian theatre people often in collaboration with the Japan Foundation. He was the producer of the Malaysian Japanese collaboration The Island In Between/Pulau Antara written by Jo Kukathas and Kam Raslan. He created and facilitated a 3 year Asian collaboration project with participants from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. The Malaysian participants, Jo Kukathas (Instant Café), Loh Kok Man (Pentas Projects) and Nam Ron (Rumah Anak Theatre RAT) continue to collaborate in Malaysia. Mr Matsui wants to build on the strong connections made in previous collaborations and deepen the exchanges on a intellectual and research level.

--
Jo Kukathas
Director
The Instant
CAFE HOUSE of ART and IDEAS
[CHAI]

No 6 Jalan 6/3
Petaling Jaya 46000
Selangor
Malaysia
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The 2nd Kakiscript Playwriting Competition

Kakiseni have announced a second playwriting competition :

In 2007, we launched the Kakiscript Playwriting Competition, and were inundated by entries from all over the country. Ten winners were selected, and the prize-winning plays were published in a book, 100 Minutes to Change the World.

We’re ready for more.

The 2nd Kakiscript Playwriting Competition, the richest playwriting competition in the country, is back and you have 3 months, or 93 days to create a ten minute play. A great ten-minute play, to be precise.

Read on for more information.

What We Are Looking For

This year, we’re setting a theme : Conflict/Resolution

We are looking for original, sophisticated works, which explore the idea of conflict, or the idea of resolution, or conflict and resolution jointly, or conflict versus resolution. If you have a different interpretation of the theme that we’ve suggested here, go for it!

Just make sure your work is engaging and rooted in the Malaysian experience.

Each play must run for duration of around 10 minutes, plus or minus two minutes. Submissions can be plays written in either English or Malay -- or a combination of both.

Note that we are looking for literature intended for performance; in other words, you should think about your play as theatre on stage as you write.

What We Don’t Want

We’re not looking for didactic or dogmatic plays. You are encouraged to contextualise your play with social and political issues, but don’t assume we want social or political tracts and commentaries. We want quality theatre. If you need to preach, write a sermon -- but don’t send it to us.

Why?

Kakiscript aims to encourage the creation of new, original Malaysian plays. We hope it will be an incentive for existing playwrights to produce work, and also an opportunity to unearth new talent. We also hope to encourage the creative exploration of issues affecting contemporary Malaysia.

We will be publishing the ten winning entries in print, in a single volume; they will also be available for download from Kakiseni.com.

Did We Mention Prizes?

The playwright of the winning entry will receive RM10,000 in cash. Two runners-up will receive RM5,000 each. Seven consolation prize winners will receive RM2,000 each.

See the website for further information and rules.

Calling Wannabe Playwrights

Here's an interesting variation on the NaNoWriMo put-yourself-under-appalling-pressure-and- just-squeeze-a-ridiculous-number-words-out scenario :

Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April.

As part of a donation-funded nonprofit, Script Frenzy charges no fee to participate; there are also no valuable prizes awarded or "best" scripts singled out. Every writer who completes the goal of 100 pages is victorious and awe-inspiring and will receive a handsome Script Frenzy Winner's Certificate and web icon proclaiming this fact. Even those who fall short of the word goal will be applauded for making a heroic attempt. Really, you have nothing to lose—except that nagging feeling that there's a script inside you that may never get out.

Who: You and everyone you know. No experience required. What: 100 pages of original scripted material in 30 days. (Screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, and graphic novels are all welcome.) When: April 1 - 30. Every year. Mark your calendars.

Where: Online and in person (if you want!). Hang out in the forums, join your fellow participants at write-ins, and make friends by adding writing buddies online. Why: Because you have a story to tell. Because you want a creative challenge. Because you’ll be disappointed if you missed out on the adventure. Because you need to make time for you.

How: Sign up. Tell everyone that you are in the Frenzy. Clear your calendar. (US participants: Get your taxes done now!) Start some wrist exercises. Have fun!

The 5 Basic Rules of Script Frenzy

1) To be crowned an official Script Frenzy winner, you must write a script (or multiple scripts) of at least 100 total pages and verify this tally on ScriptFrenzy.org.
2) You may write individually or with a partner. Writing teams will have a 100-page total goal for their co-written script or scripts.
3) Script writing may begin no earlier than 12:00:01 AM on April 1 and must cease no later than 11:59:59 PM on April 30, local time.
4) You may write screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, comic book and graphic novel scripts, adaptations of novels, or any other type of script your heart desires.
5) You must, at some point, have ridiculous amounts of fun. Still unclear? Check out the website at Scriptfrenzy.org

Write for BBC Radio!

