Tonight! Unite to support the theatre community affected by the earthquake in Japan.

Today (Sunday, March 11, 2012) is the one-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Japan’s Tohoku region.  And as part of the Fukushima anniversary initiative, Shinsai: Theaters for Japan, our friends and colleagues at Scandinavian American Theater Company and Ping Chong & Company will co-present a reading of Swedish playwright Jacob Hirdwall’s Emperor Fukushima, a play written in response to the disaster. 

This is a great way to remember this tragedy and support theaters across Japan.

Sunday, March 11 @ 7pm.

La MaMa (47 Great Jones Street)

$10+ donation at the door*

*The Japan Playwrights Association will disburse proceeds to the Japanese theater community affected by the disaster.   

For a video about the event, visit: http://www.tcg.org/shinsai/video.cfm

ABOUT THE PLAY:

Written just two weeks after the earthquake, Hirdwall’s Emperor Fukushima juxtaposes the story of the wife of a worker at the Fukushima power plant with the story of a Russian tourist and former worker at Chernobyl, who narrowly escaped being killed in that disaster. The play explores issues surrounding nuclear power, also drawing on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Emperor Fukushima was recently selected as one of the three best Swedish plays of 2011 and will be listed in the ETC (European Theatre Conventions) “blue yearbook” as one of the 100 best European plays of last year.

“Theater artists in Japan, centered around those living in the Tohoku region that was devastated by the great earthquake and nuclear accident, extend our hand to theater artists around the world to rebuild Tohoku and Japanese society, restoring the conditions that surround the art of theater, such as environments for creative activity, theater buildings, companies, rehearsal spaces, education and audiences. We seek to work with our international peers to demonstrate the potential of human beings and the theater to overcome adversity as well as the primordial power of expression on stage." 
—Yoji Sakate, President of Japan Playwrights Association

At this Shinsai event, Tuomas Hiltunen and actress Dawn Saito, directed by Kristina Golmohammadi, will read a translation by Rochelle Wright.  The reading will be accompanied by original music by Fredrik Söderberg.