STAGE SCENE
'Tales of Old Japan' marks actor's kabuki debut

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

•

'Wondrous Tales of Old Japan' A Honolulu Theatre for Youth production written and directed by David Furumoto 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; repeats 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 and March 2, with a benefit performance at 8 p.m. March 1 Tenney Theatre, St. Andrew's Cathedral $10 adults, $7.50 students, $5 youths 3 through 12 and seniors older than 60; free for toddlers younger than 2, but tickets are required; benefit admission is $40, including a reception with Japanese food and sake. 839-9885

And he's already having an identity crisis. "We're in an ensemble, so we play different roles," he said.

The show was created and directed by David Furumoto, a former HTY actor-director and considered a top scholar of English-language kabuki theater. It's a result of his studies with James Brandon at the University of Hawai'i, where he participated in Asian theater, including kyogen, Jingju (Peking opera), bunraku, noh, and other genres not commonly seen on Western stages.

"We took a crash course with David and had to apply what we learned in this play," said Junior.

The production is composed of a trio of well-known Japanese stories, told in kabuki fashion, with movements and vocal cadence in the style of the traditional art form.

Learning the lingo was part of Junior's challenge, particularly because he was the narrator in "The Story of Urashimataro," an undersea odyssey of a kind-hearted fisherman who saves the life of an enchanted turtle. Besides the narrator, Junior plays a squid without lines.

His costume includes a headpiece that is supposed to denote the squid, but, as Junior noted, "I look like an octopus." It bothers him a skosh that Furumoto made the squid look more like an octopus.

In "Yuki Onna, the Snow Woman," Junior plays Hideo, a young man who loses his foster father in a snowstorm; it's a cautionary tale about a woodcutter's encounters with a demonic winter spirit.

In "Momotaro, the Peach Boy," Junior is the old man who adopts Momotaro, and he also portrays a peasant. The classic tale of a heroic boy who defeats ogres with the help of a trio of animals remains a favorite.

Furumoto, now an assistant professor of Asian Theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, chose these three works because they were the ones his grandmother shared with him when he was a boy.

"It will be a great victory for me if this play causes kids to ask their grandparents to tell their favorite childhood tales," said Furumoto.

"Wondrous Tales," originally staged at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles last year, features original costumes by Lydia Tanji, with taiko expert Kenny Endo providing music. Sets are by Joe Dodd.

Besides Junior, the HTY ensemble features Cynthia See, Monica Cho, Shen Sugai — who are company actors — plus Squire Coldwell, a dancer from the Tau Dance Theatre and a member of HTY's technical crew.

The show is being staged weekdays for elementary school children. "They laugh at first, because of the stylized language, but they're getting it," Junior said of the audience response.