Foundation of Ku Na'uka Theatre Company
Ku Na'uka was founded in 1990 by Satoshi Miyagi, who has won great acclaim for his solo-performance. Ku Na'uka, means "towards science" in Russian, which shows our clear policy since the company's foundation. Our main theme is the way "two actors play one role". One does the story telling while the other moves on the stage along with the story, like a doll. The suppressed energy of both roles, creates dynamism beyond reality. This is the spirit of Ku Na'uka.

A meeting point of past & present, East & West, classical & contemporary
Life and death, love and hate... to express the depth of dynamic emotion of the human being, we choose classics from both East and West. By taking elements from Japanese traditional arts such as Bunraku, Kabuki, No and combining them with the technology of the 90's, we have founded a new style which represents Japan today.

A stage plan which extracts power from the space
We aim to transform the whole atmosphere surrounding the stage. To make the best use of the peculiarities of each space, we plan the stage set in minute detail. The selection of the theatre itself becomes one of the most important considerations. We have thus performed at places which are not designed to be theatre such as warehouses, museums, temple courts, castle grounds, stately homes etc...

Story telling with music
Music is played throughout the performance. Selections vary from recordings of modern western music to folk music from around the world. Recently, we have been leaning towards live percussion sounds. The instruments, which are utilized by the actors themselves, originated in Africa or Asia : Djambe, Bongo, Conga, Korean Chang and so on. In this way, the words of the story fuse with the music and become a part of the whole.

Collaboration with artists from all over the world
This characteristic (two actors play one role) technique works efficiently to allow collaboration with foreign actors. Turandot was performed in English in the U.S.A. with the participation of American actors as "story tellers". Spanish and French actors as story tellers joined us on the stage of Salome. in Spain and France using their native languages. American and French actors as "movers" also played in Japan.


KU NA'UKA THEATRE COMPANY
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