Time's Journey Through a Room

May 10–June 10, 2018
JapanU.S. Premiere
A soulful new play about how we move forward after life-changing events.
Meet the Artists

Toshiki Okada (Playwright / Director / Novelist) chelfitsch, his company, made its debut abroad in 2007 in “Five Days in March” at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Belgium. chelfitsch has since performed works in a total of more than 90 cities in the world. Toshiki Okada works not only with chelfitsch but also with other Japanese and European theatres, for example direction of the repertory programm in Münchner Kammerspiele (Germany), Thalia Theatre (Hamburg, Germany) and so on.

Aya Ogawa (Writer, Performer, Director, Translator) is Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based. Thier work centers women/non-binary perspectives and utilizes the stage as a space for exploring cultural identity and the immigrant experience. They wrote, directed, and performed in The Nosebleed that was at Japan Society (with The Chocolate Factory Theater) in 2021, Lincoln Center Theater in 2022, and upcoming at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2023. Resident playwright, New Dramatists; President’s Award in Performing Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Dan Rothenberg (Director) is a Philadelphia-based director and creator of experimental performance. A founding member and co-artistic director of the Pig Iron Theatre Company, Dan has directed many of Pig Iron’s original performance works, including Zero Cost House (a collaboration with Toshiki Okada), Gentlemen Volunteers, Love Unpunished, 12th Night, and the OBIE Award-winning productions Chekhov Lizardbrain and Hell Meets Henry Halfway. In 2001, Dan co-directed Shut Eye with legendary director Joseph Chaikin. In 2010, Dan directed the English-language premiere of Toshiki Okada’s ENJOY for Play Company. Pew Fellowship (2002); USA Artists Knight Fellowship (2010).

Yuki Kawahisa is a native of Japan, now based in New York, works internationally as a performing artist. New York Times called her star performance in Andrew Ondrejcak's FEAST (Public Theatre) "dynamite", Temporary Distortion's Amerikana Kamikaze (PS122. Creteil Maison des Arts, Paris, VIA Festival International, Maubeuge, Brisbane Power House.) "simple and brutal as a knife to the throat." Other credits include Robert Wilson's KOOL Dancing in my Mind (Guggenheim Museum, Baryshnikov Ants Center Akademie der Kunste, Berlin), Richard Foreman's Bridge Project.

Kensaku Shinohara (Actor) Born in Sapporo, Japan, Kensaku Shinohara is an artist who brings a practice in anthropology to bear on his work as a choreographer/performer. His works have been presented across the U.S. and internationally in Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Tainan, and Japan. Shinohara is a recipient of 92Y Harkness Dance Center AIR, Exploring the Metropolis AIR, Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant, Japan Foundation New York Grant for Arts & Culture to name a few.

Maho Honda (Actor) Originally from Japan, Honda is an HB Studio alumni; one of the founders of Derrrrruq!!!; producer and actor in the web-series 2nd Avenue; is trained as a Tate Japanese sword fight performer at Tate Hatoryu, NY and produced and acted in the short film, First Samurai in New York. Film & TV includes: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missourri; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; and The Newsroom. Honda writes columns for The Huffpost Japan, ELLE online, and enjoys volunteering at animal rescues for wild birds and pet rabbits.

Anna Kiraly (Set and Video Designer). She’s collaborated with the Pig Iron Theater Company, Talking Band, Peter Sellars and universities such as Barnard/Columbia and Fordham, designed visuals for operas and concerts. She has been awarded a ’21 NYSCA grant, the NEA/TCG Program for Designers, the TCG New Generations and the Jim Henson Foundation’s grant. She has taught set design and media at Barnard College and the Hungarian School of Theater and Film.

Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design); With PlayCo - Time's Journey Through a Room & Recent Alien Abductions. Also featured at NYTW, The Public, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, The Atlantic, Signature NY, Soho Rep, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Colorado, Atlanta Opera. Dance works with Sidra Bell, Alexander Ekman, Liz Gerring, Cedar Lake, Rennie Harris, Drama Desk and Henry Hewes awards. Professor at The University of Maryland.

Maiko Matsushima (Costume Designer) Her most recent design includes This (Playwrights Horizons),Welcome to Yuba City (Pig Iron Theatre Company), More (Headlong Dance Theatre), Don Giovanni (Prince Music Theatre) The Children of Vonderly (CSC) Adding Machine, Suitcase (La Jolla Playhouse), Brooklyn Bridge (Children’s Theatre Company) , Bomb-itty of Errors (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis) , So Close, Year of the baby, Cat’s Paw( Soho Rep.) ,El Paso Blue (Theatre Row, NY). She also has worked as an associate costume designer on Broadway Spring Awakening, Radio Golf, Lestat, Assassins, Good Body and Pacific Overtures, and Wicked in Japan.

Mikaal Sulaiman (Sound Designer) Broadway: Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living, Macbeth (Tony nom.), Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off-Broadway: Evanston Salt Cost Climbing (New Group), Fat Ham (NYTW), Sanctuary City (Drama Desk nom.), On Sugarland (NYTW), Fairview (Drama Desk nom.), Rags Parkland (Drama Desk, Lortel, noms.), Passage (Soho Rep), Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (NYTW), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova), The Institute of Memory (EMO), Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical. Recipient: Creative Capital Award, Henry Hewes Award, and CTG Sherwood Award, Head of Sound Design MFA program at Yale University. www.mikaal.com

Molly Shea (Stage Manager) Select Theatre Credits: we are continuous (Williamstown Theatre Festival), A Walk On The Moon (George Street Playhouse), Tambo and Bones, BachelorX (Playwrights Horizons) Sing Street (Broadway & NYTW) Notes On My Mother's Decline, Time's Journey Through a Room, Oh My Sweet Land, Villa (PlayCo) Little Women (Primary Stages) This Is The Color Described By The Time (New Georges). Select TV/Film Credits: Tony Awards Ceremony, That Damn Michael Che, Younger, Beat Bobby Flay.

Time’s Journey Through a Room is set one year after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This intimate, multi-layered play observes how hope can spring up alongside sadness and fear, and change can be realized if we are awake to the present moment.

Marking PlayCo’s third collaboration with playwright Toshiki Okada, translator Aya Ogawa and director Dan Rothenberg, this production continues our exploration of Okada’s work which began with Enjoy in 2010, followed by The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise in 2014. Time’s Journey reflects the evolution of Okada’s writing in the years since the watershed 3/11/11 event in Japan.

REVIEWS OF TIME’S JOURNEY THROUGH A ROOM:

“…the play may well linger in your mind long after time has supposedly moved on.”
Theatre is Easy

“The Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada’s latest disrupts conventional linearity.”
The Village VOICE

“…it metamorphosizes into a majestic rumination on the persistence of memory, love and death.”
Theatre Scene

Related Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yioqQM-2E5c

Written by

Toshiki Okada

Translated by

Aya Ogawa

Directed by

Dan Rothenberg

With

Maho Honda Yuki Kawahisa Kensaku Shinohara

Set Design

Anna Kiraly

Costume Design

Maiko Matsushima

Lighting Design

Amith Chandrashaker

Sound Design

Mikaal Sulaiman

Dramaturg

Aya Ogawa

Production Stage Management

Molly Shea

Production Manager

Anchor Watch Productions

Venue

A.R.T./NY Theatres 502 West 53rd St. New York, NY