Media Release

Machi Adventure: Step Into My Home was inspired by current trends in Japan’s small theatre movement, where site-specific works and participative shows have been flourishing in recent years. The solo performances will encourage audiences to experience and engage with performing arts outside the bounds of conventional theatre settings.

Fresh from Festival/Tokyo last December, actor and theatremaker Takeshi Fukuda will host participants in groups and guide them to an undisclosed location, where the other artists will perform. In a theatre piece called Layer/Angle/Composition thespian Satoko Yoshida will act as a conduit, expressing the words of contemporary playwright Takahiro Fujita with the movements of dance choreographer Yukina Sakai.

Returning to Sydney are experimental dancer-choreographer Teita Iwabuchi and cross-genre choreographer Wataru Kitao. Iwabuchi, whose works meditate on the interaction between space, music and the human body, will improvise a solo. The classically trained Kitao, who stunned audiences with his powerful performance in The Unknown Dancer in the Neighbourhood at Art Month Sydney 2017, will perform an energetic solo piece blending various genres from hip-hop to jazz.

The Japan Foundation, Sydney continues to showcase contemporary Japanese art through with an expanding public program which featured more theatre and performing arts in 2017. This year, they continue this trajectory with Step Into My Home, their third collaboration in Australia with Yumina Kato, Director of Steep Slope Studio. Kato was inspired by Sydney Inner City’s scattered heritage buildings and terrace houses, and the history–both known and unknown–that can be sensed from them.

Kato says,

For Step Into My Home we want to deliver an immersive experience where the audience arrives at the place and sense that they too can leave a trace.

To join the free experience, participants will need to sign up online to receive instructions and the check-in location.

Layer/Angle/Composition performed by Satoko Yoshida. Photo by Hideto Maezawa

ABOUT SATOKO YOSHIDA
Actor

Satoko Yoshida, 30, is a Tokyo-born theatre actor. She majored in dance at JF Oberlin University and pursued acting after graduation. She frequently appears in productions by small theatre company “mum & gypsy” and has performed in Italy, Chile, Germany, Bosnia, China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Yoshida likes to place herself at the intersection of three different perceptions: that of the theatremaker’s, the audience’s and herself, as a performer. However abstract it may be, she often thinks about what each side truly perceives as observers looking at a work from different perspectives.

She will debut in Australia at Machi Adventure: Step Into My Home.

TAKESHI FUKUDA
Actor, theatremaker

Takeshi Fukuda is a member of the theatre company Shigeki Nakano + Frankens. He has been performing original solo works since 2009, beguiling audiences with his unique delivery that mixes truth and fiction. Fukuda has also presented various works at Festival/Tokyo, including the one-man show Channel Fuku in 2016, a highly original and humorous take on home TV shopping. He has also appeared in Hyunsuk Seo’s From the Sea, a one-on-one performance where an actor tours an audience around the city.

TEITA IWABUCHI
Choreographer, dancer, lecturer

Teita Iwabuchi’s experimental works meditate on the interaction between space, music and the human body. Often collaborations with musicians and media artists, his choreographies are influenced by his background in theatre, martial arts and traditional Japanese dance.

Iwabuchi’s compositions are developed from the constant theme of maintaining space between the body and centre of gravity. It is based on the martial arts notion of remaining fluid and not creating a fixed point. His prize-winning joint work, Hetero, is reflective of Butoh, a distinctive Japanese dance form that has inspired Australia’s performing arts scene.

Iwabuchi has previously presented an excerpt of his newest work, Missing Link, at Critical Path (Sydney) in July 2017.

WATARU KITAO
Dancer, actor; Director and Choreographer of Baobab

Wataru Kitao has been involved with the performing arts since his youth, gaining experience in a range of dance forms from classical ballet to street dance. He studied at J. F. Oberlin University under Kuniko Kisanuki, modern dance and butoh artist, and formed the dance company Baobab in 2009. With its remarkable ensemble style, the group has participated in numerous festivals and produced its own tours. Kitao also appears in and choreographs performances outside of his work with Baobab. He received the Audience Award at the Toyota Choreography Award 2012.

Kitao starred in the one-man dance theatre show The Unknown Dancer in the Neighbourhood which toured to Sydney as part of Art Month 2017.

YUMINA KATO
Producer; Director of Steep Slope Studio

Yumina Kato studied theatre and film at Waseda University. While studying, she worked as an assistant manager at ST Spot in Yokohama where she kept working after she graduated. In 2006 she joined the start-up organisation Steep Slope Studio, a centre which provides rehearsal studios and educational programs for the performing arts. She has been serving as the director of the studio since April 2010, working on programs supporting the creation of new work by young artists. She has also produced various site-specific and participative theatre works for Steep Slope Studio.

Editor’s Notes

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Details

Friday, March 16
6:30pm – 8:30pm

Saturday, March 17
1pm – 3pm

Duration: 100-110 mins

Venue

Secret location in
Chippendale NSW 2008

After signing up to the event, participants will receive instructions via email.

Media Enquiries

Jessica Chow
(02) 8239 0055

General Enquiries

(02) 8239 0055

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