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Casting Underway for The Playmakers’ Presentation of the Ancient Japanese Folk Tale “The Crane Wife” June 17-29 Want
to be part of a very exciting and different kind of theatre? Regular comedies
and intense dramas not your style? “The
Crane Wife,” based on an ancient Japanese folktale by Barbara Carlisle may be
just the play you’ve been waiting for. So,
come have some fun with The Playmakers in Grove.
Suzanne Boles will direct a cast that includes narrators, dancers, and a Village Chorus, who get to use masks that become puppets, create sounds, move rhythmically—similar to the ancient Greek chorus. Men and also teen-age boys, |
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especially, are
needed for the chorus and for narration. There are four set characters: the Crane Wife, her husband, the peasant Kokuro, a Neighbor, and a Samurai. Music, dance of a stylized nature, and
choreographed movement play an integral part in this one-act production.
A poor peasant, Kokuro, finds a crane on his doorstep with
an arrow in one of its wings. He takes it in and nurses it back to health. After
he releases the crane, a beautiful woman appears at his doorstep with whom he
falls in love with and marries. When food runs out, his wife offers to weave wondrous cloth that he can sell at the market, but only if he
agrees that she only has to do it once and he must not watch her making it. They
live comfortably for awhile, but soon
Kokuro is forced to ask her to weave another cloth. The money from the sale of
the cloth gives them security for years. But Kokuro cannot turn down a neighbor’s request to sell one
more cloth to a wealthy Samurai.
The wife weaves for six days, and finally Kokuro loses patience and looks behind
her screen. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns. (We won’t
divulge why. You’ll have to see the play.) Kokuro has the beautiful cloth, worth many riches, but he has lost the most valuable thing in his life, his loving wife.
If you are interested in being in this exciting production, please call Mrs. Boles at 918-786-5871, Grove Ok. This play is produced in cooperation with the Oklahoma Arts Council and with Anchorage Press Plays. It runs June 17-29, 2010. Rehearsals begin mid-April. The Playmakers may enter this production in the Oklahoma Community Theatre Festival in late July, but that decision will depend on cast schedules.