A Guide to the Japanese Stage From Traditional to Cutting Edge

Japan has a wide range of unique, highly refined performing arts that haveeveloped over centuries. This guide provides a brief history andntroduction to the features of each genre, together with recommendations oflays that are accessible to non-Japanese audiences. Brief synopses arerovided to approximately fifty selected plays, and well-known popularompanies, actors, writers, and directors are introduced. The text is widelyllustrated, and includes information about theatre listings, how to getickets, and which plays are available on DVD. It will be invaluable fornyone planning a visit to Japan and keen to experience its theatre firsthand,s well as providing additional insights for students of Japanese theatrend literature.

RONALD CAVAYE is a concert pianist who studied in London, Hannover, and Budapest. He was a professor of piano at the Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo from 1979 to 1986, and a founding narrator of the English-language "Earphone Guide" commentaries at Tokyo's Kabuki-za and National Theatre. He performs regularly in Japan and the United States, has written two books on music education, and penned articles for the Edinburgh Festival, the Paris Autumn Festival, and The Times. He is the author of Kabuki: A Pocket Guide and has translated for the University of Hawaii Press's Kabuki Plays on Stage.
PAUL GRIFFITH is currently pursuing a doctorate in Japanese Theater History at Wadham College, Oxford University. He was an associate professor at Saitama University's Education Faculty for ten years, and has also worked on the Kabuki woodblock print collection in the Far East Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He is a translator for NHK Television's bilingual series Japanese Traditional Performing Arts, and since 1985 has been a translator and narrator of the English-language "Earphone Guide" commentaries for both Kabuki and Bunraku at Tokyo's Kabuki-za and National Theatre.
AKIHIKO SENDA is a professor of drama at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, and the president of the International Association of Theater Critics (lATC) Japan Center. He is the best-known theater critic in Japan, regularly writing reviews for newspapers and magazines. He has also published several books on theater and musicals, including The Voyage of Contemporary Japanese Theatre, which was awarded an Art Encouragement Prize from the government.