Japanese Kabuki star wants to reach younger, global audience

TOKYO, Nov 5, (AP): A Japanese Kabuki star who recently assumed a prestigious stage name said Friday he wants to preserve the traditional art while adopting a new approach, including by collaborating with artists from other genres around the world as he seeks to attract younger audiences.

Ichikawa Danjuro XIII Hakuen, formerly known as Ichikawa Ebizo, assumed his family’s centuries-old top stage name this week after a two-year delay due to the pandemic. To celebrate the name succession, Danjuro is scheduled to perform several of the “18 favorite plays” of the Ichikawa family at Tokyo’s Kabukiza theater through December.

In the world of Kabuki, a stage name is handed down over generations in a family in a male-only hereditary system and carries a great responsibility and honor. A new successor must live up to the expectations for the style, spirit and skill that the stage name carries. Actors usually have three stage names during their Kabuki career as they mature.

Danjuro compared it to promotions to higher positions in a corporation and said he is aware of various views about the hereditary system.

As the 13th successor in the Ichikawa family, Danjuro shoulders a heavy responsibility to keep alive the traditional performing art that started around 1600. But he says just protecting tradition is not enough.

“As a Kabuki actor today, I attach the biggest importance to the succession of tradition, but I also worry about a possibility of going extinct if we only stick to the tradition,” said the 44-year-old star, whose real name is Takatoshi Horikoshi. He said it is a task for modern-day Kabuki actors to attract younger audiences and show them the joy of the centuries-old art.

“There are views that it is just fine to protect the old, but it’s not good enough, and that is my determination and resolve,” he said. “I want to take on new challenges while preserving our tradition.”

He has done some of that as Ichikawa Ebizo. In 2019, he starred as Kylo Ren, the son of Han Solo, in his “Star Wars Kabuki,” in which he brought the blockbuster film to the Kabuki theater. In a Kabuki-opera collaboration in 2016, he performed “The Tales of Genji” with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in Kyoto.

He said he wants to do more with performers from different genres of Japanese traditional performing arts, such as Noh and Kyogen, while collaborating with globally known works such as Star Wars.

“I would like to collaborate with outstanding artists overseas if there are such opportunities,” he said.

Japan’s entertainment industry, including Kabuki, is still recovering from the pandemic, and Danjuro said he is exploring ways to promote Kabuki via social media.

He has performed in France, Britain, Italy, Monaco, Singapore and the United States in the past.

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If it was show time at any of the city’s myriad off-Broadway theaters, audience members could likely expect to see a theatrical giant in their midst - playwright Terrence McNally.

McNally had a five-night-a-week habit of stopping into small theaters far from the bright lights of Broadway to support emerging playwrights, recalled his husband, producer Tom Kirdahy.

“When we first met, I was astonished at his commitment. We would go to all sorts of hole-in-the-wall theaters all over New York just because he’d heard there was an exciting new writer,” said Kirdahy.

NEW YORK:

“Every artistic director downtown likely has a story about Terrence popping up in their theater without notice and without fanfare.”

In McNally’s honor, Kirdahy on Thursday unveiled the creation of the Terrence McNally Foundation, a nonprofit which hopes to encourage “bold new voices in the American theater by providing financial and institutional support to emerging playwrights.”

One foundation initiative is The Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, which is designed to support three emerging playwrights each year with financial support, mentorship and a one-week developmental workshop culminating in a presentation of their work. The Rattlestick Theater, which McNally championed, was chosen as the venue.

The submission process is free and open to the public. The selection panel for the inaugural group of McNally fellows includes Sheila Callaghan, Stephen Karam, MJ Kaufman, Donja R. Love, Taylor Mac, Lynn Nottage, Paula Vogel and Chey Yew.

Nottage, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who teaches fledgling playwrights, said she knows how difficult it is to break through and find opportunities. She would often spy McNally offering his support simply by his presence.

“I know what it’s like to be that young artist who is immensely nervous and looks across the aisle to see someone like Terrence McNally there, who would give you a smile or thumbs up, and just feel reassured,” she said.

McNally, who died in 2020, won Tony Awards for the plays “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Master Class” and the musicals “Ragtime” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” Late in life, despite carrying an oxygen tank, he would climb stairs and navigate over patrons to see offBroadway plays.