“I just wanted to write and say thank you for coming to speak to us on Saturday. I hope you enjoyed the day, I know that our members did. At lunch time I spoke to a couple who said that they’d never been interested in noh but you managed to keep them interested the whole way through! And another who said that they thought listening to your talk should be mandatory before watching any noh performance. Actually, I agree!”

“Thank you so much for all your hard work involving us in the Noh project and for giving us such fantastic opportunities.
Firstly on behalf of myself and all the schools, thank you very much for inviting us to the Embassy event. It was a great honour to attend and we were thrilled at how interested everyone was in our peace poems.

Secondly, many, many thanks to you, Kinue and Richard for coming up to Coventry especially when you had such a busy schedule. The workshop with the pupils was absolutely fantastic. I had been curious to see the children’s reaction to Noh and they were completely mesmerised. It was something so different to anything they have experienced before. I think that they will always remember the experience. In our busy lives as educators we sometimes need to stand back and let the children experience something totally different.

We are very excited about the next phase of our project and are meeting in a couple of weeks to plan how we are going to develop the travel songs. I’ll keep you informed of our plans. I’ll also start working with Afton on the gardens project so that it is ready for the summer.

Please pass on our sincere and heartfelt thanks to the Oshima family and Richard.
”

“Brilliant!

An illuminating + brilliant event

Great show!

I believe very passionately that events of this kind greatly inspire and encourage human beings to learn and discover more about the beauty, history and culture of this wondrous world we live in

Wonderful evening!
”

“I thought the various elements came together very well and it was a pleasure to hear and see your moving text rendered so beautifully.

The whole project is coming together so well and we are delighted to have been able to offer some support. The education programme is exemplary. Chapeaux!

Kind regards

Brendan

p.s. how wonderful to see the Embassy Ballroom so full - and such an attentive audience!
”

“It was a privilege to be at the Embassy of Japan in London for the demonstration and performance evening which was a central part of Phase 2 of the Between the Stones project.
We saw Kinue and Teruhisa Oshima, working with Richard Emmert, give us a gripping demonstration of some noh techniques. We were spellbound as Simon Callow read the whole of the developing text of Between the Stones. And finally we had a first ever taste of what the work will look and sound like when it is put on stage, as the three performers gave us the world premiere of a scene which they had been working on together in London.
Those of us who have been following the project since its first days could not have been more thrilled to see and feel its impact. Our warmest thanks are due to the Embassy and to the sponsors for enabling this event to take place, as a key step towards making a reality of this exciting project.
”

“Dear Jannette,

I just wanted to send you a note to thank you, Rick and the Oshimas for a wonderful event last night and to wish you ‘good luck’ for tonight!
”

“Thank you so much for inviting me to the moving Between the Stones Phase 2 event at the British Library. It was a great pleasure to be present at the first public performance of the play and to witness how beautifully it has developed since I heard the first reading some eighteen months ago. It was also a great privilege to be taught a few of the fundamentals of Noh by two members of a great Noh dynasty. The combination of your introduction to Noh, the demonstrations by the Oshimas translated so aptly by Rick, your reading of your play, and then finally the dance in the magnificent Noh kimono did much to enrich my understanding and enjoyment of Noh. Good luck with Phase 3. Phase 2 already stands as a memorable achievement in its own right.
”

“Dear Jannette,

I want to thank you and your team most sincerely for the wonderful Noh workshop that you ran for our Guildhall students last Saturday. I had hoped that my students would gain an understanding of the discipline, presence and concentration of Noh actors, and the workshop delivered all of that brilliantly. For the students it was an inspiring event that, I’m sure they will draw on for many years to come.
”

“Comments from three students:

Hi Ken,
Just wanted to say I appreciated the workshop it was a great opportunity to learn and experience a skilled Japanese art form. I took away many things from that workshop but one thing I want to point out is how technical and kind of physically tiring it was to have stage presence which I want to bring to my work.

Dear Ken,
Yesterday’s workshop was lovely and a privilege. Thank you once again for always getting the best for us.

Hi Ken,
It was so wonderful to watch the Noh actors perform and be welcomed to join in and learn from their process. I especially loved the dance/choreography we were taught as it helped me centre and focus my energy and concentration.”

