Arts & Events

Around & About--Theater: Noh Recital (Free) with a Master Performing; and John O'Keefe in a Solo Show

Ken Bullock
Friday April 29, 2016 - 07:36:00 AM

It's rare to have professional Noh actors here from Japan to perform their intensive style, which is physically based in a spare, rigorous form of stage movement and dance that resembles a martial art, the longest-lived continually performed style of theater onstage today, with its origins in the 14th century.

This Sunday, May 1, NPO Infusion, a Sausalito-based nonprofit that furthers artistic contact between East and West, will present--with free admission--the 10th anniversary recital of the San Francisco Fuji Miyabi Kai, with performances by the students of Masayuki Fuji, a Noh actor declared an Intangible Cultural treasure of Japan, who comes frequently from japan to the Bay Area to lead a group of dedicated amateurs as well as local actors--some longtime practitioners of the art--in ongoing, dynamic study of the fundamentals of Noh: shimai (dances extracted from the plays) and utai (the chant-like choral singing of poetry that accompanies the action onstage).  

From 4 to 5:30 p. m., Fuji's students will perform, followed at 6 to 7 by Fuji and special guests, including--in a first-time San Francisco appearance by Kazufusa Hosho, the headmaster of the Hosho Noh School, one of the five ancient schools of Noh, performing selections from Noh plays culminating in a short rendition of 'Tamakazura,' a classic Noh play of the ghost of a beloved woman, returning to plead for release from desire and resentment. San Francisco's Theatre of Yugen, the 35 year-plus company featuring styles from classical Japanese theater, will perform the Kyogen comedy (comic counterpart to the tragic Noh) 'Fukurou'
Yamabushi,' or 'Owl Mountain Priest.'
The program will be staged at Marines' Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter (at Mason) in downtown San Francisco. Doors open at 3:30; first come, first served for seating. www.npoinfusin.org
—Playwright-performer John O'Keefe--one of Berkeley's original Blake Street Hawkeyes--will make a rare stage appearance reading his piece 'The Sequined Lady,' set in San Francisco's Barbary Coast (O'Keefe calls it his Divine Comedy), 8 p. m. next Saturday and Sunday, May 6 & 7, at Exit Theater, 156 Eddy Street (between Mason & Taylor), a block from Powell Street BART in downtown San francisco, to complete the series Yes to Everything. (There're two ways to get tickets, one paid through Brown Paper Tickets, the other reserved on a pay-what-you-will basis. John O'Keefe receives 50% of the proceeds. For information and links/phone number to buy or reserve: www.ftloose.org )
(O'Keefe's old comrades in the Hawkeyes, Bob Ernst and David Schein, due to perform in tandem at Exit this weekend as part of the series, have cancelled their shows due to a medical emergency of Schein's--who nonetheless will be the special guest at a party/jam hosted by Ernst this Saturday night--all welcome. Info at the link above.)