ABOUT
Festival/Tokyo 2018
Take Off and Step Over: Towards the Newcomers
Festival/Tokyo (F/T) aspires to present the appeal of the performing arts as an international theatre and dance festival taking place in Tokyo, pioneering new possibilities by bringing together and intersecting diverse values across the conventional categories of nationality, generation, and genre.
Now in its tenth year, F/T18 is the eleventh edition of the festival and marks the changeover in director with the theme of “Take Off and Step Over: Towards the Newcomers.”
The great appeal of the performing arts is that it is created collaboratively. Even a solo performance has a production crew and, more than anything, the presence of the audience is indispensable. It is a somewhat “troublesome” medium in that it comes about only when people meet and share the same time and place, always incorporating both individual expression and a little society.
The world today is entering a period of great change. The various values and structures that we took for granted are unstable, while the ways we think about, divide up, and proceed with things are no longer working. We realize that the way in which society has developed until now has reached its limit. Though we cannot yet see a comprehensible and assured next horizon, we know that exhilarating and interesting initiatives are already appearing all over the world. The “newcomers” are not simply a matter of age or generation, but can surely be found somewhere beyond this.
Here in this vast metropolis of Tokyo with its excess of information and speed, we have forgotten even to ask the meaning of happiness. What kind of festival is now possible through this “troublesome” medium of the performing arts? Over the coming years, F/T will search for its next form. One endeavor that is part of this is adopting a new structure with a director and co-director.
Please join us in looking “towards the newcomers” and observing the various “little societies” that occur in brief moments within the everyday life of a city.
Festival Overview
| Name: | Festival/Tokyo 2018 (F/T18) |
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| Period: | October 13th (Sat) to November 18th (Sun), 2018 |
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| Organizers: |
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Sponsored by Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Shiseido Co., Ltd.
Endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, GEIDANKYO, J-WAVE 81.3 FM
Special cooperation from SEIBU IKEBUKUROHONTEN, TOBU DEPARTMENT STORE IKEBUKURO, TOBU RAILWAY CO., LTD., Sunshine City Corporation, Chacott Co., Ltd., Toei Transportation, Junkudo Ikebukuro
In cooperation with Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry Toshima, Toshima City Shopping Street Federation, Toshima City Federation, Toshima City Tourism Association, Toshima Industry Association, Toshima Corporation Association, Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Shopping Street Federation, NPO Zephyr, Ikebukuro West Gate Park Management, Neighborhood of the Minami Ikebukuro Park, Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo, Hotel Grand City Ikebukuro, Ikebukuro Hotel Association, Sunshine City Prince Hotel
| PR Support: | Poster Hari’s, Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, UPLINK |
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- Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan in the fiscal 2018
- Festival/Tokyo supports Culture City of East Asia 2019 Toshima (to be officially announced at the 2018 meeting of culture ministers from Japan, China, and Korea).
- Festival/Tokyo 2018 is organized as part of Tokyo Festival 2018.
Festival/Tokyo Executive Committee
| Advisors | Man Nomura (Chair, Japan Council of Performers Rights & Performing Arts Organizations; Noh actor) |
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| Yoshiharu Fukuhara (Honorary Chair, Shiseido Co., Ltd.) | |
| Honorary President of the Executive Committee | Yukio Takano(Mayor of Toshima City) |
| Chair of the Executive Committee | Shigeo FukuchiAdvisor, New National Theatre Foundation; Senior Alumnus, Asahi Breweries, Ltd.) |
| Vice Chairs of the Executive Committee | Sachio Ichimura(Director, NPO Arts Network Japan; Executive Director, Festival/Tokyo) |
| Akira Saito(Director, Culture, Commerce and Industry Division, Toshima City) | |
| Akira Touzawa(Secretariat Director, Toshima Mirai Cultural Foundation) | |
| Committee Members | Motoki Ozaki (President, Association for Corporate Support of the Arts; Corporate Advisor, Kao Corporation) |
| Sumiko Kumakura(Professor, Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment, Tokyo University of the Arts) |
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| Toshihiro Tanaka (General Manager, Corporate Culture Department, Shiseido Co., Ltd.) | |
| Atsuko Suzuki (General Manager, CSR Department, Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd.) | |
| Masami Suzuki (Chair, Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry Toshima) | |
| Taeko Nagai(Chair, Setagaya Arts Foundation) | |
| Keisuke Watanabe(Director, Cultural Design Section, Culture, Commerce and Industry Division, Toshima City) | |
