Seinendan is always eager to meet new audiences. We go on tours in various regions because we appreciate communicating with people who come to the theater with no preconceptions regarding Seinendan.
We have developed a system to make our tour productions a multi-aspectual event, to be accompanied with workshops and lectures by Oriza Hirata. We do not want to just go, perform, and leave. We are also eager to do artists-in-resident type productions.
Komaba Agora Theater, Seinendan's home stage, is a small theater. We have continued to create performances that fit this particular space. We basically choose a small space for our productions outside the Agora Theater too. However, we take great enjoyment in encountering a new space and in creating a piece that suits the space. That's one of the objectives of our tours.
One example of such a wonderful encounter is the performance of "Tokyo Note (Tokyo Notes)." This play is set in an art museum lobby in the near future, and we have done productions of the play in real museum lobbies in various regions in Japan.
We do not avoid using large halls, but on such occasions we make "a small theater," consisting of an acting space and audience seats, right on the stage of the hall. This style was used for the French production of "Tokyo Notes" at national drama centers too.
Through our tours around Japan, we have developed collaborative relationships with local communities and regional theaters on a continuing basis. Oriza Hirata and Seinendan actors go and stay in one region for the whole rehearsal period for the creation of an original piece, rather than merely being "guest director" and "guest actors."
In August-September 1995, Seinendan members stayed one month on Yonaguni Island, the western-most inhabited island in Okinawa, for the rehearsals and a premiere performance of "Minami e (Southward)." Then the production toured around Japan. For "Kono Sei wa Ukeiregatashi (A Life Hard to Accept)," a joint production of Seinendan and Aomori-based Hirosaki Gekijo, Hirata and two actors from Seinendan stayed in Namioka, Aomori, for two months to work with Hirosaki Gekijo actors (November 1995-January 1996). And Hirata, when directing "Tsuki no Misaki (Cape Moon)," stayed in Kyoto for the auditions (there were about 100 applicants), rehearsals, and performances (December 1996-July 1997). Presented both in Kyoto and Tokyo, this piece won numerous awards including the 5th Yomiuri Drama Award Best Production Award.
We often use this long-stay approach for the creation of new pieces. In August 1998, for example, the cast members of four Seinendan productions -- "Seoul Shimin (Citizens of Seoul)," "Shin-pan Komatchfuden (Komachi's Tale - New Version)" and "Natsu no Suna no Ue (On the Summer Sand)," directed by Oriza Hirata and another piece directed by Motoi Miura -- around fifty in number, stayed in Toga, Toyama for rehearsals and workshops. During the stay there, workshops for the high school drama club students around Toyama and for local junior high students were also held. Junior high students from Delphi, Greece, the sister city of Toga, also joined and made it an international event. At the end of the stay we presented "Seoul Shimin" to the high school students and the people of Toga.
In 1999, when Oriza Hirata served as festival director of the Toga Spring Festival and Seinendan was in charge of the entire management, our prior experiences of hosting the End-of-Millennium Theater Festival at the Komaba Agora Theater, Seinendan's home base where Hirata is artistic director, and mounting artists-in-residence type productions around Japan led to our successful management.
Atelier Shumpusha (Spring Wind Studio) is Seinendan's new studio theater, opened in November 2003, near Ikebukuro, Tokyo. We remodeled previous Atelier MODE, the space which had long been cherished by theater lovers, as our studio for experimental workshop productions. As a theater company consisting of various playwrights, directors and actors, we make full use of this facility as the venue for rehearsals and presentations of Seinendan Links and other productions.
Since spring of 2002, when he became the artistic director, Oriza Hirata has been planning and carrying out various projects for the facility, including dance, scenography, stage lighting, stage photo and other workshops, and theater festivals. He has also realized the system to support the local and Tokyo-based young theater companies by offering rehearsal spaces and opportunities to present their works before the citizens of Fujimi. Hirata's own workshops and Seinendan productions are also held here.