THE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY JAPAN

In 1992, the founder of the Shakespeare Company Japan, Kazumi Shimodate, called the inaugural meeting. With this he brought together those people who shared the dream of performing Shakespeare's plays in Miyagi, and building a replica of Shakespeare theatre, The Globe.

Today, the activities of this specialist theatre group have become the core of the operation. But behind them are 600 members giving support. Shimodate, himself, carries out the literary side, adapting and translating the original, as well as directing the production. With Shimodate at the center of it all, the company creates a "new kind of Shakespeare play ".


President : Kazumi Shimodate
***********(Professor of Tohoku Gakuin University)

Location. : Sendai , Miyagi, Japan

Establishment : 1992

Main Aim : To perform one of Shakespeare's plays a year.
***********To build a theatre (the Japanese Globe) in Sendai.

The Company : 25 actors (From different regions in Tohoku.)
***************15 technical staffs

Official Support : The Japanese Arts Council, Sendai City,
*****************Miyagi Prefecture,The British Council,

 *The Shakespeare Company Japan is a non-profit making organization


PERFORMANCES UP TO NOW

As the Shakespeare Company Japan attaches great importance to the need for a sense of indentification and unity with the audience,performances only take place in small theatres of about 100-200 seats.

First production**"Romeo and Juliet"(1995)
Second production**"A Midsummer Night's Dream"(1996)
Third production**"Much Ado About Nothing"(1997)
Fourth production**"Twelfth Night"(1998)
Fifth production**"Macbeth"(1999)
Sixth production**"Macbeth"(2000)
Seventh production**"As You Like It"(2001)



WHY USE DIALECTS; TOHOKU-BEN?

By incorporating the charm of dialects into the translation we hope to represent a deeper, broader interpretation of Shakespeare's world. Although there are words from many different regions in the original text, the standard Japanese into which all adaptations have been translated is thought of as somewhat distant and cold by the people of Tohoku. By making use of the abundant vitality which exists in the Japanese dialects as theatrical language, we aim to create a new slant on Shakespeare's plays in Japan.


WHY SET THEM IN TOHOKU?

Wherever the character speaks in a dialect in the original work, Tohoku-ben is used in the translation by and large, and so it felt natural to set the action in Tohoku. And so the rich cultural tradition of Tohoku still lives on. By taking the atmosphere and history of Tohoku as the basis for a production of a Shakespeare's plays, we thought to express the charm of his plays in a new way. At the same time, through the process of staging the play in Tohoku, the culture and history of Tohoku is also being revived.

*"Tohoku" means northern Japan, where the Shakespeare Company Japan has our base.

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