Kabuki, Eyes & AAR

With Yajuro Bando, Takuya Matsumoto & Wendell Harrison
With Yajuro Bando, Takuya Matsumoto & Wendell Harrison

A Kabuki Christmas Carol will have its premier on December 1st—just three weeks away! Rehearsals are going well, and Brian Berdanier and Wendell Harrison just keep getting better and better as Sukejiro (Scrooge) and the ghosts.

 

We've got most of the week off to gather strength before the big push in the last few weeks. Now we just need to figure out whether or not we can really build a hanamichi in Echo Theater...

 

I've taken a ream of photos from rehearsals, which can be seen here on on my Flickr stream. Rika looks gorgeous with her umbrella!

Set 1: November 6th

Brian Berdanier
Wendell Harrison
Alice Roschuni & Rika Wakasugi
Rika Wakasugi
Takuya Matsumoto & William Cameron Bolt
Wendell Harrison
Brian Berdanier
Alice Roschuni & Ann Jenkins
Wendell Harrison & Brian Berdanier
Rika Wakasugi & William Cameron Bolt
Alice Roschuni & Rika Wakasugi
Brian Berdanier
Wendell Harrison
Brian Berdanier & Wendell Harrison
William Cameron Bolt
Brian Berdanier
Wendell Harrison
Alice Roschuni
Brian Berdanier
Alice Roschuni & Ann Jenkins
Brian Berdanier
Alice Roschuni
Brian Berdanier
Alice Roschuni

Set 2: November 12th

Brian Berdanier
Hiraku Kawakami
Rika Wakasugi
Wendell Harrison
Hiraku Kawakami & Yajuro Bando
Amber Richardson
Ann Jenkins
Gemma Nokes & director Jon Reimer
Ghiselle Camacho, Mike Kanert, Amber Richardson & George Luton
Julius Fuentes, Takuya Matsumoto & Yajuro Bando
Wendell Harrison
Takuya Matsumoto
William Cameron Bolt & Takuya Matsumoto
Rika Wakasugi
Kabuki instructor Yajuro Bando
Wendell Harrison & Brian Berdanier
Ann Jenkins & Brian Berdanier
Wendell Harrison
Amber Richardson
A party at the Furuyas
Wendell Harrison, Alice Roschuni & William Cameron Bolt
William Cameron Bolt, Ann Jenkins & Gemma Nokes
Brian Berdanier
Yajuro Bando & Takuya Matsumoto
Wendell Harrison
Amber Richardson
Wendell Harrison
Rika Wakasugi
Wendell Harrison & William Cameron Bolt
The cast & kabuki instructor Yajuro Bando

Eyeball Update

I had my one-month eye appointment. My right eye is still stronger than my left, though I'm getting used to it. I have a bit of eye-throb on the right, which I attribute to its newfound hyper-acuity. There's still a red slit visible around my left cornea; the doctor says it will take another three weeks to heal. Halos remain at night, though they're getting better. The dryness is decreasing, and they gave me some different medicine. My next check is in January. I am now allowed to bathe and play sports normally, though I'll still be taking extra precautions.

 

Two weeks ago my right eye went fuzzy for no apparent reason. After sweating it out for a day or two, I ended up taking a few hours off work to rush to a nearby clinic recommended by my eye doctors. For ¥8,000, they picked a piece of gunk out of my iris. Given that I had been freaked out about potentially re-opening the flap they'd cut into my cornea—or rather, freaked out that this had already happened—the fee was happily paid.

Quake in Turkey

AAR has also been giving me work again. It's just one article per week, which is quite reasonable. They have someone else doing other articles as well, though the other person doesn't quite offer the same attention to style and detail. 

 

On a very sad note, AAR sent staff to distribute relief supplies following the magnitude 7.2 quake in eastern Turkey on October 23rd. On November 9th, one staff member died and another was injured when their hotel collapsed in a powerful aftershock. Atsushi Miyazaki had only been with the organization two months when he died. If you have a moment, please take a look at the link above to see what he had been working to do.

 

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Write a comment

Comments: 3
  • #1

    Anne Kanert (Monday, 14 November 2011 21:17)

    How sad that Atsushi Miyazaki died while on relief work in Turkey. My heartfelt condolences.

  • #2

    Christine Kanert (Tuesday, 15 November 2011 01:28)

    So sorry to hear about your co-worker Mike.

  • #3

    thekanert (Tuesday, 15 November 2011 01:55)

    Miyazaki-san wasn't a co-worker per se--I had never actually met him. But I had edited articles about him, which were written by Konnai-san, the woman who was injured.