That's me...Early me.
This video is courtesy of Theresa Dumbrowski (née Schultz), who plays my wife in this half-hour 1993 chamber theatre performance of Ryonosuke Akutagawa's "In A Grove," which was produced as part of an avant-garde "chamber theater" class I was taking at Henry Ford Community College.
The entire performance is just over a half hour long, and my monologue is the last one (it starts at about 20:25). I wouldn't say my performance is *bad,* but definatley young. I play a murdered feudal Japanese samurai cuckold like the rhythm guitarist of a Joy Division cover band that's too young to get into the club and play with the rest of his friends.
Does that make me Pre-emo?
The plot and subjective structure (unique in the early 20th century) from "In A Grove" were merged with elements from another Akutagawa story, "Roshomon," by filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The film is much more familiar to Western audiences than either story. As such, western audiences typically refer to stories and situations involving varied, but inconclusive, accounts of events as a "Roshomon" situation. In Japan, however, there is no such confusion. The story is so well known that "in a grove" (yabu no naka) is a common idiom akin to "fog of war."
The entire performance is just over a half hour long, and my monologue is the last one (it starts at about 20:25). I wouldn't say my performance is *bad,* but definatley young. I play a murdered feudal Japanese samurai cuckold like the rhythm guitarist of a Joy Division cover band that's too young to get into the club and play with the rest of his friends.
Does that make me Pre-emo?
The plot and subjective structure (unique in the early 20th century) from "In A Grove" were merged with elements from another Akutagawa story, "Roshomon," by filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The film is much more familiar to Western audiences than either story. As such, western audiences typically refer to stories and situations involving varied, but inconclusive, accounts of events as a "Roshomon" situation. In Japan, however, there is no such confusion. The story is so well known that "in a grove" (yabu no naka) is a common idiom akin to "fog of war."
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