Superwoman and Japanese premiere!

One should never think that things would be easy!

When we arrived in Okinawa the set came by cargo from Norway, and Iva that produces the tour had arranged that it should arrive in the same time as us. With her experience of producing our tours in 34 countries over the last eleven years she lives by the rule “You can never be sure enough that things are going to happen the way they are planned”. After we had got the confirmation that the set had arrived to Japan some nice people with badges told us that we should rather go to the hotel after 20 hours of travel than to wait another hour to get our boxes thru customs. It was said that it would be picked up and brought to the venue. So we went to our hotel. But the boxes did not follow….


When we came to the venue the day after to set up, the boxes had vanished, and no one seemed to know where they had gone. Maybe it was the Americans, or the Russians, or maybe even the Chinese. Who knows? But the set was gone.  After some hectic work on the phone it was found in the air base 70 kilometres away at one o`clock in the morning. Our Japanese stage manager Issawa said he would go and get it, and Iva with: “You can never be sure enough that things are going to happen the way they are planned” in mind, decided to go with him at seven o`clock in the morning  – with her half year old baby!! (Again with: “You can never be sure enough that things are going to happen the way they are planned” she brought the baby to be sure that it would have enough milk during the morning…)

Oops not so easy to get in here....

I will try to bribe them with a smile.

In the end a man with a nice uniform, helmet and a mask gave us our set.

They arrived back just in time for rehearsals in a blue van very similar to one of our touring vans. When the rest of us stood there to pick up the set pretty jet-lagged, with a coffee in our hand, one of the actors asked ” Did she really go back to Norway get the company van to bring the set here ...”

Getting in was easy after the bits and pieces arrived. Elke had already focused the lights, and we were ready to go in a very short time.

The opening and the reprise of My Long Journey Home went very well, and we had more people than we had seats and floor. For those that did not get a ticket and had to stand outside we can only say that we are very sorry, and we hope that we might present the work here again. Or you are more than welcome to follow us in another country.

KM  

On tour in Korea and Japan

Festival opening in Japan.

Iva, Elke, Kieran, Rew and I have now arrived in Okinawa to attend the opening of the Kijimuna festival on the 28^th of July. While Bob and Anna are still teaching workshops in Busan and Seoul in Korea, we and our instruments were brought to Okinawa, Japan with great care by All Nippon Airways.

An example to follow for European airways? It’s just to put the flight case in a flight case!

The Kijimuna festival is one of the biggest events in the field of theatre for young audiences in 2012, and it hosts 81 performances from all over the world. Beside the performances there is also a wide range of workshops and a seminarprogram. This years festival also host the international Assitej meeting with delegates from 56 countries.

We are playing our first performance on the 30^th and will be back with more info after the Japanese premiere of My Long Journey Home. 

Kjell Moberg – Co -Artistic Director NIE

NIE in a little town called Mseno...

On 1st July a large proportion of the NIE team met from across the world and congregated in a sports hall in a little town called Mseno in the Czech Republic, which is an hour north of Prague . The plan was to re-rehearse the trilogy of shows ('My Long Journey Home', 'Past Half Remembered', and 'The End of Everything Ever') before a tour to Japan and then the UK. With two new members to rehearse in it promised to be a grueling two weeks, but the company did wonderfully, and by the time the rest of us turned up for the Company Meeting on 12th July it was to find the group practicing new tunes on the accordion, running through last minute script edits, and honing their vollyball skills.

[photo Jiri N Jelinek]
*Before you start to wonder, there are no vollyball scenes in any of the shows... it's just a good way to relax at the end (or beginning or middle) of a rehearsal day! (Or any day really - you get the idea!)*

Bringing together a company such as NIE to one small Czech town is no mean feat, but the result was fantastic - we had in total 6 nationalities all together in one room for the Thursday meeting, and some people had travelled through the night to be there (thanks Jirka!). Business was conducted in an orderly fashion and swiftly resolved, leaving us plenty of time to watch a run through of 'The End of Everything Ever', which starts in true NIE fashion with a shot of Sliovitze (plum brandy) for each audience member (or 4 shots in the case of Anna who kept getting bombarded by Kjell). Despite interruptions by the local members of the gym and the odd off kilter note the performance was a success, and the whole company were then free to enjoy a slap up BBQ round the fire.

Although this all sounds like a lot of fun (which of course it was), it has been an incredibly useful experience for the company as we so rarely manage to all be in the same country at the same time, let alone the same room. It's allowed us to consolidate our thoughts on our regular practice and how the company functions on a daily basis, and also allowed us to discuss future projects in more depth. Those involved in the Trilogy have now flown off to Japan, and over in the UK office we're looking forward to having 'Past Half Remembered' visit us in September (17th - 21st: for more information visit our website www.nie-theatre.com). So, with new shows in development ('Pim and Theo' and 'North, North, North'), and old ones to rediscover ('Berlin 1961' and 'Hansel and Gretel') it promises to be a very exciting 6 months in the NIE offices! Keep checking back for more updates...

[photo Jiri N Jelinek]

SC