The Kanagawa Short Play Awards 2023 will be held on March 25th and 26th.
The Kanagawa Short Play Award 2023, a competition for plays and dramas, will be held on Saturday, March 25th and Sunday, March 26th, 2023, at the KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre Grand Studio, where the grand prize winner will be selected from among the performances.
The "Kanagawa Short Play Award 2023" will feature the top two groups that won the right to perform in the "22nd Century Soaring Selection Tournament" (a selection tournament for high school students in Kanagawa Prefecture), which can be considered a preliminary round held in January of this year.
This time, we interviewed the two groups that were selected as the top two: "Kanagawa Prefectural Zama General High School Drama Club" and "Magical Girl JINDAIS☆ (Kanagawa University Affiliated High School Drama Club)" about their aspirations for the award.
[Zama Prefectural High School Drama Club] 22nd Century Soaring Category / Scheduled to be performed on March 25th
We spoke with three people: Ms. Uchida (who plays the daughter), Ms. Sato (who plays the mother), and the drama club advisor.
- Please tell us your motivation for applying to the competition and your feelings when you were selected as one of the top two teams.
In late November, our advisor asked the two of us if we'd like to participate in a competition. I remember feeling very happy and excited, as it was a great opportunity for us as actors.
Last year, I had to withdraw from the tournament due to the coronavirus, but this year the situation has calmed down a bit, and I felt hopeful that I might be able to participate, so I decided to give it a try.
I was so happy when we were selected as one of the top two groups! I felt incredibly lucky.
I believe they appreciated our approach, which is unusual for high school theater, as it involved the judges and audience in the production.
- Please tell us about the content and highlights of the performance (program).
We will be performing the comedy play "You're Getting in the Way and I Can't Study."
The story features a mother and daughter. The daughter is a normal, serious student who doesn't want to be interrupted while studying for her exams. Her mother, who desperately wants her daughter's attention and is also funny and a bit eccentric, suddenly enters her room and tries various ways to disrupt her studies. The audience watches this exchange between mother and daughter from behind a wall.
I think the key point is how it humorously depicts the stark contrast between the mother's and daughter's personalities.
And the main highlight is definitely the "audience-involved play," which is rarely used in high school drama and was well-received in the judges' comments!
I try to understand the characteristics of each audience member while performing the play and involve them, so I hope you'll enjoy it together with me.
- Could you tell us about anything that was difficult during practice?
It was challenging to complete my first attempt at comedy with such a short preparation period of only about three weeks.
I was told I could perform freely, so I tried out a variety of movements.
Because there was such a high degree of freedom, it was very difficult to perform while constantly thinking about how to move to get the audience's reaction.
Revising the lines after each practice session, and continuing to revise them right up until the day of the preliminary round, and challenging ourselves with new staging was difficult but also enjoyable.
I believe that by overcoming difficult challenges by thinking things through on our own, we were able to grow little by little as actors.
- Finally, please share your aspirations for the main competition and a message for the attendees.
We want to perform to the fullest while having fun ourselves, so that our audience can enjoy themselves to the fullest!
And now, we have a request for all of you in the audience who watched the show. We would really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill out the survey.
We high school students don't often have the opportunity to receive feedback on our plays, so we would be very grateful if you could give us your opinions, as it would be very helpful for our learning.
A questionnaire will be distributed upon entry, so please feel free to share your opinions.
[Magical Girl JINDAIS☆ (Kanagawa University Affiliated High School Drama Club)] 22nd Century Soaring Slot / Scheduled to be performed on March 26th
We spoke with three people: the club president, Matsumoto-san (who plays Seiichi), and club members Waguri-san (who plays Maho) and Kubota-san (who plays the black cat Goo).
- Please tell us your motivation for applying to the competition and your feelings when you were selected as one of the top two teams.
In 2020, our drama club seniors were selected for the top prize at the Soaring Selection Competition, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were unable to perform at the KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre.
Recently, the situation in the world has calmed down, and I thought that it might be possible to perform at KAAT, which was not possible back then. So, I decided to take on the competition, carrying the hopes of my predecessors with me.
When we were selected as the top group to receive guidance from the judges before the main competition, I was filled with a sense of surprise and astonishment unlike anything I had ever felt before.
I believe that the constant smiles and positive atmosphere among all the team members during practice contributed to our unified performance and was appreciated as a result.
Our seniors were also very happy that we were selected as one of the top groups. I am very happy and excited that we will be able to perform this play at KAAT!
Please tell me about the content and highlights of the performance (program).
The play is called "Magical Interaction," and the script was written by our drama club coach, who is also an alumnus of our school.
A slapstick romantic comedy starring the witch Maho, set in an apartment.
The story unfolds when a young man named Seiichi, who has just moved in, discovers that the protagonist is a wizard... and from there, a cast of unique characters take center stage.
I'd also like you to pay attention to the fact that 16 characters are being played by 8 people.
The highlight of the story is the interactions between Maho and the apartment residents. The story progresses at a rapid pace, and I think you'll find the interactions between the characters entertaining no matter where you look.
Also, Maho's emotions are expressed most clearly in the climax. I hope the audience will be able to empathize with her.
-Please tell us if there was anything difficult about practice.
The biggest issue was that we only had about a month to practice before the actual performance.
Among those roles, it was challenging to empathize with non-human characters such as wizards and cats, and to think about their movements and gestures.
Also, as this was my first time trying comedy, it took me some time to get used to the unique pace, and I felt it was quite challenging to balance the serious scenes with the comedic and straight-man scenes.
Despite the challenges, the close relationship between seniors and juniors allowed the club members to practice enjoyably, and receiving professional feedback from a coach belonging to a theater company helped them grow significantly. It was a great opportunity to reaffirm the appeal of our drama club.
This is a grand stage they've reached after overcoming the challenges of the pandemic. Come and witness the joy of performing in front of a large audience, and the vibrant energy of these high school students as they fully immerse themselves in their roles and enjoy themselves to the fullest.
