Some regional theater companies are attracting attention with their online performances or unique stage design, even as artistic and cultural activities have stalled due to the spread of the coronavirus.
How to engage in theatrical activities has been an issue since an infection cluster occurred among performers and audience members at a Tokyo theater. But regional theater companies are continuing to find unique forms of expression, while employing various measures to avoid the Three Cs of closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings.
One performance that was presented differently to how it would be in a theater was a musical livestreamed via videoconferencing platform Zoom in early July. Actors performed their parts in their homes and the audience watched on computers and other devices. The performance was created by Hotori Theatre, a group of performers and a composer in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Their first such production was "Utau Shibahama," an arrangement of rakugo masterpiece "Shibahama," which describes love between a husband and wife. Videos individually recorded by theater members were put together and set against a different background to create a "stage" on screen. Since it is difficult to start singing together at the same time, it is thought to be unusual to perform a musical remotely.
"Utau Shinigami," their second production presented through this method, will be livestreamed from Friday night. "We just want people to enjoy what we have cultivated," Mito-based actress Chiaki Mitsumori, 37, said.
In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, a group of performers and others turned "no Three Cs" to their advantage and created a different kind of theater. They started to present free performances at Ishinomaki's Kiwamariso gallery on June 14 in which the audience is limited to one person at a time and they watch through a "peephole." A visitor in a half-tatami mat space peeks through a 4-centimeter hole to watch the play, which is staged in a 4-1/2 tatami mat space. The spaces are separated by a wooden wall.
The production was soon flooded with reservations. Works from three to 10 minutes long depicting the daily lives of women in Ishinomaki after the Great East Japan Earthquake proved popular, and all 48 performances through the end of July sold out.
"I wonder if sharing the same air and enjoying a 'sense of close contact' are the essence of theater," Ryuta Yaguchi, 37, an Ishinomaki Performing Arts Association representative who planned the play, said.
Local theater company member Yuko Mikuni, 69, who appeared on the first day of the performance, said that although she was nervous about the reaction of the audience since the reaction was just with one eye, she was impressed with the way it was presented.
Itsuki Mizuno, 31, of Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, and other volunteers did everything online, from practice to performance, without meeting in person. Although it is often difficult to prepare for a role and perform it with only what can be seen online and holding a practice only once or twice a week, Mizuno said: "Art lives in life. The means of expression should change with the new lifestyle associated with the coronavirus."
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