FEATURE: Hawaii's Kabuki Students to Perform "Benten Kozo" in Japan

   By Masako Nakamura
   Tokyo, April 26 (Jiji Press)--Theater students from the University of Hawaii at Manoa are travelling to Japan in June to stage a rare English-language kabuki production at a classic playhouse in Gifu Prefecture, as a homecoming for a kabuki tradition taken to the Pacific islands by Japanese immigrants in the 19th century.
   The show, part of the UHM's kabuki project to produce "The Maiden Benten and the Bandits of the White Waves," better known as "Benten Kozo," comes after performances at the on-campus Kennedy Theatre in Honolulu in April to mark the centennial anniversary of the first English-language kabuki performance ever given in Hawaii in 1924. "Benten Kozo" is a popular kabuki play depicting the twists and turns of five thieves following their own code of honor.
   The project is led by UHM Prof. Julie Iezzi, a 61-year-old Asian theater specialist, in collaboration with Ichikawa Monnosuke VIII, 64, the eighth generation of a kabuki family lineage stretching back to 1713, during Japan's Edo era.
   The production includes 29 students--17 actors, three stage managers, two designers and seven musicians--who have gone through a year of intensive training in their respective disciplines, with Monnosuke flying from Japan to coach kabuki voice and movement, and to audition students for the show.

(2024/04/26-15:16)

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