This from the British council e-newsletter and thought you'd all like to know :

If you’ve got the knack of telling a good story and want a challenge, you might want to try your hand at writing radio drama for the BBC World Service - British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition. The winner will receive £2500 and a trip to London to see their play being recorded! Closing date: 31 March 2009.

Arun's Hero

Hot on the heels of Shanon Shah's successful Aircon, another of the FIRSTWoRKS-nurtured playwrights, Arun Subramaniam, makes his debut :

“Hero” tells the story of the anguish suffered by a family following the death of the father - a politician who is mysteriously assassinated. The story is told through the eyes of his wife, his fourteen-year-old son, and by the dead man himself. The man a potential hero in the Indian community refuses to remain silent, thereby adding to the mystery and illuminating a murder that has gripped not just the Tamil community, but also the entire nation.

As the trio tell their story through dialogue and monologue, through flash back and present day events, a sinister and uneasy web forms, linking affairs of state, power, faith and ego. Who has assassinated this man? And why? Ultimately, however, “Hero“ transgresses national and political interests, and arrives at that most intimate and unique of spaces: the family home.

Directed by Jo Kukathas and Zalfian Fuzi, and starring Indi Nadarajah, Anne James and introducing Ley Shahrwind, the play runs August 27 - 31 at Actors Studio, Bangsar.

Details of performance times and ticket prices are here.

You can watch a trailer for the play on Facebook.

Support new Malaysian playwrights and help local theatre to grow!

Theatre and Activism

Was at the Playwrights Exchange, organised by FIRSTWoRKS, which brought together theatre practitioners and activists, over four days at Central Market Annexe (18th - 21st October).

I took part in one of the panel discussions about how theatre can improve the lot of women with several very dynamic ladies whose hard work and commitment make me feel very humble indeed. From Left to right in the picture above Zainah Anwar (Executive Director of Sisters in Islam (SIS)), Ivy Josiah (Executive Director of the Woman's Aid Organisation), and playwright Leow Puay Tin. (The session was moderated by actress Anne James.) When it was my turn I spoke about an issue I feel very strongly about - the difficulty many women face in putting their writing out into the world, and how we can help and encourage them. Self-censorship is a big problem - but I also know that there is some harassment of women (in the form of hate mail, hacking of blogs, and even physical threats) to those who write on more controversial issues.

I was thrilled to be able to do both writing workshops lead by Iranian playwright, Naghmeh Samini who was extremely warm and encouraging. On both days we played some games to get to know each other and to build cohesiveness in the group including a fast and funny chair swapping game where we learned a lot about each other, and a quieter sharing activity where we spoke on a topic for the duration of a match burning (below).


The Friday's workshop was called from Ancient Texts, New Plays, and looked at how you can take a story from folklore or mythology as your starting point for a play. We worked with the legend of Puteri Gunung Ledang, analysing versions of the story, putting together a sequence of events and a list of characters, then finding starting points, viewpoints and motivations. Everyone then went off to write a scene and it was quite amazing what interesting angles people had chosen to retell the well-known legend.

In Saturday's workshop, One Headline, Many Plays we worked from newspaper headlines that we remembered because they provoked a strong emotional response in us. We analyzed scene and decided on characters, and then wrote an extract. It was a useful way in to writing about subjects that struck an emotional chord.

I wished I could have attended all the sessions, but with the chaos at home with builders and decorators (and at one point water pouring through the ceiling!) couldn't get to as many sessions as I would have liked. But with the sessions I did attend, I came away feeling completely inspired by the people I met (especially Naghmeh) and so glad that the event had created a very necessary dialogue between a whole lot of people who might not ordinarily see themselves in the same frame.

Playwrights Exchange

Here's something exciting coming up soon which I would urge you to support: A Playwrights Exchange - Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran: Women, Writers and Activists. You can check out the full programme on the Instant Cafe Website.

Kakiscripts Kakistended

The nice people at Kakiseni would like you to know that the deadline for the playwriting competition has been extended till 30 August 2007. (Clickety click to be inspired by the poster.)

