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.

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, and reader Asukai Kagari. Together they bring movement, voice, and ma (the art of the pause) to Beckett, Yeats, Shakespeare and original texts.