is a Japanese avant-garde

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, writer, and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

. He is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), and organizer of Japan’s first international theatre festival (Toga Festival). With American director

Anne Bogart Anne Bogart (born September 25, 1951) is an American theatre and opera director. She is currently one of the Artistic Directors of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a professor at Columbia Uni ...

, he co-founded the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is the creator of the "Suzuki method" of actor training, which emphasizes stylized body work and physicality drawing from dance and elements of traditional Japanese theater. Suzuki was general artistic director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) (1995~2007), an international committee member of the Theatre Olympics; a founding member of the BeSeTo Festival (演劇祭), jointly organized by leading theatre artists from Japan, China and Korea; and, chairman of the Board of Directors for the Japan Performing Arts Foundation, a nationwide network of theatre professionals in Japan.

Career

Suzuki became involved in the ''

Angura , also known as the "Little Theater" (小劇場, ''shōgekijō'') movement, was a Japanese avant-garde theater movement in the 1960s and 1970s that reacted against the Bertolt Brecht, Brechtian modernism and formalist realism of postwar ''Shingeki ...

'' ("

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

") theater movement in Japan in the early 1960s, and founded a theater troupe called the Waseda Little Theatre, which focused on the physical talents of star actress

Kayoko Shiraishi is a Japanese stage actress. Her first film role was as Oba in '' Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41''. She is the narrator in the 1992 film of Stravinsky's opera-oratorio ''Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oe ...

. It was with the Waseda Little Theatre that Suzuki began to develop his Suzuki Method of actor training. Suzuki's works include ''On the Dramatic Passions''”, ''The Trojan Women'', ''Dionysus'', '' Vision of Lear'', ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', and ''Madame de Sade'', among others. Besides productions with his own company, he has directed several international collaborations, such as ''The Tale of Lear'' (1988), co-produced and presented by four leading regional theatres in the US, many of whose actors had studied with him; ''King Lear'', presented with the

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ)) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was f ...

; ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'', co-produced by Cultural Olympiad and the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus; and '' Electra'', produced by Ansan Arts Center / Arco Arts Theatre in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and the

Taganka Theatre Taganka Theatre (russian: link=no, Театр на Таганке, Театр драмы и комедии на Таганке, "Таганка") is a theater located in the Art Nouveau building on Taganka Square in Moscow. History The Drama and ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. He relocated his company from Tokyo to the remote mountain village of Toga in 1976. The Toga Art Park now comprises six theaters, rehearsal facilities, offices, lodgings, and restaurants. It continues to host a summer and winter season of performances, symposiums, workshops and competitions.

Teaching and writing

Suzuki has articulated his theories in a number of books. A collection of his writings in English, ''The Way of Acting'', is published by

Theatre Communications Group Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States. The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...

(US). He has taught his system of actor training in schools and theatres throughout the world, including

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

in New York and the Moscow Art Theatre. The

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

published ''The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi'' as part of their ''Directors in Perspective'' series, featuring leading theatre directors of the 20th century. This series includes works on

Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (russian: Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд, translit=Vsévolod Èmíl'evič Mejerchól'd; born german: Karl Kasimir Theodor Meyerhold; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre ...

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

, Strehler,

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...

and Robert Wilson among others.

Bibliography

* ''Culture is the Body'' by Tadashi Suzuki * ''Fragments of Glass: A Conversation between Hijikata Tatsumi and Suzuki Tadashi'' * ''Interview: The Word Is an Act of the Body'' by William O. Beeman, Tadashi Suzuki and Kosho Kadogami * ''The Way of Acting: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki'' by Tadashi Suzuki, Theatre Communications Group, (1993),

References

External links

The Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) homepage (English)

5th Theatre Olympics in Seoul

BeSeTo Theatre Festival

Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI)

The International Theatre Laboratorium-USA (ITL-USA)

Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre

OzFrank Theatre and Suzuki Method of Actor Training (SMAT)/ Frank Suzuki Actors Knowhow (FSAK)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Tadashi Living people Theatre in Japan Japanese dramatists and playwrights Japanese theatre directors 1939 births People from Shizuoka (city)

Career

Teaching and writing

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links