kagekia We had a very exciting collaboration theater production with Moscow International Film School (MIFS) in late December. Thirteen people were from MIFS in the middle of December. We played two dramas. One is “Oleysha” which was written by Kuplin, Russian novelist born in 19th century. MIFS students focus on the prejudice towards social minority people and how do we live with this situation. Shure University students played “The Parrot Training” written by Tagore, Indian poet of 19th century. Shure University students focused on the issue of self-determination in education.
MIFS students played “Oleysha” without words for Japanese audience. They played through dance, pantomime and music. Shure University students made Tokyo version of short theatrical dance of “Oleysha” without words. As a prelude of MIFS “Oleysha”, Shure University students showed theatrical dance of Tokyo “Oleysha” then MIFS students played authentic “Oleysha”.
Shure University students played “The Parrot Training” at a family setting. One family played “The Parrot Training” in their living room. Later a child of the family members spoke out her conflicts about her educational decision making. The animation film made by MIFS students were shown before the drama show of Shure University students.
We had three shows: two shows on Saturday and one on Sunday. After Sunday show, we had a post performance talk. The student directors and actors and staff members and the professional actress and director had a cross-talk. Then we had a party in which everybody could join. Quite a few audience participated and talked with performers and stage staffs. One of the MIFS students said before he came to Tokyo for this production, he felt MIFS was kind of isolated islands of freedom of expressions but here at Shure Univeristy, he feels another place of freedom of expression. Now he feels there may be more of those in the world.
