Recipient of the
2012 American Theatre Wing
National Theatre Company Award

Press

Quake is provocative storytelling at its best

Review of after the quake by Kathleen Allen in the June 27 Arizona Daily Star

Quirky, interweaving Japanese tales are rough silk onstage
Beguiling enigma of a play woven from short stories by author Haruki Murakama

Review of after the quake by Dave Irwin posted June 26 on TucsonSentinel.com

after the quakean absolute must-see

Review of after the quake by Chuck Graham on June 22 in Let The Show Begin! at TucsonStage.com

After the quake—two tales told from one tragedy
Rogue stages adaptation of Murakami stories written after 1995 Kobe quake

Preview of after the quake by Kate Newton in the June 13 Arizona Daily Star

Video

From The Rogue’s YouTube channel:
after the quake Preview
Director Nic Adams discusses his creative process, and what he loves about Murakami.

after the quake Cast Interview
The cast of after the quake shares its thoughts on the play, the rehearsal process, and company member Matt Bowdren’s penchant for playing animals.

Direction

	Nic Adams (Director) is a Brooklyn-based director for the theatre. Selected directing credits include Romeo and Juliet (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, assistant director), The Pillowman (The Now Theatre), Trees for the Wood (also co-writer and co-producer), and Desire is Difficult (Leviathan Lab). When he's not directing, Nic performs at special events with Sleep No More (Emursive/Punchdrunk), and interns with the theatre company Elevator Repair Service (Gatz at The Public Theater). Prior to relocating to Brooklyn, Nic was the General Manager for The Rogue, and was co-founder and Artistic Director of The Now Theatre, which co-produced three seasons of late-night theatre with The Rogue. after the quake is his directorial debut at The Rogue.

Director’s Notes

When Joe, Cindy, and I first began to consider after the quake for the summer show, I had a difficult time finding a physical copy of Galati’s play adaptation anywhere. While I waited for a copy to arrive in the mail, I took an afternoon to find Murakami’s short stories (on which our play is based), and read them through.

My first encounter with Murakami left an indelible impression. His well-written devices of magic, romance, humor, and the sublimely surreal were all elevated by his genius storytelling and compassion for the human experience. I still hadn’t read the play adaptation, but I knew I loved the source material.

When I read Galati’s adaptation, which repurposes a character from one of Murakami’s short stories (“honey pie”) as the writer of another story (“super-frog saves tokyo”), I felt excited. Here I had two great foundations with which to build the production you’re here to see.

Any rehearsal process in the theatre is an exercise in trying to recreate that first encounter with a script. And because I read Murakami’s after the quake before Galati’s, our rehearsals were full of moments of consultation with the short stories. Adding subtle gestures, characteristics, and environmental elements back into the play, to integrate what we love about Murakami with what Galati loves about Murakami, in order to build an experience which leaves you, the audience, loving Murakami as well.

We hope your first encounter is as strong as ours was.

—Nic Adams, Director of after the quake
director@theroguetheatre.org

 

Owen Virgin as Katagiri and Javan Nelson as Junpei

Photo by Lee Rayment

 

Author and Playwright

	Haruki Murakami (Author) was born in Japan in 1949. His father was the son of a Buddhist priest and his mother the daughter of an Osaka merchant. Both taught Japanese literature. He spent his youth in Shukugawa, Ashiya, and Kobe. Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met his wife, Yoko. He began writing fiction when he was 29. Murakami achieved national recognition in 1987 with the publication of Norwegian Wood, a nostalgic story of loss and sexuality. It sold millions of copies among Japanese youths, making Murakami a literary superstar in his native country. Murakami had left Japan in 1986 and settled in the United States where he was a writing fellow at Princeton, Tufts, and Harvard Universities. During this time he wrote South of the Border, West of the Sun and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The processing of collective trauma became an important theme in Murakami’s writing, which had previously been more personal in nature. After finishing The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Murakami returned to Japan in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake and the Aum Shinrikyo gas attack. He came to terms with these events with his first work of non-fiction, Underground, and the short story collection after the quake. In 2011, Murakami donated his €80,000 winnings from the International Catalunya prize to the victims of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, and to those affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerusalem Prize, among others. He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature. The Guardian praised Murakami as “among the world’s greatest living novelists” for his works and achievements.
Frank Galati (Playwright) is an American director, writer and actor, born in 1943. He is a member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, an associate director at Goodman Theatre, and a professor of performance at Northwestern University. He is the recipient of nine Joseph Jefferson Awards for his contributions to Chicago theatre. Galati and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan adapted the novel The Accidental Tourist for a screenplay which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and won a USC Scripter Award. Galati was awarded the Tony Award for Best Play for his adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath in 1990. The production originated at Steppenwolf and transferred to Broadway where, in addition to Best Play, Galati won an additional Tony for Best Direction of a Play. Since his success with The Grapes of Wrath, Galati has gone on to adapt As I Lay Dying in 1995, and Haruki Murakami's after the quake in 2005. He has also written original work, such as Everyman (1995). Most of his work debuts at Steppenwolf. Galati occasionally appears as an actor, and has directed Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabull at New York Theatre Workshop.

