After the auditions in the form of workshop which took place in Sansepolcro in November 2023, the CRISOL – creative processs project, financed by Boarding Pass Plus / Ministry of Culture and coordinated by Fabbrica Europa, continues in Japan with the creation phase involving the four selected young performers – Alessandra Cozzi, Lara Di Bello, Giorgia F. Fiorentini, Luca Maino – accompanied by the young operator Marta Meroni.

Directed by Takahiro Fujita, playwright, theatre director and founder of mum & gypsy, the four Italian artists will work at the Morishita studio in Tokyo for a rehearsal period from August 1 to September 8.
Chair/IL POSTO, the work resulting from this creative process, will premiere at the Toyooka Theatre Festival (September 13-15) and will also be presented at the Shikoku Gakuin University/Notos studio on September 20-21.

The show, a journey exploring the human condition, vulnerability, and violence in contemporary society, is a political reflection intertwining stories that emerged during the auditions with personal experiences of the director and the performers.

The bilingual work employs a creative process that unites different cultures, with dialogues and scenes inspired by shared experiences between Italian and Japanese artists.
The work sessions, characterized by simultaneous translation between Japanese and Italian, require a collective effort to best express the concepts presented.
An interesting aspect of the show is the representation of the ‘journey’ of the characters, following their temporal path without specifying a precise destination.

created and directed by Takahiro Fujita
performers: Alessandra Cozzi, Lara di Bello, Giorgia Fagotto Fiorentini, Luca Maino, Aoi Nakasone
video performance: Izumi Aoyagi
stage manager: Yoshiko Haraguchi
lighting: Naomi Koyanaka
sound: Daisuke Hoshino
video designer: Jitsuko Mesuda
production managers: Kana Hayashi, Shiori Koga, Marta Meroni
interpreter: Miwa Monden
subtitles: Miwa Monden, Marta Meroni

This co-creation process is promoted by CRISOL partners Capotrave/Kilowatt (Sansepolcro) and mum & gypsy (Japan) with the support of The Saison Foundation.

mum & gypsy is a Japanese theatre company founded in 2007 by playwright and director Takahiro Fujita. In 2011, at the age of 26, Fujita was the youngest winner of the Kishida Kunio Drama Award, one of the most important prizes in the Japanese theatre scene and today is considered one of Japan’s most important playwrights and directors. With mum & gypsy he directed more than 50 productions, involving an audience of over 25,000 spectators. He has collaborated with public theaters such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and the Saitama Arts Theatre. One of his best-known works – awarded with the Yomiuri Theater Awards – is the stage adaptation of “Cocoon” by manga artist Machiko Kyo. In 2013 he collaborated with internationally renowned writer Mieko Kawakami, with a work performed in 18 cities in Japan. As a playwright he adapted Haruki Murakami’s novel The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (international bestseller with 2.2 million copies sold and translated into 24 languages) for a work by the Israeli choreographer and director Inbal Pinto.

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photo：igaki photo studio, courtesy: Toyooka Theater Festival