Adaptation

Was lucky enough to be invited to attend the workshop on adapting texts for the stage oranised by FIRSTWoRKS/Instant Cafe Theatre and was much brain-boggled by the company I found myself in ... the other participants included stars in the theatrical firmament Ann Lee, Kee Thuan Chye, Jo Kukathas, Anne James, Thor Kah Hoong as well as best-selling author (!) and screen writer Kam Raslan, Zedeck Siew of Kakiseni, Bernice Chauly of the myriad talents, and the group of budding playwrights being nurtured by FIRSTWoRKS: Animah Kosai, Ridzwan Othman, Rahel Joseph and Shanon Shah.

Laurence Strangio the writer/director of Alias Grace talked us through the process of adapting his play from Atwood's novel telling us that he only drew on Grace's first person narration, and then only a small proportion of that. Although the film rights have been bought he said, it would be a very difficult film to make a movie because one of the most delightful ambiguities of the book is whether the mysterious peddler Jeremiah is the same person as Dr. Jerome La Pont, who hypnotises her. In the novel and in the play it is possible, Laurence says, for both possibilities to live at the same time.

He says he read and reread the book, putting post-it notes on the sections he liked best and then typing them onto computer. He says he played "fast and loose" with the arc of the story, and says he knew the book well enough to reinvent it. The first draft was three and a half hours long when read through, and was, of course, substantially cut. Laurence also showed us transparencies of a particular scene so we could see how it had changed over time, and explained how the actor's portrayal of the role (in this case Caroline Lee) fed into the way the work was written.

We talked about reasons for adaptation, and then we discussed texts that we had brought along to the workshop to adapt.

On the second day we drew a poster presentation of the key touchstones of our texts and here're some photos. (I put the full set on Flickr.)

Kee Thuan Chye hard at work ...

Me, being creative on the floor! I chose Tinling Choong's FireWife since I'd just finished reading it and found it very visual. (Eight women, eight photographs, fire, water).

Bernice wrestles Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia down to the ground!

Kam show-and-telling his take on Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Chye and Ridzwan inspect the posters. (I think they're looking at the naked lady covered in sushi picture on mine!)

The most exciting part of the workshop I think was when single images were taken and improvisations built around them creating a new set of striking images.

Now adapting a text to a play is something I would very much like to do and seems more manageable somehow than starting from scratch ...

Alias Grace

Went to see the Malthouse Theatre production of Alias Grace last night at KLPac and thoroughly enjoyed it despite being in an advanced state of exhaustion after my up and down trip to Kota Bharu yesterday.

It's remarkable how a whole novel can be adapted to stage and performed by just one actress ... and come over as strongly as the original. Caroline Lee who played Grace Marks throughly deserved her standing ovation. (A one hour forty minute solo show without a break is no joke!)

Was Grace Marks a murderer? I love the way that we're kept guessing ... in the play as in the book ...

Will be doing a play adaptation workshop with Instant Cafe Theatre's FIRSTWoRKS this weekend and am very much looking forward to it.

Atwood Acted

Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite novelists, so I am really looking forward to seeing the adaptation of one of her best known novels, Alias Grace for the stage.

Here's the lowdown:

ALIAS GRACE

CAST & CREW
Presenter : The Instant Cafe Theatre Company & Malthouse Theatre with the support of the Australian High Commission

SYNOPSIS:

"Murderess. Murderess. The word rustles like a tafetta skirt across the floor."

In 1844 sixteen-year-old Grace Marks is convicted of the brutal murder of her employer and his pregnant mistress. Eight years later she is offered the chance to redeem herself, but telling a story is never an innocent act.

In her brilliant portrayal of the celebrated murderess in the play alias Grace, award-winning Australian actress Caroline Lee transforms into Marks in a performance as intimate as it is dangerous. The character is based on the real-life Grace Marks, one of the most notorious Canadian women of the 1840s.

Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood's multi-award winning novel, has been adapted for the stage by Laurence Strangio. The KL production is supported by the Australian Government, through the Australia International Cultural Council in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Relations between Malaysia and Australia.

Venue : Pentas 2 Duration : 4 - 8 July 2007
Category : Drama Price : RM37 and RM22

Good Stuff on this Saturday

This blog is becoming a bit of a bulletin board, there's suddenly so much on. Bear with me just a while longer while I tell you about a couple more literary things you might want to attend - this weekend.

