{"id":340,"date":"2021-05-09T19:04:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T19:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/?p=340"},"modified":"2021-11-21T21:03:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T21:03:18","slug":"tadashi-suzukis-globally-local-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/tadashi-suzukis-globally-local-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Tadashi Suzuki\u2019s Globally Local Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Savas Patsalidis<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basis for theatre craft is the work of the feet . . .<\/p>Tadashi Suzuki \u201cThe Grammar of Feet,\u201d The Way of Acting<\/font><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Critical Stages\/Scenes critiques<\/em> pays tribute to one of the greats of world theatre, the latest IATC Thalia Prize winner: Tadashi Suzuki, the Japanese director and teacher whose theatre vision has for years been a real inspiration for critics, audiences and artists alike around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Map of the Toga Art Park<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tadashi Suzuki (born 1939 in the small port mura<\/em>\u2014village\u2014Shimizu beneath Mount Fuji) is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT, 1984)\u2014originally called Waseda Sho-Gekijo, founded in 1966\u2014based in Toga village (since 1976), located in the mountains of Toyama prefecture. He is also  the organizer of Japan\u2019s first International Theatre Festival (Toga Festival, 1982), the creator of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, member (since 1994) of the International Theatre Olympics Committee (with Theodoros Terzopoulos, Yuri Lyubimov, Tony Harrison, Heiner M\u00fcller, and Robert Wilson), a founding member of the BeSeTo Festival (jointly organized by XU Xiaozhong from the Central Academy of Drama, China and Kim Eui Kyung, president of the Korean Center of International Theatre Institute,  1994), for a number of years director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC, 1995\u20132007) and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Japan Performing Arts Foundation (2000), a nation-wide network of theatre professionals in Japan. With American director Anne Bogart<\/a>, he co-founded the Saratoga International Theatre Institute<\/a> (SITI<\/a>)  in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he presented a bilingual production (Japanese\/English) of Dionysus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With American director Anne Bogart<\/a>, Tadashi Suzuki co-founded  (in 1992) the Saratoga International Theatre Institute<\/a> (SITI<\/a>) in Saratoga Springs, New York. Photo: SITI webpage<\/a>. Accessed 27 April 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He has extensively travelled around the world with On the Dramatic Passions II<\/em>, (1972), The Trojan Women <\/em>(1974), The Bacchae<\/em> (1978), King Lear<\/em> (1984), Dionysus <\/em>(1990), Cyrano de Bergerac<\/em> (1999) and Madame de Sade<\/em> (2007), among other SCOT productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has also directed several international collaborations, such as King Lear (<\/em>presented with the Moscow Art Theatre, 2004), Oedipus<\/em> (co-produced by Cultural Olympiad and D\u00fcsseldorf Schauspiel Haus, 2000), Electra <\/em>(produced by the Taganka Theatre, Moscow, 2007) and La Dame aux Cam\u00e9lias<\/em> (co-produced by National Theatre & Concert Hall, Taipei), among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his creative work as director, Tadashi Suzuki has articulated his theories in a number of books, most notably The Way of Acting: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki <\/em>(1986), a collection of writings that provide an accessible approach to his training method animated by ancient forms as well as avant-garde.  J. Thomas Rimer, the translator of the book in English, writes in his introduction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tadashi Suzuki, one of the foremost figures in the contemporary theatre, has long been acclaimed, first in his native Japan, then in Europe and the United States, for the striking intensity, beauty, and communal energy of his theatrical productions. Those who have seen them will quickly surmise that behind the always powerful encounters that Suzuki engineers between his actors and his audiences lie both a philosophy of performance and a rigorous discipline that are unique . . . Suzuki\u2019s writings reveal the psychology of a thoroughly contemporary art. Challenged to absorb ideas from a wide variety of sources, he works to create a powerful synthesis of the dramatic arts.<\/p>(vii)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Suzuki has taught his system of actor training in schools and theatres throughout the world, including The Julliard School in New York and the Moscow Art Theatre. The Cambridge University Press published The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi <\/em>as part of their Directors in Perspective series. (For more on Suzuki\u2019s profile, visit his webpage<\/a>; also, Ian Carruthers and Takahashi Yasunari).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At a time when we are all running out of breath trying to keep up with the dictates of high technology, its frantic biorhythms, its ephemeral impressions, its elusive and delusive representations, Suzuki\u2019s theatre invites us, artists and critics (and audiences), to delve deep into our egos and reconnect with what we truly are and what we want to be; in short, he invites us to refocus our attention on what we tend to forget, the holistic self (for more, see Allain, or visit: https:\/\/vimeo.com\/channels\/tadashisuzuki<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rooted at the intersections of self, same\/other and the world, Suzuki\u2019s understanding of theatre (and theatre training\u2014not to mention viewing) somehow resembles a Homeric peripeteia<\/em>, a long but worthwhile odyssey whose final destination is each one\u2019s personal Ithaca: that is, the uniqueness of the individual body and soul\/mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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