{"id":35259,"date":"2014-06-14T07:28:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T11:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=35259"},"modified":"2014-06-14T08:55:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T12:55:48","slug":"jq-magazine-heisei-nakamura-za-kabuki-returns-to-nyc-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/14\/jq-magazine-heisei-nakamura-za-kabuki-returns-to-nyc-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"JQ Magazine: Heisei Nakamura-za Kabuki Returns to NYC This Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/a>

After a seven year absence, Heisei Nakamura-za brings Kabuki to New York’s Lincoln Center Festival July 7-12. (\u00a9 Shochiku)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Mark Frey<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0(<\/i><\/b>Kumamoto-ken<\/i><\/b><\/a>, 2002-06) for\u00a0<\/i><\/b>JQ\u00a0magazine<\/i><\/b><\/a>. Mark served as the editor for\u00a0<\/i><\/b>JETAA Northern California<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Pacific Bridge<\/b><\/a>\u00a0newsletter from 2007-11, and is currently chapter president as well as coordinator of the\u00a0<\/i><\/b>JETAANC Kabuki Club<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A warm thought to heat you up as the Fourth of July approaches: real, live Kabuki is coming back to New York City July 7-12 as part of the annual\u00a0Lincoln Center Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is great news for Kabuki fans in America. And if you were ever curious about Kabuki, it is a rare chance to see the real thing in your own backyard. The performance is part of a very interesting project called “Heisei Nakamura-za<\/a>,” which was started about a decade ago by the late, great Kabuki actor\u00a0Nakamura Kanzaburo<\/a>, who passed away unexpectedly at age 57 in December 2012.<\/p>\n

Kanzaburo wanted to give audiences the chance to experience Kabuki the way it used to be in the “good old days” of the Edo period. Back then, Kabuki was a popular entertainment for the common people. It featured smaller theaters, a more intimate\u00a0relationship between actor and audience, and a more festive, earthy, raucous feel. So Kanzaburo started constructing temporary theaters in Japan and around the world that reflected this atmosphere. He extended the\u00a0mood to the plays he staged, putting a contemporary spin on old classics.<\/p>\n

In 2012, this reporter was fortunate enough to be able to see Kanzaburo perform in the last Heisei Nakamura-za theater he constructed, in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. It was an unforgettable experience. Some of the best actors of our day were walking a couple feet away from me on the theater’s modest\u00a0hanamichi<\/i>\u00a0runway. A special energy flowed between the actors and the audience that I hadn’t felt at established Kabuki theaters. At the end of the final play, the entire back wall of the theater disappeared and we enjoyed a beautiful, open-air night view of the Sumidagawa River and the newly constructed Skytree Tower. It was a magical evening.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Kanzaburo’s son\u00a0<\/span>Kankuro<\/a>\u00a0is continuing his father’s tradition by bringing Heisei Nakamura-za back to New York as part of this summer’s Lincoln Center Festival. Kankuro is a young and rising star in the Kabuki world who is following in his father’s footsteps. Some of you may recognize him from his role in the 2004 NHK\u00a0<\/span>Taiga drama<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Shinsengumi!<\/i><\/p>\n

Also performing is Kankuro’s younger brother,\u00a0Shichinosuke<\/a>, who is one of the most talented and beautiful\u00a0onnagata<\/i>\u00a0female role specialists on stage today (he played Emperor Meiji in\u00a0The Last Samurai<\/i>). One of my favorite Kabuki actors,\u00a0Nakamura Shido<\/a>,\u00a0will also appear. You may recognize him from\u00a0Letters from Iwo Jima<\/i>. He is known as a kind of “punk,” “bad-boy” Kabuki actor of the younger generation (though in typical Japanese fashion he is also dedicated to humbly learning the traditional techniques from his seniors).<\/p>\n

Heisei Nakamura-za’s past visits to New York in\u00a02004<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a02007<\/a>\u00a0were greeting with glowing reviews from the\u00a0New York Times<\/i>. All in all, this is a rare opportunity to see Kabuki in America. Don’t pass up the chance!<\/p>\n

For more information and tickets,\u00a0<\/i><\/b>click here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in finding out more about Kabuki and Japanese performing arts, visit the\u00a0<\/i><\/b>JETAANC Kabuki Club website<\/i><\/b><\/a>. It is one of the best English-language resources for Kabuki and Japanese performing arts on the Web today. You may also want to join the club’s\u00a0<\/i><\/b>online discussion group<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>to receive and share Japanese performing arts news and commentary from around the world.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

And for fans out there of Yukio Mishima, the author has also\u00a0<\/i><\/b>posted<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>about Mishima’s attempt to convey the earthy, vulgar origins of Kabuki, the same animating principle of Heisei Nakamura-za.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By\u00a0Mark Frey\u00a0(Kumamoto-ken, 2002-06) for\u00a0JQ\u00a0magazine. Mark served as the editor for\u00a0JETAA Northern California\u2019s\u00a0Pacific Bridge\u00a0newsletter from 2007-11, and is currently chapter president as well as coordinator of the\u00a0JETAANC Kabuki Club. A warm thought to heat you up as the Fourth of July approaches: real, live Kabuki is coming back to New York City July 7-12 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[75,4,26,53,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-articlejournalism","category-celebrity","category-events","category-jq-magazine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t