Akiruno
[AKIRUNO hero image by Daniel Belton, Good Company Arts, and PJ Illustration (Pepa Belton).]
AKIRUNO, Stories from the Rabbit in the Moon, is showing as part of the 2021 TOKYO TOKYO FESTIVAL. The show draws its name from Akiruno, a small village in the mountains west of Tokyo, where the Blue Herons nest in spring and summer.
AKIRUNO is an international collaboration between IDIOT SAVANT theater company (Japan), Belloo Creative (Australia) and Good Company Arts (New Zealand) working with Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The all-ages performance and projection explores the special relationship between Japan, Australia and New Zealand, building on our shared cultural and geo-political experiences of landscape, nature and storytelling.
DATES
Friday 2 July 2021
Saturday 3 July 2021
Sunday 4 July 2021
VENUE
Tokura Akiruno Terrace
325 Tokura, Akiruno City, Tokyo 190-0173 Japan
+81 (0)42 595 1234 (enquire in Japanese)
http://tokura-taiken.jp/
Find out more: www.idiot-savant-theater-company-2021.com/
日本語での詳細については、こちらをご覧ください。https://www.idiot-savant-theater-company-2021.com/
Behind The Scenes
We wish we could be in Japan for this production. It was an incredible honour for us when IDIOT SAVANT theater company asked us to be part of AKIRUNO, but sadly global travel is not possible this year and we are watching from afar. As part of our involvement, we have adapted four Japanese folktales into a new stage play and filmed sequences to be part of the projection in the live performance and accompanying documentary. We filmed at La Boite Theatre for Part 1 of our digital involvement, while Part 2 involved lots of chilly dawn mornings on location in Sawtell, Dorrigo, Urunga and surrounds (IDIOT SAVANT visited us here in 2018 before starting our NORPA / Critical Path and Flowstate residency).
It's been wonderful working with our good mate Shaun Charles (Rovers webisodes) as he masters the art of filming with a drone across some spectacular landscapes.
[Photos by Caroline Dunphy.]
AKIRUNO was made possible thanks to QUT (Queensland University of Technology) and grant funding from the Australia-Japan Foundation (AJF) of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
