Events

May 15

Carleton Players present "Tales of Rashomon"

From site: Theater & Dance Events

Sunday, May 15th, 2016
2:00 – 4:30 pm / Weitz Theater

This event takes place each week on Sunday from May 8th, 2016 to May 15th, 2016.

A poster for the players production of "Tales of Rashomon"

"Tales of Rashomon” is an original dramatic adaptation of several of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short stories, made famous by Akira Kurosawa’s award winning, 1950 film, “Rashomon.”

Tickets are available here

A colorful band of refugees from natural and man-made disasters gather under civilization’s ruins to wait out a storm.  To pass the time, they read testimonies from an unusual murder trial.  A bandit is accused of having murdered a samurai who was passing through a bamboo grove with his wife.  Testimony is heard from the bandit, the samurai’s wife and, through a medium, the samurai himself.  Each story is so detailed and credible that it is impossible to tell which is true.  The very nature of truth and reality is questioned. 

Student actors have been learning three distinct traditional Japanese performance styles for this production. The Bandit’s version of the story is presented in Kabuki style.  The Wife’s version of the story is presented using Noh style.  The Samurai’s version is presented using Bunraku style puppetry.  Through these styalized performance forms, the Carleton Players explore the nature of truth, cynicism, horror, beauty and humor in Akutagawa’s stories.

The student ensemble features:

  • Yoichiro Ashida
  • Ruiqi Geng
  • Lauren Goboff
  • Amanda Yue Jin
  • Zizi Li
  • Alice Mei
  • Patton Small
  • Mark Steitz
  • Bard Swallow
  • Sarah Tan

The artistic staff includes: 

  • Set Design by Sarah Brandner
  • Costume design by Mary Ann Kelling
  • Light design by Jeff Bartlett
  • Puppet and make-up design by Jenn Rathsack

Guest Director, Kathy Welch is the Artistic Director of Ivey Award winning Green T Productions, Kathy studied kabuki for over ten years in Hawaii and Japan.  She earned a Ph.D. Asian Theatre from the University of Hawaii under renowned kabuki scholar and Japanese "Order of the Rising Sun" recipient Dr. James R. Brandon. She was the recipient of the prestigeous Japanese Ministry of Education Grant (Monbusho.)  She lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years studying traditional dance, shamisen, koto, tea ceremony and conducting dissertation research on kabuki theatre at the Kabuki, Minami and National theatres.  She studied kabuki acting under the late Japanese Living National Treasure, Nakamura Matagorô, and kabuki dance for six years under Onoe Kikunobu.  Kathy's experience with Asian theatre forms also includes Beijing opera (jinqu), Balinese kecak, kyogen, noh and bunraku.

Sponsored by Theater & Dance. Contact: Marla Erickson