“I was astonished at what truly passionate, clear and moving work Jannette was able to draw from my World Performance students in her project on Noh: From Page to Stage. As both a scholar and lover of Noh I wanted my students to be able to engage with this exceptional art form, but I worried that the challenges of grasping both the Noh aesthetic and the structure of Noh plays might be more than could be accomplished in just a few days. However, Jannette’s careful management of the tasks required provided the students with the tools they needed to create some marvellous pieces that used Noh and their own ideas and experiences to create six exceptional poetic performances. I hope that we can repeat the project with more time that will allow the students to go even further. The project has won over this group to Noh and many want to go on to pursue deeper study of the form, while others are finding it a useful tool in their own creative work as playwrights and theatre-makers.
”

“Q: Which aspects of the Getting to Noh project made the greatest impression on you and why?

Student response1: The reading of Jannette’s poetry as it was very emotionally captivating and it made me connect to Noh more as I could actually enjoy the poetic side of it through language accessible to me. Also, the project was very well structured, consequently the whole process was very easy to follow.
Student response 2: The writing of the script - I was unfamiliar with how they were meant to be formatted (for example, the journey song maps out key geographical points), so it was interesting to learn how these were created. The poetry that can come out of this is quite inspiring.
Student response 3: The Jo-Ha-Kyu structure is powerful in creating and sustaining action and has also been useful in other modules such as playwriting.

Q: What aspects of the project development have you most enjoyed and why?

Student response 1: The part in which the story and poetry were created. In a fairly short time and by use of “deadlines” the groups managed to come up with a story quite quickly which allowed us plenty of time trying to fit the story into the Noh form which I found very interesting and enjoyable. Getting to know the form and trying to understand the place of the characters within the form gave me a new perspective of the function of characters within a story. Also, the main elements of jo-ha-kyu and less is more, although they are very universal concepts were not as prominent in my thinking while creating new works as they are now. Having worked with these concepts and purposely trying to use these concepts in the pieces we were making, re-introduced them in my mind which will be definitely helpful for future creations.
Student response 2: Adding music to our poems was interesting because it looked at how music could support the text in setting the scene or creating an atmosphere.
Students response 3: I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with a concept for a Noh piece based around the theme of loss, and then creating a touching story about innocence and childhood. Writing a travel song for this story was an enjoyable process, as I liked researching the geography of our chosen location and intertwining it with the poetry.

Q: What areas of learning presented the greatest challenge and what did you learn by working through the challenge?

Student response 1: Bringing page to stage was definitely the hardest part of the whole process. The main obstacle was trying to figure out how much of the visual Noh aspects we were going to use. What we learned, however, and this was initiated by the fact that we did not learn the Noh way of singing nor the very specific movements, is that by taking inspiration from the way of staging or use of space and artists we could fill this ‘empty’ form or silhouette and paint it in ourselves using our own skills.
Student response 2: I found that creating the narrative of the complete Noh play, as a means to better understand the poem we were writing, very challenging because I felt that the conventions we had to stick were not familiar to us. However, in the long run I feel pushing through this challenge lead to solid narratives with action instead of merely emotion were created.
Student response 3: The biggest challenge was trying to put the song/story on its feet due to the amount of time we were given, but through this I learned not to try and overcomplicate things and keep it simple, especially when given a short time-frame.

Q: Do you feel you will be able to use any of this new learning in some way in the future? If possible, can you give some examples?

Student response 1: Definitely. The concepts Jo-ha-kyu and less is more are now one of the first thoughts I have when creating new works, especially when problems arise, they seem to help push the process forward again. Also the idea that a form is empty and with the understanding that one can fill it in themselves, is very useful as it gives you beacons or boundaries which will keep your feet on the ground as it were, it gives the creation a certain direction or grounding, while in the meantime recognizing the freedom of the space between gives you endless possibilities of creating without being completely lost. In general I think that is something useful to remember, it gives you guidance and support through your journey of ideas.
Student response 2: Adding music to our poems was interesting because it looked at how music could support the text in setting the scene or creating an atmosphere.
Student response 3: Writing poetry is not something I have a lot of experience in, so this project was a chance for me to explore outside my comfort zone. The aforementioned geography research and combining with song was a great experience, so this is definitely something I may try again in future.
”