The sounds of traditional Japanese percussion and stringed instruments fill the rehearsal room in Lincoln Hall as kimono-clad students gracefully dance together. With each deliberate step, they embody the beauty and poise of an 18th century courtesan.
They still have a few more days to perfect the sequence before preview night of the kabuki play, "The Sardine Seller's Net of Love," on May 25, but they've come a long way in just eight short weeks.
"It's a transformation first into a student of Japanese performing arts and then beyond that, transformation physically, vocally and emotionally into a character who lived 300 years ago," said Larry Kominz, professor of Japanese. "It's just a great way to learn about Japanese culture by embodying it."
Portland State students have a rare opportunity to learn and participate in traditional Japanese performing arts — and local audiences have a rare opportunity to see it.
Every year since Kominz arrived on PSU's campus in 1983, the 2020 pandemic year notwithstanding, his students have staged a traditional Japanese production — something he says no other American university does. The University of Hawaii's renowned Asian Theatre program rotates between productions from Japan, China, Indonesia and an additional Asian culture in a four-year cultural rotation.
At PSU, Kominz alternates between performances of kyōgen — short comic plays — and kabuki — a stylized dance-drama with elaborate costumes and makeup.
"Presenting plays to the public every year is an expression of my love of traditional Japanese drama," said Kominz, who trained under masters in Japan as part of his dissertation.
Embodying Characters
Kominz, who received the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon this spring for his contributions to the introduction of Japanese culture in the U.S, says he wants to give his students a taste of what he experienced while studying abroad.
"When you embody Japanese history, it just becomes much more real than reading about it in a book or even watching documentaries or film dramas about the era," he said. "Doing it yourself, you have to change how you hold your body, how you speak. You have to become expressive and speak in a voice utterly unlike yours. … Of course I want my students to be able to share in that to the extent possible given that they're living here in Portland and not taking lessons with a great master in Japan."
This year's play was supposed to make its Portland State debut in 2020, but the pandemic had other plans. It was a big hit in 2010 when Willamette University recruited Kominz as a guest director and Kominz was eager to direct it with PSU students for what would have been the 50th anniversary of playwright Yukio Mishima's death in 2020. "The Sardine Seller's Net of Love," Mishima's most popular kabuki play, tells the story of the improbable love between a humble sardine seller and the most glamorous courtesan in Kyoto.
Michael Thompson '16 (stage name Michael Colby), a theater alum who took part in PSU's production of "The Revenge of the 47 Loyal Samurai" in 2016 is returning to play the lead male role opposite senior Emily Hodgson, a Japanese major.
"I'm really impressed with a lot of the acting skills that everyone has," Hodgson said, who did theater growing up but never had a lead role until now. "Even the people who don't have an acting background are really putting in their best effort, just having fun with it. People with quieter voices are getting loud voices. It's a great sight to see."
Jacob Staben, a Japanese major, has perhaps the most significant transformation to undergo as an "onnagata" female impersonator. That wouldn't be unusual in Japan where grand kabuki is an all-male genre with female roles taken by male players, but their training begins at an early age. Staben had just one term to transform into a courtesan.
"Originally the plan was to have me as a samurai, but once I did my auditions, they were impressed with my dancing and how high I could get my voice," he said.
Kominz says Staben has a gentle high voice perfect for the role but the challenge is that it's also strong enough to be heard by audience members in the back of the 475-seat theater.
"It's been a bit of a challenge, but I think I'll be able to master it in time," Staben said.
For Megan McGarry, an international and global studies major minoring in Japanese, kabuki marks her return to a stage. She started doing ballet when she was 3 and danced professionally for a short time before starting at PSU.
"I'm having to depart from my ballet training a little bit to be able to do this kind of dancing correctly, but it's been really good to learn a new dance style and get the chance to be on stage again because that's what I love," she said.
McGarry gave visitors to the Portland Japanese Garden a behind-the-scenes sneak peek in April when she applied the white stage makeup from start to finish, got dressed in costume and performed a courtesan dance alongside the play's choreographer, Takako Hara.
"We have a lot of masters teaching us, people who are very experienced in what we're learning," she said. "I feel really lucky to have a part in it."
A Labor of Love
Kominz says each production is a labor of love, requiring almost nine months of planning by him, his wife and costume designer extraordinaire Toshimi Tanaka, and choreographer Takako Hara, a former student who happened to have trained in Japanese traditional dance since the age of 2. A stage manager, fight choreographer, lighting designer, set builder and musicians round out the production team. He also relies on alumni like Thompson and seniors like Hodgson, Staben and McGarry to help shepherd the younger students.
Fall and winter terms are spent recruiting students. At the start of spring term, a workshop and auditions are held — not to cut anyone, but to determine everyone's role. Then the weeks of rehearsals start. Students can spend as many as eight to 10 hours each week rehearsing scenes, reading lines or practicing dances, but with no homework or extra readings, they seem to enjoy it.
"Culture and language go hand-in-hand; you really can't learn one without the other," Hodgson said. "But it's really fun when I'm chugging along with the Japanese courses to do something that's just Japanese culture."
Though Kominz is retiring at the end of June, the annual productions will continue — at least for the foreseeable future, thanks to the support of an endowment fund started in Kominz and his wife's names.
"There's so much work to do that if the students don't have total buy-in, then you stop," Kominz said. "But they've had it, so we keep going."
IF YOU GO:
When: May 25-28
Where: Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave., Portland, OR
Tickets: $25 general public; $20 seniors 65+/faculty/staff; $9 any student; kids 5 and under free
$2 discount on Preview Night (May 25). Tickets can be purchased here.