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Yoshiko Nakaima The Noh play 'Yashima' was performed in Kanze Noh Theater. A Streetcar Named Desire. The Importance of being Earnest.


The founder of N・Y Actors Workshop, the word of Yoshiko Nakaima.

≪From ACTING SEMINER≫

In reality the ordinary concept of one’s self is only 10% of the totality of one’s whole self. It’s like a cage in which you are caught where you are acting out the same role over and over again. One limited phenomena, and we take that for the whole.

To live, to actually live, one has to become one with his original or essential self. We get caught up in the grind of daily life, we lose our sensitivity, and our feelings become blunted. When we were children, we had a free power of imagination. A scrap of cardboard became the map to treasure island or the crown of a king. The imaginative power to create that which the eye does not see is the essence of art. The purpose of the acting lessons at N.Y. is to recover the lost freedom of sensibility that we had in childhood, and to help the students become more energetic and attractive.

≪Become an Antenna≫

Our acting method is founded on the basic principle of observing one’s partner carefully on stage, looking and listening carefully. One becomes like an antenna. When a person once again learns to observe his surroundings with greater care, he sees that there is a lot that he has missed. When he learns to look at each thing carefully and is open and receptive to it, just as it is, he is bound to feel something. To feel is to be alive. And when he is able to express how he feels about things simply and naturally, that is when he learns to be frank; then the door to that individual’s subconscious, or the door to his heart, begins to open. Then energy from deep within is released and the exchange or interplay of energy between two people (an encounter) can take place. The stage is a kind of festival place where encounters between human beings occur.

≪About YOSHIKO NAKAIMA≫

After graduating in French literature at Keio Gijuku University, she went to New York in 1968 and studied acting under the grand masters Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. While enters a school in New York university graduate school thesis course. It’s graduates at two years. After that, she was scouted by Universal Studios at the graduation performance of Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, where Meisner taught. But, all the opportunities when a Japanese actor was active were nothing in America in those days. She took advice from Mr. Meisner, and decided to return to Japan. That advice was "Go back to Japan, and you establish your group, and you had better produce a play rather than stay in America.". She did so, and her actor training of a total six years was finished, and she came back. After returning to Japan, she managed the theater group “Kumo”(Clouds), appeared on TBS, Toei, and other stations as a regular. She has also studied the art of Noh actor recognized as an National treasure in the field of the performing arts. She has performed a number of Noh dances including Yashima and The Ghost of Minamoto-no Yoshithune. In 1977 she established her own theater group and acting school called “N・Y Actors Workshop” and began producing plays such as Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of being Earnest”. Her home was remodeled and a little studio built for the production of these two works. People in the entertainment world said they could not be produced in a small theater. There is an anecdote about the late Mr. Moichi Tanabe, the founder of Kinokuniya bookstore, who said "I’ll give you the Kinokuniya prize if you do it in Kinokuniya hall!" But, she said "I don't want any prize.", and devoted herself earnestly to the guidance of the younger people earnestly in the home and studio. She participated in The 1st Okinawa World Thater Festival at Okinawa Jan-Jan in 1984. At this time, each participating dramatic company announced a play. But, she held only the workshop of the audience participation type, and introduced the method of Mr. Meisner. This was highly praised, and got a big write-up in the local newspaper. Encounter Playhouse Inc. was established in 1986, and the various management of events were held. Lecture activities were developed actively after that as well. (For example at high school in Zama U.S. Armed Forces base, Keio Gijuku university, Jochi university and at small-to-medium enterprisers and Okinawa Woman’s Education Research Organization). Yuimarl Ltd. was established in 1993, and restaurant management was begun. It was called “House Wedding”, and the business grew vigorously in the production of wedding ceremonies. This business development seems far from drama. But, she always practiced "the method" learned from Mr. Meisner, while engaging in these business activities. What she said as a principle was that, 'Actual life is a stage, too!' 'If one’s daily life is not attractive, then one’s performances on stage will also be unattractive'.

Although she took furlough in Okinawa in November, 2000, it suffered from cerebral infarction and was her to hospital. For one year and several months, although eager nursing of a doctor and a family continued, her condition of disease did not improve.
Then, she passed away, being watched by the dearest family on February 16, 2002. She was 56 years old of age at death.

 
 

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