On June 8 and 9, as a culmination of their week of work at Ryogoku Bear, Theatre Nohgaku will be giving two work-in-progress showings of the pieces they have been developing, Emily and Phoenix Fire.
Emily by Ashley Thorpe, directed by Thorpe and Richard Emmert and composed by Emmert, will be presented on June 8th at 16:00.
Emily is a new noh, that had a workshop showing in London in 2018. It’s about the tragic ending of 20th century English Suffragette pioneer Emily Wilding Davison’s life and the tortured spirit of Herbert Jones who jockeyed the horse that trampled her. A full production of Emily will be performed in September of this year in London.
Phoenix Fire, Theatre Nohgaku’s newest noh, will have its first presentation On June 9th at 16:00.
Written and composed by Kevin Salfen with direction by John Oglevee and long-time Theatre Nohgaku collaborator Akira Matsui. Phoenix Fire was written in honor of the 2020 Olympics and it celebrates Japan’s history with the games through an examination of an imagined meeting between acclaimed Japanese filmmaker, and director of the acclaimed documentary about the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games Kon Ichikawa and Jigoro Kano, judo legend and advocate for the cancelled 1940 Tokyo Olympic Games.
There will be a Q&A with the performers after each showing.
Tickets are free, but seating is limited so reservations are recommended. Please contact Peatix at the following links:
June 8 performance of Emily
June 9 performance of Phoenix Fire
For more information about Theatre Nohgaku, please visit their website