TDFS "kamishibai" workshop with Natsu Onoda Power

TDFS presents kamishibai workshop with Natsu Onoda Power

The Department of Theater, Dance and Film Studies offers a kamishibai workshop, free and open to the W&L community, on Tuesday, January 25 from 4 p.m.-6 p.m in the Johnson Theatre.

The workshop will be led by playwright and adapter Natsu Onoda Power. Her kamishibai adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina runs Saturday, February 12, 2022 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Johnson Theatre. Tickets are required. Visit https://my.wlu.edu/lenfest-center/thumbelina to purchase tickets.

This workshop will introduce the art of kamishibai, a Japanese storytelling form that uses illustrated placards. During the pre-cinema era, a kamishibai performer would ride around on a bicycle, stopping at street corners to perform. We will start with the basic techniques of kamishibai, and update it using our 21st century technology to create original performances.

Power holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is a playwright, adapter, director, writer and illustrator.

As a playwright/adapter, recent credits include Thumbelina (Imagination Stage), The Lathe of Heaven (Spooky Action Theater/ Georgetown University), The T Party (writer/ director, Forum Theatre, Company One Theatre),  A Trip to the Moon (writer/ director/ illustrator, Synetic Theatre), Astro Boy and the God of Comics (writer/ director, The Studio Theatre; Company One Theatre).

Directing credits include Baltimore Centerstage, the Studio Theater, Theater J and Company One Theater, among others. Her set design has been seen at Company One, Imagination Stage, Forum Theatre, Synetic Theatre and The Hub Theatre, among others.

On Georgetown campus, she has adapted/directed Wind Me Up Maria! A Go-go Musical, War with the Newts (adapted from Karel Capek), On the Origin of Species (adapted from Charles Darwin), The Omnivore's Dilemma (adapted from Michael Pollan) and Madness and Civilization (adapted from Michel Foucault), and other productions.

Power is the author of God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post World War II Manga (The University Press of Mississippi, 2009).