Theater King Kanagawa IV | Interview with the Fourth Generation Theater King "Shaggy Head and Crazy Glasses"
On Sunday, October 18th, the finals of "Gekiou Kanagawa IV" were held at the Kanagawa Prefectural Youth Center. "Gekiou" is a "serious" battle tournament-style theater festival with strict rules of a 20-minute performance time, and the judges and the audience at the venue vote on the spot. The finals were a battle between five groups, including "Gekidan Dagashiya Buton", "Ikizuri", "Chiriacters", and "Gekidan 820 Seisakusho", who had won their respective blocks, and the previous winner "Mojamoja Atama to Herahera Megane", who participated as a seed. However, "Mojamoja Atama to Herahera Megane" won consecutive championships with an overwhelming margin in both the audience votes and the judges' votes, becoming the fourth "Gekiou". After the finals, Magcal spoke with Shoko Kawada, the scriptwriter for "Mojamoja Atama to Herahera Megane", and Nobuhiro Sasaura, the director.
–Congratulations on becoming the fourth “Theater King”! As the third Theater King, you were seeded and there must have been a lot of pressure. How did you feel when you found out you had won consecutive championships?
Sasaura : I was really happy that I won not only with the audience's votes but also with the judges' evaluation. I don't think you can call it a true victory unless you win both the audience's and the judges' votes.
–It certainly seemed like a worthy victory, with an overwhelming number of votes.
Sasaura : That's right. We were just one step away from a complete victory (laughs).
Kawada : But this time, there were a lot of groups participating, including first-timers, so rather than thinking, "I'm going to win!", I was more interested in "I hope I can make something good." Sasaura is different, though (laughs), so I was really surprised inside.
After all the performances were over, the participants listened to the judges' comments with nervous expressions. The winner, Shoko Kawada, was presented with a custom-made Gekio Sukajan jacket.
-When it comes to your productions, Kawada-san is always in charge of the script and Sasaura-san is in charge of directing. I have a question about the production stage. What is the process that you two go through when creating a work?
Sasaura : In our case, I check the script that Kawada wrote before showing it to the actors, and I also give my requests such as "I want to do this part like this", and we work together to refine the content. Since we are not a theater company, we often make an offer to the actors we want to appear in the play, and then it takes shape for the first time. However, in this case, the actors were decided first, and from there, we had several ideas like "This kind of script would be good for this actor", and we decided on the script that was based on the piano that we performed this time. However, at first, we wanted to do a setting of "a black male teacher and a high school girl" with this cast, but it was rejected when I said "Sorry, I can't direct that" (laughs).
– The atmosphere is quite different (laughs). So rather than just directing what Kawada-san has already created, you start discussing the directing concept from an earlier stage.
Sasaura : That's right. However, sometimes I only give my opinion after it's finished, and once it's been created to a certain extent, I let Kawada work on it on his own. Then, after I have some time to myself as a director, I hand the finished product over to the actors, and then we make some more revisions together... that's how it goes. Gekiou is limited to 20 minutes, and initially there were four different endings, and although we won, I think there's still room for change. It's a constant struggle.
Kawada : We're always fighting, from morning until night.
Sasaura : I once had wine thrown in my face at my favorite wine bar.
– It was a pretty serious clash (laughs). But the 20-minute time limit meant you had to stay on your toes from start to finish, and I felt like it would require a different level of concentration than a normal performance.
Sasaura : Even when there was a scene where we thought it was best to leave a gap, we sometimes had to cut it out due to time constraints, which was difficult. We cut out two lines just before the performance, and we would exchange opinions on how far we should go to convey the meaning of a line in the limited time we had, and we would leave parts where we didn't agree on.
Kawada : However, since he is in charge of directing, the final decision-making power is left to him.
– I would like to ask Mr. Kawada, who was in charge of the script, what inspired you to write "A Room with a Piano," the work that won this year's competition?
Kawada : My father loved classical music, and we had a lot of instruments at home. When I was about 4 years old, he taught me various instruments and, of course, the piano, and those memories left a strong impression on me. I thought that I would one day create a piece of work based on those memories, which is what prompted me to write this work. I'm 31 years old, and when you reach your 30s, you start wanting to write about your family...I thought this would be a good opportunity to put it into shape.
The boy was able to communicate with the piano and devoted himself to practicing, but his talent never blossomed as he grew older.
– Personally, I found the setting in which the protagonist, a boy, continues to interact with the piano, but his talent doesn't blossom, and he remains mediocre, very realistic and interesting. Could you tell me a bit about that?
Kawada : Well, "Gekiou" is a competition, but last year was the year I "did what I wanted to do", and this year I wanted to try something a little different from my previous works. I wanted to create something that could reach more people, and when I thought about what would reach the audience the most, I thought that the content would be more realistic.
The boy had decided to give up on the piano, but before his mother died he vowed to continue playing the piano again.
Sasaura : Thinking about it, I think we have a lot of stories where "life-sized characters" are born from her interpretation of everyday life. I also try to make it as cliched as possible. But sometimes the audience points out that what we think is cliched is not cliched at all (laughs). But we are chasing a cliched everyday life, and we are intentionally doing cliched direction, cliched setting, and cliched song selection. However, because it is cliched, one mistake can make the funny part not be conveyed at all, so we are always clashing over that. Especially in this case, we were seeded until the finals, so we couldn't check the audience's reaction, and that was the most worrying thing. Even during practice, I asked everyone to "come to the rehearsal hall!"
–Finally, could you give us a comment for the theater people who are aiming to become the next “theater king”?
Sasaura : To be honest...I make a living from theater, but I can't make a living from directing, so I crush any young talent!
Everyone: lol
Sasaura : However, apart from that, I want to improve the foundation of theater in Kanagawa. I want to raise the base of Kanagawa and make people say, "Kanagawa is amazing!" So we all have to rise up together. However, once we rise up and get closer...
–So that means you'll have to fight that head-on on stage (laughs).
Kawada : I think it's very important to be able to present good works among other good works, so I hope everyone will continue to create good works and participate.
–Are you aiming to become the Drama King for the third time in a row?
Sasaura : Of course!!
-thank you very much!
From left: anna (piano, mother), Shoko Kawada (scriptwriter), Nobuhiro Sasaura (director), Naotaro Akiyama (boy), Kodo Matsuda (choreographer)