 

Javan Nelson as Junpei, Larissa Cota as Sala and Marissa Garcia as Sayoko

Photo by Lee Rayment

 

Cast
Junpei		Javan Nelson
Narrator / Frog		Matt Bowdren
Sayoko / Nurse		Marissa Garcia
Katagiri / Takatsuki		Owen Virgin
Sala		Larisa Cota

 

	Matt Bowdren (Narrator, Frog) holds an M.F.A in Performance from The University of Georgia and a B.F.A from the University of Arizona. At The Rogue, Matt has appeared in Richard III, Metamorphosis, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, New-Found-Land, The Four of Us, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and The Goat. Other Arizona credits include The Pillowman (The Now Theatre) Romeo and Juliet (Southwest Shakespeare), and Titus Andronicus (Arizona Repertory Theatre). In Georgia, Matt has been seen in The Shape of Things, Betrayal, Endgame, and The Comedy of Errors. In New York City, Matt performed in Somewhere In Between with Collaborative Stages, and Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Hudson Shakespeare Company.
Larisa Cota (Sala) is a native Tucsonan with a love for anything active. She recently completed her Kindergarten year at Davis Elementary where she is learning everything in Spanish. Larisa loves to dance and performed with her Davis Hip Hop group at Spark the Floor at the Rialto Theatre. Larisa is also a soccer player and started when she was just 4 years old. Larisa is very excited to be a part of the show and to make her acting debut!
	Marissa Garcia (Sayoko, Nurse) performed with The Rogue Theatre as Lady Anne Neville in Richard III, Grete Samsa in Metamorphosis, Yvette in Mother Courage and Her Children, a Townsperson and a musician in The Night Heron, Guanyin in Journey to the West, in the ensemble and as a musician in As I Lay Dying, as Barbara Undershaft in Major Barbara and as Dorcas in The Winter’s Tale. She is a Tucson native and received her BFA in Acting/Directing from the University of Arizona. Since graduating, Marissa has performed and directed with companies throughout Arizona, Colorado and California. She was seen on Los Angeles stages in premieres of Bernardo Solano’s Lost and Evangeline Ordaz’s Visitors’ Guide to Arivaca, a show she was also involved in here with Borderlands Theater. Other credits include: Ana in Living Out (2005 Mac Award Nominee–Best Actress), Julia in School of the Americas (Borderlands Theater), Thomasina in Arcadia, Cordelia in King Lear (Arizona Repertory Theatre), and Evelyn in Close Ties (Catalina Players).
Javan Nelson (Junpei) is incredibly grateful to be returning to The Rogue for his first full-length production with the company. A 2011 graduate of the University of Arizona’s BFA Acting Program, Javan has since been living in New York City. There he has worked with theatre companies Punch Drunk, Rescue Agreement, the Seeing Place, Random Access, and Stageplays, as well as a number of film production companies. Now in his fourth collaboration with director Nic Adams, Javan would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to his artistic conspirator for the many memorable opportunities. He hopes you enjoy the story before you.
	Owen Virgin (Katagiri, Takatsuki) is excited to be in his debut performance with The Rogue Theatre. He is now in his senior year at the University of Arizona in the BFA program for Acting for Theater and Television. His previous shows include Hay Fever by Noel Coward, Reasons to be Pretty by Neil Labute and Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Bean, and he most recently appeared in Arizona Repertory Theatre’s production of Love Song by John Kolvenbach. He is very excited to be working with fellow Darwins and hopes that everyone enjoys the show.

 

Designers
Costume Design		Cynthia Meier
Lighting Design		Clint Bryson
Scenic Design		Joseph McGrath
Production Staff
Stage Manager		Leah Taylor
House Manager		Susan Collinet
Child Supervisors		Nic Adams, Cynthia Meier & Renee Cota
Acting Coach for Larisa Cota		Marissa Garcia
Box Office Manager		Thomas Wentzel
Box Office Assistants		Holly Griffith, Susan Koenig & David Morden
Poster, Program & Website		Thomas Wentzel

 

	Clint Bryson (Lighting Designer) has designed lights for nearly every Rogue Theatre production. Other lighting design credits include As Bees in Honey Drown and Golf Game for Borderlands, Woman in Black for Beowulf Alley, and The Seagull for Tucson Art Theatre. Clint is currently the Shop Foreman, Production Technical Director and Marketing Director for Catalina Foothills Theatre Department where he designs and coordinates the construction of all scenery. He is also a member of Rhino Staging Services, and a regular participant in Arizona Theatre Company’s Summer on Stage program where he designs and builds the scenery as well as teaches production classes.
Leah Taylor (Stage Manager) was Stage Manager for The Rogue Theatre’s Major Barbara, As I Lay Dying, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The New Electric Ballroom, The Winter’s Tale, Journey to the West, The Night Heron, Mother Courage and Her Children, Kafka’s Monkey and Metamorphosis and Richard III, and Assistant to the Stage Manager for The Decameron. She was Stage Manager for The Now Theatre’s The Pillowman, The Bald Soprano and Overruled. Other work includes shows with Winding Road Theatre Ensemble and Sacred Chicken Productions. Leah graduated from the University of Arizona in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Anthropology.
	Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology of Student’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

 

 

Marissa Garcia as Sayoko and Javan Nelson as Junpei

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Our Thanks
Tim Fuller		Tucson Weekly
Chuck Graham		Herb Stratford
Shawn Burke		Jesse Greenberg
Arizona Daily Star		Kate Newton
Observer Weekly		Our Advertisers

 

Performance Schedule for after the quake

Location: The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard
Click here for information on free off-street parking

Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Thursday, June 20, 2013, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Friday, June 21, 2013, 7:30 pm OPENING NIGHT
Saturday, June 22, 2013, 7:30pm
Sunday, June 23, 2013, 2:00 pm matinee

Thursday, June 27, 2013, 7:30 pm
Friday, June 28, 2013, 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 29, 2013, 7:30 pm
Sunday, June 30, 2013, 2:00 pm matinee