FURANO, Hokkaido -- The city of Furano, Hokkaido, became famous around the nation nearly 40 years ago, when the first installments of the TV drama series "Kita no Kuni Kara" (From the North), penned by So Kuramoto, were broadcast.
Furano had previously been seen as a place whose only tourism resource was skiing. The show was a major turning point, helping transform the city into a place of theater.
This year marked the 17th year of the Furano Theater Festival. On its last day, Oct. 14, about 300 audience members gave a big round of applause to 67 fourth-graders of Furano Elementary School as they stood on the stage of the Furano Theater Factory.
During integrated studies classes, the children learned acting from Ryosuke Ota, 51, secretary general of the nonprofit organization Furano Engeki Factory. Ota graduated from the Furano Natural Studio, an acting and writing school in Kumamoto, and is now a veteran scriptwriter who also teaches professional actors.
Ota and actors and actresses from the Furano Engeki Factory have been teaching acting at 17 elementary, junior high and high schools in Furano.
"It's very different from just a schoolteacher doing it. Children can learn not only acting but also self-expression and compassion for others," said Keiichi Ota, 39, a teacher at Furano Elementary School.
Fourth-grade student Genta Sudo, 10, said with a smile, "I got to like performing."
The Furano Engeki Factory was established in 1997 with the aim of vitalizing the town through theatrical plays.
The Furano Engeki Factory manages and operates the Furano Theater Factory, which was launched by the city government. In recent years, it has given about 40 performances a year, attracting a total of about 10,000 people from inside and outside Hokkaido.
In 2001, residents who took part in a play organized by the Furano Engeki Factory formed a theatrical troupe called the Heso Family. In 2013, Furano High School introduced a selective class to teach acting.
Shingo Suga, 19, who belonged to the Heso Family, established a drama club at Furano Ryokuho High School in May 2018 when he was a third-year student at the school. After graduation, he began working as a technical staffer at an NPO in Sunagawa, Hokkaido, to support the citizens' troupe.
Through steps like this, Furano's theater culture has been spreading beyond the framework of the local government.
When the Furano Theater Festival was first held, only two elementary and junior high schools participated, but the number increased to seven this year, as the Furano Engeki Factory's teaching is very well regarded.
The Kotobuki Daigaku lifelong learning course for residents aged 60 or older also started participating in the festival in 2015. Now, everybody from children to elderly people join in.
"[The culture of] creating a play -- not just watching a play -- has taken root. I'm so grateful that a new place for meeting people has been created," Ota said.
Yuriko Kobayashi, a professor of theatrical education at Tokyo City University, said: "Acting is the best way to develop children's imagination, and their social and communication skills. It also deepens ties among residents, and leads to the development of the city."
But many issues still need to be solved. Due to a lack of staff, there are only two people to handle sound and lighting at the Furano Engeki Factory.
"We need to make it possible for the younger generation to make a living working backstage," Ota said.
He is now considering regular long-run productions lasting more than a month next year.
Nationwide movement
Groups across the nation are seeking to vitalize various areas by having theater culture take root in local communities.
Warabi-za, a theater group in Senboku, Akita Prefecture, was founded about 70 years ago. It gives about 800 performances a year nationwide, and its Akita Art Village based in the city attracts about 250,000 spectators a year.
In 2016, Warabi-za concluded a comprehensive cooperation agreement with the city government to revitalize the area. In 2018, the group began offering theater courses for elementary and junior high school students in the city.
The Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Shizuoka is the nation's first public cultural organization with its own theater and theater company, giving world-class stage performances. Since 2007, the center has operated the SPAC Theater School to teach acting to elementary, junior high and high school students in the prefecture, aiming to further spread theatrical culture.
-- Visiting 'navel town'
About an hour by car from Asahikawa Airport and about two hours from New Chitose Airport, Furano is located in a basin almost in the center of Hokkaido, surrounded by the Tokachidake mountain range and the Yubari mountains.
The city had a population of 21,610 as of the end of September. Its key industries are agriculture and tourism.
Furano is known as "heso no machi," which literally means navel town, because of its position in Hokkaido. This year marked the 51st anniversary of the opening of the Hokkai Heso Matsuri festival, at which people draw pictures of a big face on their bellies and walk in the city every summer. In winter, many skiers visit from all over the world in search of high-quality snow.
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