Message from Tsuruga Wakasanojo

(from the printed program, August 27, 2023, Yukata Kai)

Thank you very much for coming to our concert today despite the extremely hot weather.
My students and I have somehow managed to survive the oppressive summer heat, and have been practicing regularly.
For quite a while now, I have written a new work each year for my students to perform in the end-of-summer Yukata Kai. This year’s work features a record 11 performers. The characters in Furyu Nagaya no Shibai Ren are residents of a row house (nagaya) in the Edo Period. They are having a party at which they are enjoying rehearsing famous lines from plays, including classical kabuki and modern kabuki (shinpa), as well as modern plays (shin kokugeki). The excerpts that they perform are in a wide variety of styles, ranging from hamono (short songs without a plot) to danmono (longer works with a narrative structure).
I hope that you will enjoy today’s performance.

Note added after the concert:
Videos of all the numbers performed on August 27 can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9G1OrnpA-AEUc2p66MHfCw/videos