The International Department of the Japan Directors Association invite theatre experts from abroad and hold workshops, lectures, symposiums and stage readings of translated plays. We always learn a lot from theatre professionals from completely different countries and cultures about how things are in theatre in each country and new possibilities. It’s very exciting to know that there are various differences in theatrical principles and methods, which is very helpful for training directors, actors and playwrights.
In exchange, we introduce to our guests not only a wide range of Japanese theatre such as avantgarde, contemporary, traditional and religious but also our culture which is unique historically and geographically. We believe mutual understanding brought by the opportunities that theater experts from overseas and we meet each other is a small but very important thing for the peaceful coexistence of people on the earth.
▶▶HISTORY
The International Department was born in 1998, but the Japan Directors Association had already been working on international theatre exchange in the 80’s. We first started interacting with China, South Korea and other East Asian countries to resolve the issues caused by the war and foster friendly relations with them.
-1986 : Organized a Japan-China friendship delegation group and visited Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, which was the very first project
-1992 : Held the International Exchange for Theatre People 1992 – Japan-South Korea Directors Conference to interact with South Korea(The event led to holding the Japan-South Korea Theatre People Conferences every two years in Tokyo and Seoul. In order to deepen the relationship, we proposed the establishments of the Japan-Korea Theatre Communications Center and the Association of Korea-Japan Theatre Exchange, which led to all the activities done by the two organizations starting in 2002.)
-1992 : 10 people including the IATC/AICT(International Association of Theatre Critics) members visited small theatres in Beijing.
-1995 : Held the Japan-China Theatre Forum – Japan-China Directors Conference
-1998 : Held the Southeast Asia Theatre Study and Training Seminar with 5 Southeast Asian countries (We invited directors from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and directors from China, South Korea and Australia joined as observers at their own expenses. We had a discussion on wars and did workshops.)
-1999 : Established the International Department the year before and started the International Theatre Exchange Seminar series as a training project supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (We held the very first seminar, inviting a Native Canadian playwright, Tomson Highway, as the main instructor.)
▶▶PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
The International Theatre Exchange Seminar series has been our main project from 1999 until today. The goal of it was to interact with theatre people all over the world. While contemporary theatre in many countries have been influenced by Western theatre, each country has created its own theatre based on its lifestyle and culture. We wanted each seminar to be a place where its participants can re-examine our theatre, discuss possibilities and experiment by experiencing plays, theatrical principles and production methods from overseas. To hold the events in various cities across Japan, we discuss thoroughly on what seminars to have every year. We’ve recently started seminars on social inclusion through theatre as well. As of January 2021, we’ve invited our guests from 50 countries and held 154 seminars.
We have monthly meetings to exchange information on theatre in the world with each other and talk about what kinds of themes are expected by the society and young theatre people for the seminars. We also edit yearbooks on the seminars for theatre people that couldn’t attend the events, send copies to the association members and theatre organizations and donate them to libraries.
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The countries
we’ve invited our guests from
South Korea
China
Indonesia
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Macau
Thailand
Malaysia
the Philippines
Singapore
India
Australia
England
Scotland
Wales
Ireland
Germany
France
the Netherlands
Belgium
Spain
Italy
Switzerland
Bulgaria
Romania
Moldova
Yugoslavia
Turkey
Ukraine
Poland
Denmark
Finland
Sweden
Norway
Belarus
Russia
Iraq
Israel
Palestine
Afghanistan
Cameroon
Tunisia
Canada
the U.S.A
Mexico
Puerto Rico
Bolivia
Brazil
Columbia
Argentina
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Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, we’ve been interacting online with theatre people from Japan working overseas, exchanging information on infection prevention measures against COVID-19 and how things have been in the society and theatre in each country. Our objectives for the future include networking and do collaborative projects/productions with theatre people in the world. At the moment, we hope to strengthen our network with East Asian countries, which has been our goal since we first started international theatre exchange.
We look forward to future opportunities to work with
theatre organizations, theatre companies,
directors and playwright all over the world.
Please feel free to contact us.
JAPAN DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION 