May the Farce be with you!

We welcome you back to our seasonal performances of classical Japanese Kyogen plays in English at NOHSpace. This Spring's program also includes Act I of Volpone, our new Kyogen adaptation.

DIRECTED BY: Lluís Valls

FEATURING: Sheila Devitt, Nick Ishimaru, Meryn MacDougall, Ryan Marchand, Kate Patrick, and Lluís Valls

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❖ Tickets: Extra Support: $30 | Regular: $15 | Community: $5 ❖

April 29 (Friday) & April 30 (Saturday) @ 7pm

May 1 (Sunday) @ 2pm

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes with intermission

In-Person At Theatre of Yugen's NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa St, San Francisco CA 94110 [ACCESS]

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PROGRAM

❖ Classical Kyogen Comedy in English

Fukuro Yamabushi (The Owl Mountain Priest): An Older Brother visits a holy Yamabushi, an ascetic monk who lives in the mountains to request incantations for his Younger Brother who has been acting strangely. The Yamabushi agrees and discovers the Younger Brother is possessed by an evil spirit, but he boasts that he can easily break the spell with his own occult powers. Things don’t quite pan out the way the Yamabushi intends.

CAST: Meryn MacDougall (Older Brother), Kate Patrick (Yamabushi), Lluís Valls (Younger Brother)

Boshibari (Tied to a Pole): The wily servants Tarokaja and Jirokaja steal their master’s sake whenever the master is away. The master has a plan. He enlists Jirokaja to help him tie Tarokaja’s hands and arms to a pole so that he cannot steal the sake. Then the master quickly also ties Jirokaja’s hands behind his back. The master leaves the servants, with no fear sake will disappear while he is away. Despite these restraints, Taro and Jiro attempt to break into the cellar to have a little party.

CAST: Sheila Devitt (Master), Ryan Marchand (Tarokaja), Nick Ishimaru (Jirokaja)

❖ Volpone by Ben Jonson

Act I of a new Kyogen adaptation by Lluís Valls: Volpone (The Fox) is a Venetian gentleman who pretends to be on his deathbed after a long illness in order to dupe Voltore (The Vulture), Corbaccio (The Raven) and Corvino (The Crow), three men who aspire to inherit his fortune. Each man arrives at Volpone's house bearing a luxurious gift, intent upon having his name inscribed to the will of Volpone, as his heir. Mosca (The Fly), Volpone's parasite servant, encourages each man in turn to believe that he has been named heir to Volpone's fortune. This is Act I of a longer adaptation in development.

CAST: Ryan Marchand (Volpone), Nick Ishimaru (Mosca), Sheila Devitt (Voltore), Meryn MacDougall (Corbaccio), Kate Patrick (Corvino)

Meet the Artists

LLUÍS VALLS acts, directs, and writes for the theatre. He has studied Noh with Richard Emmert, Akira Matsui, and Kinue Oshima (Kita school), Kyogen with Yukio Ishida and Yuriko Doi (Izumi school), and Kotsuzumi Noh drum with Mitsuo Kama (Ko school), as well as training in butoh, Suzuki method, and clowning. A graduate of SFSU, Lluís has been a disciple of founder Yuriko Doi since 1993 and served as Theatre of Yugen’s Joint Artistic Director with Jubilith Moore and Libby Zilber from 2002 - 2008. He has worked on dozens of productions at Theatre of Yugen, including Blood Wine, Blood Wedding, (1997), Norton, I (2003), Frankenstein (2003, 2004), The Old Man and The Sea (2005), Moon of the Scarlet Plums (2003, Japan 2005), The Cycle Plays (07/07/07), Mystical Abyss (2012, Denver 2015), Erik Ehn’s Cordelia (2011, NY's La MAMA 2012), Emmett Till, a river (2013), This Lingering Life (2014), and The Red Demon (2016).

