Manga Cafe

So if there wasn't enough explanation (and really that's the weird thing about blogs, like who is reading this anyway? i mean i can't completely shrug off responsibility and say this is my diary and i don't care about the reader -- or can i? i guess i am old school that way... hi irwin) I'm in Tokyo because The Play Company is producing the English language premiere American production of Toshiki Okada's Enjoy, which I am translating and Dan Rothenberg (of Pig Iron) is directing, and this trip is about Dan and I getting to know Okada and his world and his process better, as well as geting to understand the world of the play better etc.

A pretty intensive, productive day. Though I am all fucked up with the jetlag, waking up at 5AM starving, eating breakfast at 7AM and then napping from 9 - 11AM...
At 1PM Dan and I met up and went to one of my favorite restaurants from my childhood, Nakamuraya. Over lunch we read Act One out loud which was really fun.

Later we went over to the New National Theater where Okada was workshopping a play (a German play, actually, which he will direct at the New National next year) -- which also happens to be the theater which commissioned and premiered Enjoy. It's kind of like Lincoln Center in size and stature... There's this amazing water thing in the whole front part of the complex.
It was interesting to see him struggle/work with the actors today -- who were not in his company and had never worked with him before -- and who seemed like actors with a capital A if you know what I mean. (again, I didn't feel comfortable whipping out the camera in the middle of rehearsal...


Also Dan's friend Hinako joined us for this part -- she worked with Pig Iron (Dan's theater company) on several projects, and she happened to be back in Tokyo visiting her mom.



After rehearsal, the four of us (Okada, Dan, Hinako & me) went to the comic book cafe where Okada went to a lot as research for his play. Enjoy takes place in a comic book (manga) cafe (did I already say that?) so there we were at the source of the artistic inspiration. I am being facetious. It was fascinating, though -- the only manga cafe I'd been to in the past was more like a comfy library, where there was a big open room with a bunch of tables, sofas etc, and shelve with books -- and you paid for your drinks (there was a minimum drink or something) and you sat and read amongst other people. The one we went to today, you pay for a private space (a single or couple cubicle) equipped with internet, tv/dvd player, drinks were free, you grab the comic you want to read and curl up in your cubicle. Ours (we got two couple-sized cubicles) had beanbags but you could get ones with reclining chairs or other types of comfy furniture type things. Weird, perhaps? but SUPERFUN. It's like renting out your own private space in the middle of Times Square!



After that we went to a (regular) cafe, and Dan and Okada has a great great great conversation about Enjoy and how to deal with this translation/transposition of this play specific to Tokyo in way that would make sense in a real way in NY. I feel like this connection could not have gone better -- They are both very open and receptive and smart, and really focused on the intention of the art (as opposed to attachment to this or that detail in the text or whatever).

I need to say that I think Dan is pretty awesome. He a deep capacity for understanding things, especially things that are as elusive as cultural differences. I guess I say that because I know so many people (Americans, Japanese, and otherwise) who are so fixed in their perspective and identity, to be able to let that go and to try to truly connect with something outside what they know is just too much (too much insecurity, anxiety, too much giving up of power, whatever). But Dan is really great -- able to take in without feeling or actually compromising himself or his perspective, and find points of connection or parallels.

I am really tired.