Nobuko Tanaka is a stage writer who has regularly contributed contemporary theater and dance articles to The Japan Times since 2001. She also writes for several Japanese and overseas magazines and web sites. As a promoter, she takes Japanese artists to foreign theater festivals.
For Nobuko Tanaka's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Actors Hayato Kakizawa and Eiji Wentz play twins whose vastly different social circumstances result in tragedy in the all-Japanese version of Willy Russell's West End hit musical.
The theater troupe, founded in 2006 by Yukio Ninagawa with a cast of actors aged 55 and over, will bid farewell with Shogo Ota’s nonverbal 1981 masterpiece, “Mizu no Eki.”
Veteran actress Shinobu Otake takes on the role of Dr. Ruth Wolff, a Jewish physician, and tackles modern ills in a Japanese production of Robert Icke's latest work.
For his first foray into opera, dramatist Toshiki Okada is modernizing a Japanese classic, centering it on "the damaging influence of capitalism" instead of a tragic love story.
The former idol-pop star takes on the role of Mark Antony in a version of Shakespeare's tragedy that focuses on the tense disputes that arose around Julius Caesar's assassination.
"You’ll leave the theater with a smile on your face and joy in your heart," says theater titan Cameron Mackintosh of his latest production.
The former Hey! Say! Jump member makes his stage debut opposite his father in “The Son,” a play about a complex father-son relationship.
William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most influential playwrights, but his life continues to be shrouded in mystery. Since his death in 1616 at the age of 52, no handwritten manuscripts have ever surfaced, and even his six supposed signatures all spell his ...
Flamenco — the exuberant dance form originating from Andalusia in southern Spain — has long thrived in Japan, with many of the greats traveling here to perform. There is even a popular claim that Japan has more flamenco academies than Spain. “In this country flamenco ...
“The Tempest: Swimming for Beginners” incorporates the real-life experiences of its cast members with disabilities, as well as the challenges of living through a pandemic.