SHEILA DEVITT is a San Francisco-based theatre artist, and joined the Yugen company for her apprenticeship with Jubilith Moore in 2010. She has trained with Fujii-sensei, (Hosho Noh Theatre, Tokyo) and performed for their school recital in 2013; and Kinue Oshima sensei (Kita school), at the Noh Training Project 2019 with Theatre Nohgaku. Theatre of Yugen credits include multiple Kyogen performances at Matsuri festivals around the Bay Area; Sorya! A Minor Cycle; Emmett Till: A River; and the world premiere of This Lingering Life. Sheila has been an ensemble member with the found-object puppetry company Lunatique Fantastique (E.O. 9066, Beauty and the Breast, The Wrapping Paper Caper); and a founding company member with Bacchus Players @ Coppola Winery (Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Other regional credits include Marin Shakespeare Co., African American Shakespeare Co., Brava! for Women in the Arts, Town Hall Theatre Co., Ross Valley Players, Cinnabar Theatre, and more. Sheila received a certificate in Stanislavsky studies from the Moscow Art Theatre School at Harvard; BFA - University of New Mexico, focus on bilingual performances of Federico Garcia Lorca’s pastoral trilogy. Sheila served as Lead House Manager at the San Francisco Playhouse; co-producer of the 2020 Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival; regional coordinator of the StateraArts mentorship program: to uplift, amplify and advance women in the arts. During the pandemic closures, she participated in an online actors reading group that performed the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. She was honored to join the Actors Reading Collective for Mother Road by Octavio Solis. She is currently the Marketing & Engagement Manager for Golden Thread Productions. Thanks & gratitude to family, for the love & support that make this work possible; and to You, the audience, who make the performance complete.

NICK ISHIMARU has served as the Artistic Director at Theatre of Yugen between 2016 and 2019. His work explores a combination of Western and traditional Asian performance techniques for original creations, along with work in conventional musical theatre and Shakespeare. He has trained in noh and kyōgen with Theatre of Yugen for over seven years. Ishimaru has also studied kabuki, jingju (Beijing Opera), and nihon buyo (traditional Japanese dance). He received a BA in Performing Arts from Colorado State University (2005), where he directed a kabuki adaptation of Macbeth, and a Masters in Drama from San Francisco State University, (2009). During his time as Artistic Director of Theatre of Yugen, he has directed several productions including The Red Demon (2016), A Noh Christmas Carol (2017, 2018, 2019), and Seen/By Everyone (2018). Ishimaru has appeared in numerous performances with Theatre of Yugen, both in San Francisco around the world, including Minor Cycle (2012), This Lingering Life (2014) and Mystical Abyss (Denver 2015), Yugen in Action (Iquique, Chile, 2019) and a plethora of kyōgen performances. He was most recently on stage in Puppets & Poe and Yugen-no-Kai: Aki.

MERYN MACDOUGALL is a Bay Area actress. She has experience in stage, film, commercial, voice over, fight choreography, and print. She has had the joy of working with Theatre of Yugen for the last 6 years. She would like to thank Lluis and the Yugen Community for all the wonderful training and opportunities given to her.

RYAN MARCHAND is a Los Angeles native who moved to the Bay Area to attend San Francisco State, where he completed his BA in French with a minor in Theatre in 2008. He was a founding member of 11th Hour Ensemble and was awarded a CA$H Grant for their original adaptation and performance of Alice. Since then, he has performed, directed, and taught in the Bay Area with particular focus on new and devised works. Recently he performed in Chiori Miyagawa’s world premiere This Lingering Life with Theatre of Yugen whose work is founded in traditional Japanese theater forms; African American Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and he has performed in a range of San Francisco Theatre events including the San Francisco Theatre Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens and the Bay One Acts Festival. He served as movement director for Kat Evasco’s Mommy Queerest, which enjoyed runs in San Francisco with Guerilla Rep and in Boston with The Theatre Offensive; he directed with Playwright’s Foundation for their 2015 and 2016 Flash Plays. Most recently he worked as Program + Artistic Director of Handful Players – a free afterschool musical theater program based in the Western Addition, from 2009 to 2018. Currently Ryan is a member of Nice Tan comedy, a WOC/QPOC led sketch comedy group that pokes fun at the complexity of identity, and he works at San Francisco Opera as part of their newly formed Department of Diversity, Equity and Community.

KATE PATRICK, currently based in Oakland, started training with Theatre of Yugen in February 2019. Here she has appeared as both the Older Brother and Younger Brother in Fukuro Yamabushi, the Yamabushi in Kagyu, as well as the Ghost of Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Noh Christmas Carol. Previous experience in traditional Japanese theater includes her role as the second Yamabushi in University of Hawai’i, Mānoa’s 2016 production of a new kyogen play, Futari Yamabushi, and a 2017-18 Fulbright Research Grant to study traditional ji-kabuki costumes and practices under Sachie Oguri at the Museum Nakasendou and Aioi-za Theater in Mizunami, Japan. While there she performed in two kabuki classics, Sodehagi Saimon as Hachiman Taro Yoshiie, and Fuji Musume. Kate has an MFA in Costume Design from University of Hawai’i, Mānoa.