This Saturday, 23rd June is the MPH Breakfast Club at Bangsar Village II at 11a.m. which this time features Zhang Su Li, author of A Backpack and a Bit of Luck.

And this Saturday night at the Gallery, Central Market Annexe you can watch excerpts from the works in progress of three of FIRSTWoRKS playwrights: Animah Kosai (Melaka ’07), Ridzwan Othman (Tahun Melawat Malaysia) and Shanon Shah (Revenge).

I've more stuff to tell you about later, but I'm so afraid of becoming the bloggers' version of KLue Magazine, I'll stop here!

Fundamentally Very Happy

Years back when Jo Kukathas asked me if I would try my hand at writing for theatre as she liked the voice in one of my short stories. Until now, I hadn't taken a move to do so and it took another phone call from Jo to prompt me. But I'm very glad I took part in the FIRSTWoRKS Fundamentally Happy Playwriting Workshop organised by Instant Cafe Theatre and led by Singaporean playwright Haresh Sharma (left).

Starting from exercises designed to help us get to know our protagonist, we drafted scenes in the first workshop last month. (The most useful activity was "hot chairing" where we played the role of our characters while being interviewed.)

We were supposed to have a whole seven act play written before the second workshop, but most of that fell a little - ahem - short of that. ("Your commitment has to be at least 8 out of ten," said Haresh, giving us a well deserved scolding.)

What an incredible experience it was to have scenes those scenes acted out in this second workshop! My characters came to life in front of my eyes and my dialogue actually sounded quite good.

Amir Muhamad (right) is not my actor of choice though, as he finds everything funny. But Animah brought my expat housewife to life with a depth of feeling I'm sure I hadn't written into the script.

I feel I learned an awful lot even if my attempts really weren't quite there, and am feeling quite inspired now.

Biggest thanks to the FIRSTWoRKS team for organising this and inviting me, and to Haresh for his patience and very useful feedback.

Here's an interesting article about Firstworks from the Sun which I missed when it first appeared. You will get a chance to see some of the work of the FIRSTWoRKS playwrights who are currently developing their plays on June 23rd at Central Market Annexe. More about that nearer the time.

(left Shanon Shah, who is still developing his play).

Kakiscript Playwriting Competition

Online arts magazine Kakiseni has announced a playwriting competition with generous prizes and are looking for:

... engaging plays that explore and define issues of the Malaysian experience, in all its social, political, historical, spiritual and emotional complexity. Each play must run for duration of around 10 minutes, plus or minus two minutes. Submissions can be plays written in either English or Malay -- or a combination of both -- and must thematically touch on issues concerning Malaysia.

Closing date is Tuesday 31 July 2007 and all the details are here.

FIRSTWoRKS Firsts

Animah (left) snapped last night after the reading of her play Malacca 'o7 at Stor Theatre, Dewan Bahasa Friday night.

I rolled in late (horrible jams, taking the wrong turning off the highway, walking round in the dark trying to find the venue) and missed a good slice of the first play Shannon Shah's Air Con.

From the part I did see, it looked extremely interesting. Not least because I was a teacher in a school very much like the one attended by Shanon's characters. Though my boys didn't hang out with the transvestite prostitutes at the railway station ... did they? I liked the interplay betweeen Shanon's characters ... they felt very real.

Animah's play was intriguing. She took a real historical incident - the demolition of the Portuguese fort in Malacca and added a cast of characters which included a gutsy activist type heroine and an UMNO youth type guy out to foil her plans. I could vicariously see just how thrilling it must be to write something and have it lifted from the page by a cast of actors (who incidentally were excellent).

It's still a work in progress, so won't say too much here, but am so proud of my friend!

Incidentally, how do you pronounce the name of the British governor: William Farquhar. I'm as certain as only a Brit can be that it is pronounced (Farkwa) not, as the cast and Animah pronounced it (Fakuha). The name is Scottish and derives from the gaelic. Any Scots on the blog?

(To digress for a moment, the Brits have several surnames which are pronounced very differently from their spelling including Featherstonehawe which is pronounced 'Fanshawe', and Cholmondeley pronounced 'Chumley'. The pronunciation is simplified over time, though not the spelling as aristocratic families hold on to evidence of their lineage.)

Congrats to both new writers and to the others whose works were read last night at Stor.

Yes, am somewhat envious and thinking ... hey could I do this?