Essay A global aesthetic: not as simple as it seems By Aya Ogawa	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
地球規模の芸術論 日本とアメリカの間に立って、さまざまな舞台芸術の交流にかかわる仕事をしている筆者。 そのプロセスに注がれる努力と情熱は、「自己表現」の場だけでなく、地球規模でのアイデンティティーを捜し求めたい気持ちがその根底にあることに気付いたのだという。

To my mother's great relief, and my own, I've never had to play a geisha or a maid in my career. In fact, some of my favorite roles as an actor were working on real-life characters like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Noam Chomsky. I've also come to wear several different hats in the theater, as performer, writer, director and translator.

My experience working in a Japanese theater company in Japan and my experience working at the Japan Society in New York have both deeply influenced my work as an artist. In a way, I'm spoiled because I can draw on the rich international resources that exist in New York, including a diverse casting pool and a highly engaged audience.

Beyond that, working with Japanese artists has inspired me toward a kind of international aesthetic. This aesthetic addresses the fact that the disparity between local and global is actually much more complex than what it seems. While technology like high-speed Internet is allowing people who are separated by great physical distance to communicate quickly and easily, the live interaction of audience and performers remains vital for communities. Creating plays that address issues of cultural identity in a shrinking world is a mission of my own theater company, "knife, inc."

I work collaboratively with my actors, and, although I have not been able to employ them full-time, I have been fortunate enough to have a core group of collaborators (both performers and designers) who feel enough ownership over the plays we create together that they have worked with me for several years.

knife, inc. has a loose, informal notion of "company," and this has its advantages. While continuing to work with the same people over long periods of time, it still allows the individual performers to pursue their own interests and other opportunities. This flexibility keeps me open to seek out new partnerships. I've found that a balance between a core group of collaborators and an influx of new energy keeps our standards and excitement high.

Intercultural and collaborative experiences have also allowed for some interesting opportunities. I've been invited to advise on new initiatives to translate contemporary Japanese plays into English and pair American artists up with these scripts for staging. I will also be working on creative projects involving collaborations among artistic teams from over seven different countries. I find that at the root all of these endeavors is a search not only for "self-expression" but an investigation of identity on a global scale for which there are no simple solutions.

Shukan ST: Dec. 28 2007

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