The spirit of noh-kyogen

The Noho Theatre Group was founded in 1981 by kyogen actor Shigeyama Akira and American director Jonah Salz to interpret Shakespeare, Yeats, Beckett and original works, alongside bilingual kyogen. Noh and kyogen (and recently, nihonbuyo) techniques and spirit interpret original and classic texts, including Ophelia (1987), At the Hawk’s Well (1981), and Tom Sawyer Paints a Fence (2024). New plays include Osada Sadao’s Japannequins (2010), Northern Mirror (2011), and Under an Umbrella, in the Rain (2022).

Noho has performed in studio and proscenium theatres, on noh stages and outdoors throughout Japan, and on six overseas tours, highly acclaimed at the Edinburgh Theatre Fringe Festival and the Avignon Festival, as well as La MaMa and the Asia Society in New York.

At the center of the work are Shigeyama Akira and Shigeyama Sennojō of the Shigeyama kyogen family, masked noh actor Matsui Akira, creative-dance artist Nishimura Mao, master shoulder drummer Hisada Shunichirō, and narrator Asukai Kagari. Many other talented contemporary dancers, actors, and musicians collaborate in a variety of theatre and dance interpretations. Together they bring movement, voice, and ma (the art of the pause) to Beckett, Yeats, Shakespeare and original texts.