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sotoba komachi
 

 

Sotoba Komachi

by Yukio Mishima; translated by Donald Keene

directed by Michelle Huynh / PhD student

 

Performance Dates

November 17, 18, and 19 @ 7:30pm

 

Venue

Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre

 

Ticketing

SQUADUP

Please contact our virtual box office at tdpromo@ucsd.edu if you need help with a promo code.

Please note: for Fall performances, only active UCSD community members (students, faculty, staff) may purchase tickets.

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for a digital program

  Click image to view a full digital program!

The Cast

The Old WomanLisette Velandia
The Poet: Naomi Louie
The Understudy Poet: Stephen Loftesnes

 

The Lovers:
Sophia Casas
Lauren Dong
Stephen Loftesnes
Joseff Paz
Ashley Shilts
Danniel Ureña

 

The Creative Team

Director: Michelle Huynh
Assistant Director: Erica Kahn
Assistant Director: Mary Liu
Scenic Designer: Nicholas Ponting MFA '21
Costume and Makeup Designer: Euihyun Song
Lighting and Co-Video/Projections Designer: Harrison Foster
Sound and Co-Video/Projections Designer: Stewart Blackwood
Assistant Lighting Designer: Elba Emicente
 Assistant Lighting Designer: Hongyu Xue "Holin" 
Assistant Sound Designer: Ethan Eldred
Assistant Costume Designer: Emma Brady
Production Stage Manager: Ruby Hays
Assistant Stage Manager: Xinyi (Iris) Wang
Assistant Stage Manager: EmmaJo Spencer
Production Assistant: Yulin (Lisa) Fang
 

 

About the Director

Michelle Huynh is a third-year PhD student at UCSD previously based in Honolulu, HI and the Southeast/East Asian region. Michelle is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she received her MFA in Asian Theatre Performance. UC San Diego credits: Backwaters (Dramaturgy, WNPF '21). Select directing credits: Luar Biasa (Singapore City), Vietgone (EPOCH Theatre, Tong), Madame Mao's Memories (UH-Manoa).

 

 

About the Playwright

Yukio Mishima was a Japanese playwright, poet, and writer. Recognized as one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century, Mishima was also considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His notable works include Confessions of a Mask (1949), The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956), and The Chrysanthemum on the Tenth (1961). A die-hard Tokyoite and Japanese nationalist , he reworked over ten canonical noh and kabuki plays for the contemporary, post-WWII stage. Sotoba Komachi is one of his modern adaptations.

 

 

About the Production

A modern adaptation of a Japanese noh theatre classic, Yukio Mishima’s Sotoba Komachi tells the story of a 99 year-old woman’s encounter with a poet who deems youth and romance as life’s most crucial desirabilities. When the old woman takes the poet on an amorous, picturesque journey of her past, the memories that unfold incite both tragedy and peace on the stage. In our intercultural production of Mishima’s re-telling, we explore the strained relationship amongst time, beauty, and death and the gendered traumas of the aging body and hopeful impossibilities.

 

 International Education Week

International Education Week

Sotoba Komachi will be featured programming in partnership with International Education Week this year. More information coming soon! Learn more about International Education Week at: https://global.ucsd.edu/news-events/intl-ed-week/index.html