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MIT Dance Theater Ensemble Presents 'Live Action Anime 2009: Madness
at Mokuba'
Cambridge,
MA... How can Massachusetts Institute of Technology students bring
to life the excitement and eccentricities of anime? The MIT Dance
Theater Ensemble will demonstrate the possibilities with its performance Live
Action Anime 2009: Madness
at Mokuba at the convention Anime Boston on May 22, 2009 (Fri.)
in the Hynes Convention Center. The troupe will then take the show
to Japan, where they will collaborate with Japanese students to perform
the play at Tokyo University of the Arts on May 29-30, 2009.
This
project highlights the diverse paths of globalization by drawing inspiration
from fan activities around Japanese popular culture. Globalization
is not driven only by large corporations and national governments,
but also through the less understood but increasingly important channels
of grassroots fan activities and digital media--a kind of globalization
from below. Anime
(Japanese animated films and TV shows) is a popular culture form that
is driving American interest in Japan, especially among young people. Live
Action Anime 2009: Madness at Mokuba aims to bring some of that
energy back to Japan, while also underscoring the on-going importance
of Boston as a center for US-Japan cultural exchange.
Who
else but MIT students and faculty could invent "live action anime"? Part
homage to anime history, part commentary on the plight of undocumented
workers in the US, and over-the-top tribute to anime creators and fans
worldwide, this original theatrical production features giant robots
, a Japanese schoolgirl, a lovelorn fanboy, a masterless samurai, a
gamer woman, evil media magnates, and a vengeful deathgod who all battle
for truth, justice, and the anime way.
SYNOPSIS: The
stage is set for the finals of the giant robot battle contest at the
Mokuba Institute of Technology. But
as the two teams prepare for battle, a strange disease called VIRTIGO
is sweeping the school, causing unpredictable reality slippages. And,
it's getting worse. Does it have something to do the suspicious arrest
of undocumented Japanese gamers at Infinite Channel Network? Can
our heroes solve the mystery of VIRTIGO, help the workers, and find
love?
Directed
by Prof. Thomas F. DeFrantz (Music and Theater Arts, MIT) with original
script by Prof. Ian Condry (Foreign Languages and Literatures, MIT),
the play features a cast of MIT students and community members as they
attempt to do the impossible: create live action anime. Through dance,
words, music, and anime-inspired backdrops, the show explores the joys
and peculiarities of Japanese animation. It
is appropriate for audience members age seven to seventy and lasts
about one hour.
Performed first in December
2007 at MIT's Kresge Little Theater to sold out crowds, the show has
been updated for a performance on May 22 at 4pm at Anime Boston
at the Hynes Convention Center. Anime Boston is a convention that draws
upwards of 15,000 anime fans over three days. People wishing to see
the play in Boston must register for the Anime Boston convention (see
http://animeboston.com for
more details).
The
15-member crew will then take the show to Japan where they will
perform at Tokyo University of the Arts (Kitasenju campus) on May 29-30
2009 (Fri, Sat.) at 7pm both nights. Profs. DeFrantz and Condry (MIT)
are collaborating with Profs. Sachio Ichimura and Yoshitaka Mori (Tokyo
U. of the Arts) to create this unique international exchange event.
The show in Tokyo will include a dance performance by students at Tokyo
University of the Arts (a.k.a., Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, http://www.geidai.ac.jp/english/index.html). Live
Action Anime is a collaborative
project that is performed by the MIT Dance Theater Ensemble. This
particular project emerged out of two on-going initiatives at MIT,
namely, SLIPPAGE: Performance, Culture, Technology, and the MIT
Cool Japan research project.
The MIT Dance Theater Ensemble
(DTE) is a co-curricular dance ensemble supported by the MIT Theater
Arts and Dance Program and the Music and Theater Arts Section of MIT.
DTE performs original work as well as works by visiting guest artists.
The faculty advisor, Thomas F. DeFrantz, and DTE has been fortunate
for the participation for of an astonishing array of professional and
emergent artists, including student performers. Among visitors with
MIT DTE have been master tap dancer Dianne Walker; McArthur "Genius" awardee
and "Popaction" innovator
Elizabeth Streb; postmodern choreographer (and MIT alum) Gus Solomons,
Jr.; Hip Hop experts Rok-A-Fella and Kwikstep; internationally renowned
dance theorist Brenda Dixon- Gottschild; and downtown diva dancers
Regina Rocke and Dawn Springer. SLIPPAGE: Performance,
Culture, and Technology is an interdisciplinary performance collective
founded by Prof. DeFrantz in 2003. The group explores connections between
performance and emergent technology in the service of theatrical storytelling.
In 2004, SLIPPAGE presented Ennobling Nonna, (EN), a solo performance
work devised by Maria Porter, a professor of acting at CW Post College.
EN has been performed in Denmark, Peru, Cuba, Italy, and at several
venues in the United States. SLIPPAGE also produced the play Queer
Theory! An Academic Travesty (2006), which was commissioned by the
Theater Offensive of Boston and the Flynn Center for the Arts in Burlington,
VT. Current
projects include The House Music Project (first workshop 2006)
and Cane , a responsive environment work, that premiered at MIT
in March, 2009.
The MIT
Cool Japan research project was founded in January 2006 by Prof.
Ian Condry with support from MIT and Harvard to encourage scholarly
debate, research, and networking in the Boston area for faculty and
students interested in media and globalization related to Japan. The
Cool Japan project presents colloquia, international conferences, and
arts events aimed at exploring the cultural connections, dangerous
distortions, and critical potential of popular culture. Past events
include film screenings and discussions with directors, a Japanese
rap performance in Cambridge by Miss Monday (from Tokyo), and presentations
by leading Japan studies scholars including Prof. Anne Allison (Duke
Univ.) who discussed violence and desire in Pokemon, and a talk by
Prof. Jennifer Robertson (Univ. of Michigan) on gendering robots and
posthuman sexism in Japan. Prof.
Thomas DeFrantz is a dancer, choreographer, playwright and scholar.
He is the author of Dancing Revelations Alvin Ailey's Embodiment
of African American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2006) and editor
of Dancing Many Drums: Excavations of African American Dance (University
of Wisconsin Press, 2001).
Prof. Ian Condry
is a cultural anthropologist specializing in Japanese popular culture,
media and globalization. He is author of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap
and the Paths of Cultural Globalization (Duke University Press, 2006).
He is currently writing a book called The Soul of Anime: Collaborative
Creativity and the Making of Japan's Media Success Story.
What
is "anime"? Anime (pronounced "AH-nee-may") refers to
Japanese animated films and television shows. Although anime is known
for certain stereotypes--large eyes, spiky hair, ultraviolence and
quirky sexualities--the media form encompasses an enormous range of
genres and styles, from mass circulation children's cartoons such as Pokemon to
art house cinema for adults such Paprika .
Live
Action Anime 2009 is sponsored by the MIT Japan Program, MISTI Global
Seed Funds, MIT Office of the Arts, MIT Council of the Arts, the De
Florez Fund for Humor, MIT Music and Theater Arts, MIT Foreign Languages
and Literatures, SLIPPAGE: Performance, Culture, Technology, and the
MIT Cool Japan research project.
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