| Masato Kishi (Manager, New Theater Opening Preparation Room, Toshima Mirai Cultural Foundation) |
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| Naoko Hasuike(Toshima Mirai Cultural Foundation; Exective Director, Owlspot Theater / Toshima Performing Arts Center) |
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| Akiko Yonehara(Representative, NPO Arts Network Japan) | |
| Madoka Ashihara(Administrative Director, Festival/Tokyo) | |
| Kaku Nagashima(Director, Festival/Tokyo) | |
| Chika Kawai(Co-Director, Festival/Tokyo) | |
| Supervisor | Mariko Tanaka(Director, General Affairs Section, General Affairs Division, Toshima City) |
| Legal Advisors | Kensaku Fukui, Hisato Kitazawa (Kotto Dori Law Office) |
Festival/Tokyo Executive Committee Secretariat
| Executive Director | Sachio Ichimura |
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| Director | Kaku Nagashima |
| Co-Director | Chika Kawai |
| Administrative Director | Madoka Ashihara |
| Production Coordinators: | Mayuko Arakawa, Toshifumi Matsumiya, Yumiko Okazaki, Yuko Takeda, Wakana Arai, Yuuri Fujii, Takashi Osada, Shogo Shinomiya, Masao Yamagata |
| Public Relations Director | Akiko Ogura |
| Public Relations | Mami Kaminaga, Hironobu Hosokawa, Asumi Ueda, Yukie Yoshida |
| Accounting | Kumiko Tsutsumi |
| Administrators | Akiko Yonehara, Saki Hirata, Maki Fujishima |
| Ticket Administration | Kazumi Takei |
| Technical Director | Eiji Torakawa |
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| Lighting Coordination | Chizuru Kouno |
| Lighting Coordination: | Naoki Kinoshita (Factor Co., Ltd.) |
| Sound Coordination | Akira Aikawa (Sound Weeds Inc.) |
| Art Direction | Yoshio Ujiie (Ujiie planning office) |
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| Illustrations | Naomi Katsu |
| Website | Masaya Takeshita (Ujiie planning office), Mtame, Inc. |
| Overseas Public Relations, Translation | William Andrews |
| Copywriting | Rieko Suzuki |
Greetings from the Organizer
The time has once again come for another edition of Festival/Tokyo.
Now marking its eleventh iteration, F/T has firmly established itself as one of the regular features of the Ikebukuro autumn calendar. It fills me with such joy that Japan’s largest international performing arts event can be held in Toshima City.
Toshima stood as a candidate for Culture City of East Asia 2019 through the three pillars of manga and anime, traditional festivals and performance, and the modern stage arts as represented by F/T, and was selected to be the Japanese city for 2019 by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in August last year. As we head towards both the Culture City of East Asia 2019 and 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will endeavor to bring together the power of their art and culture and realize Toshima as an international city of art and culture.
Lastly, I would like to extend my thanks to all the individuals, organizations, local businesses, and corporations whose tireless efforts help make the festival happen.
Yukio Takano
Mayor of Toshima City
Honorary President of the Festival/Tokyo Executive Committee
Aspiring to create a global cultural city, Festival/Tokyo was launched in February 2009 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Toshima City, and arts organizations according to a proposal by the Tokyo Culture and Arts Council.
It has attracted attention as an international performing arts festival featuring a lineup of pioneering artists from Japan and around the world, demonstrating Tokyo as a city where culture and the arts is created.
Since 2016, the event has also formed one part of Tokyo Festival, a comprehensive city arts festival, progressively developing and expanding into a place of exchange and participation that cultivates new values
Please look forward to this year’s Festival/Tokyo as an opportunity to re-acknowledge the indispensability of art for our lives and as a way to experience the profundity of the performing arts.
Katsunori Miyoshi
Director General, Arts Council Tokyo
(Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Festival/Tokyo started in 2009 and has now staged 270 productions across ten editions, reaching audiences and participants of more than 610,000.
F/T18 is the eleventh festival and presents a wide range of work by Japanese and overseas artists with a focus on projects that take performances out of conventional theatre spaces in addition to international co-productions with leading Asian artists.
This international festival helps to create and disseminate new global values in Tokyo as well as further strengthen networks with other festivals, theatres, and cultural organizations around Japan and overseas, while aspiring to contribute to international cultural interchange that transcends regional and national boundaries.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Japan Foundation Asia Center, our corporate sponsors, community organizations, and the many others who have given us their generous support and cooperation.
Shigeo Fukuchi
Chair, Festival/Tokyo Executive Committee
Advisor, New National Theatre Foundation
Senior Alumnus, Asahi Breweries, Ltd.)