This workshop, led by director/playwright/actor Kazuki Takase, takes place for 5  10 weeks, 2 – 3 times per year, in order to develop methods for the adaptation  of works of Japanese literature for the stage, in English (primarily) and Japanese. Texts are drawn from materials ranging from Rakugo texts to classic novels such as Lafuadio Hearn's to kabuki and contempory Japanese plays. This workshop aims to stage the scripts, performing the action and dialog, and create a narrative. Each character, including a narrator, is played by multiple actors.

Currently, the workshop is working on adapting and staging the story "The Face of Jizo" (父と暮せば Chichi to Kuraseba, also translated as Living with My Father) by Hisashi Inoue. The story takes place three years after the bombing of Hiroshima and concerns a woman, Mitsue, who lost her father in the bombing and is now struggling with his ghost to move on.

Each workshop culminates in an informal performance and conversation about the work. The end goals of the workshop are to develop the performance skills and storytelling/directing tools of the participants and to develop a finished, polished work for formal presentation on the stage.

In observance of the one-year anniversary of the Tohoku, Japan earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster, CRS welcomes back Big Apple Playback Theatre for a bilingual event to remember, share and act out stories from the survivors, family members and friends of those living in the disaster area.  Drama Therapist and Big Apple Playback member Mizuho Kanazawa and Plabyack Theatre Japan founder Kayo Munakata will work with Big Apple Playback to ensure that non English-speaking Japanese will be able to fully express themselves and understand what's being shared by English speakers. 

Japanese people living here at the time were initially unable to reach their families in the disaster zone or even to find out if they were still alive or if their homes were still standing. Those who were abroad had to fight feelings of helplessness and panic, even as their friends and family in Japan were too busy dealing with everything to be paralyzed by fear. Aftershocks and news reports, relocating and shopping for basic supplies, finding family members, etc. forced them to focus on the present. Here, little by little, we tried to focus our own minds on recovery, on grounding ourselves and providing peaceful, loving long-distance support to those in Japan to boost their spirits and get them through the long days.

A year after the catastrophe, many thousands of people are still missing, tens of thousands are still displaced, and the extent of the radioactive contamination is still very uncertain and the danger ongoing. By sharing these experiences, we can remind ourselves that we are all going through the seem things and facing the same challenges. The next time there is a crisis, we can help one another to act with love rather than to react with fear. When we give in to fear, we are cut off from our source and feel small, powerless, unwilling to try. But when we remember that our true nature is infinite, unharmable loving spirt, then we can think and act without hesitation to help our brothers and sisters, and work miracles together.

One third of the proceeds from full-price ticket sales will go to the Japan Playwrights Association, to support Tohoku theatre companies affected by the disaster.

PLAYBACK THEATRE is spontaneous theatre based on stories told by audience members. Life stories are shared, cast, and then enacted on the spot by a team of actors/dancers and a musician. Be they comic or tragic, our life stories are full of important moments worth sharing and remembering. Telling our stories to each other in a theatrical context is both redemptive and invigorating. Listening to the stories of our community is crucial as we strive towards a world without hate and violence. The objective of Big Apple Playback Theatre is three-fold: to invite dialogue, build community, and to create compelling theatre. It therefore lives on the cusp between art and social change and provides opportunity for laughter, reflection, and connection.

http://bigappleplayback.com

Inspired by the experimental theatre movement, psychodrama, and oral tradition of indigenous cultures, Playback Theatre was created in upstate New York in the 1970s by Jonathan Fox, Jo Salas, and the original PT Company. The method is now practiced across the world in sixty countries, and is used in a variety of settings including conferences, schools, colleges, prisons, hospitals, service agencies, and public theatres.

To connect to Playback Theatre around the world, go to www.playbacknet.org

Last spring, shortly after the devastating earthquake in Japan, actor James Yaegashi, whose family is from a nearby area, called friends in the New York theatre to say, "We as a theatre community have to do something to help our fellow artists on the other side of the world."

Six months later, a friendly consortium of over a dozen organizations came together to prepare a remarkable nation-wide event.

Now, on the first anniversary of the earthquake, theatres everywhere are joning SHINSAI: THEATERS FOR JAPAN. Shinsai [SHEEN-sigh] means great quake in Japanese.

http://tcg.org/shinsai/

Join us for an informal and friendly introduction to Divine Geometry Part 2 — Egypt, Greece & the Extraterrestrial Connection.

Hosted by CRS yoga instructor Stoyan Radev, founder of Qi-Yo Yoga and the Overground Movement, this Tuesday night series of programs consists of short lectures, informational film clips and conversation about the various branches of esoteric knowledge and practice from throughout history and around the world. Every culture has produced individuals who have sought to connect with the divine, the invisible, the infinite spirit and to give form to the content of the experience. Their cultural traditions and circumstances varied and thus the forms they established varied also, but the fundamental concepts and contents overlap tremendously.

Today, we have access to a tremendous variety of esoteric teachings. The purpose of this series is not to attract to one or another but instead to present all of these traditions and their teachings as a global heritage of resources from which you may draw inspiration as you iike.

http://www.overground888.com
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