Yesterday, some friends and I attended an amazing event at San Francisco State. It was called, Backstage to Hanamichi: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Color, Magic and Drama of Kabuki.
The fourteen member Shochiku Company troupe from Japan, including famous Kabuki actors, Kyozo Nakamura and Matanosuke Nakamura, preformed in five cities in the US. They claimed to really enjoy the city. Oh sure, LA, Portland, Denver and Seattle are nice and all. But, this is San Francisco! :)
There were fascinatings lectures, with explanations and demonstrations of movements. And the makeup and costuming demonstrations were really intriguing. We were told that normally, (especially in Japan), one would never witness the actor preparing himself for the role. I was amazed at the open and friendly way in which these acclaimed actors revealed themselves before the sold-out 700 member audience!
Oh and did I mention the two performances? Right.... well, I was blown away. The first performance, Sagi Musume (The Heron Maiden) was mesmerizing. At one point, I felt goosebumps and near the end, I was brought to the brink of tears. And by "brought to", I mean "slammed upside the head with"! You can see a few excerpts on youtube. The second performance, Shakkyo (Lion Dance), was colorful, exciting and fun! The contrast between the male and female roles was striking!
And to top it all off, we parked for FREE! In the city! Practically across the street from McKenna Theater at SFSU. And there was no traffic. And the weather was beautiful! I won't go on and on about how afterwards, we picked out a Vietnamese restaurant at random via the Yelp app on my iphone and managed to park about oh... one block away... for FIFTY CENTS! We beat the dinner rush and the food was quite good. All in all, a fabulous day!
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Posted by: BA Dissertation | October 31, 2009 at 11:14 AM