When Michiko Kitayama and Nilo Cruz went to the devastated Tohoku region to work on a script for a play in May 2012, they planned to focus on local conflicts in building sea walls.
When Michiko Kitayama and Nilo Cruz went to the devastated Tohoku region to work on a script for a play in May 2012, they planned to focus on local conflicts in building sea walls.
But the pair were strongly moved by the positive attitudes of locals to overcome their difficulties in the aftermath of the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
So, their play, titled “Tsunami,” tells the accounts of survivors of Otsuchi and Kamaishi, the municipalities in Iwate Prefecture, both heavily damaged in the twin disaster.
It will be staged in Miami, Fla., from Sept. 12 in English with a cast of American and other actors.
“Tsunami” conveys the affected people’s efforts to find hope amid tragic circumstances where they lost loved ones.
“Facts cannot escape from being forgotten. But by making them an artwork, we can convey them to people more strongly and long-lasting,” said Kitayama, 42, associate professor of costume design at the University of Miami.
The script was jointly written by Kitayama and Cruz, 55, a playwright and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Kitayama, whose mother is from Iwate Prefecture, asked Cruz to collaborate with her on the play.
Kitayama and Cruz stayed in Otsuchi and Kamaishi for a week, during which the pair interviewed more than 20 local people. They included a young man who started a tourism-related job to realize the dream of his fiancee, who died in the tsunami, and survivors who are continuing on in the local performing arts despite the loss of fellow members or their homes.
While hearing their accounts, Kitayama and Cruz thought that the survivors were still connected to those who died in the tsunami.
The two also heard the stories about a mother whose small child was washed away by the tsunami in front of her, and a volunteer firefighter who died while trying to rescue an elderly person. The pair were impressed by the interviewees' strong personalities.
Over three years, Kitayama translated their accounts into English, and the two wrote the script.
In “Tsunami,” six actors perform the roles of a total of 20 men and women, including a fisherman and a mayor. Dialogue was written from the actual words spoken by the interviewees. The stage set is an abstract representation of the devastated areas utilizing fabric and poles. The actors move about like dancers to stir the imagination of the audience.
One of the interviewees was Kazuyuki Usuzawa, 31, who lost his fiancee in the tsunami.
“I want people overseas to know what happened here. Though our experiences are bitter ones, I am happy if those experiences remain in the form (of a theatrical play),” he said.
In July 2014, “Tsunami” was performed on a trial basis at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center in Miami. The facility was built to mourn the victims of a horrific hurricane in 1992 that devastated the area.
After the play, many people with tears in their eyes said that they were moved by it.
“They probably sympathized (with the victims of the 2011 tsunami) as their area also suffered destruction (from the 1992 hurricane),” Kitayama said.
"Tsunami" will be performed in the center 13 times until Oct. 3. Future performances and locales have yet to be decided.
“We hope that we will have opportunities to perform the play in Japan in Japanese,” Kitayama said.