Conception

According to our combined dramaturgical genius,

Nina Mankin and Morgan Jenness, there were two ideas that sparked this whole project: Theatre of Yugen and Erik Ehn's Noh Cycle Plays and Susan Stewart's essay "On Longing". Ms. Mankin has written in depth on the concept of The Lily's Revenge. Read her essay "Red Tide Blooming and The Lily’s Revenge: The Armageddon Coupling" here.


Theatre of Yugen

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Theatre of Yugen is an experimental ensemble dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence called Yugen through its exploration of dramatic and literary classics and the crafting of new works of world theater. Our investigation stems from a discipline of Japanese theatrical aesthetics - primarily the classical forms of Noh drama and Kyogen comedy. Through training, creating, presenting, collaborating and performing we aim to foster intercultural understanding and keep theatrical discipline vital.

Yu - deep, quiet, other worldly
gen - subtle, profound, dark


Founded in 1978 by Yuriko Doi to bring traditional Japanese aesthetics to American audiences. In the fall of 2001 Yuriko handed off the Artisitc Directorship to three long-time company members Jubilith Moore, Lluis Valls and Libby Zilber. Ms. Doi continues to direct as an Artistic Associate.

Erik Ehn
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Erik Ehn's work in adapting traditional Noh Theatre concepts has been deeply influential on the contemporary style of Noh that Taylor has produced.

Since 1996 Erik Ehn has been collaborating on theatrical productions with Theatre of Yugen, first in revising a literal translation of a contemporary Noh play, Mumyo no I / Down the Dark Well, then with an adaptation of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere where Noh style was braided with Philippine material which was paired with an original Kyogen-style comedy, Bright and Gifted. In 2001 he worked closely with Doi and Noh composer Richard Emmert on a Noh piece honoring Crazy Horse, a fusion that blends Noh with Native American dance, singing, flute playing, and drumming. In 2003 he adapted and directed Frankenstein, which was restaged at Project Artaud in 2004.

He is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Tenderloin Opera Company, San Francisco (with Lisa Bielawa). Erik is currently Director of Playwriting at Brown University.

Above content from http://www.theatreofyugen.org

Who is Susan Stewart?

You're listening to On Longing now! (excerpt: The Miniature)

Listen to excerpts of The Gigantic here

Susan Stewart (a critical theorist with deep influence on this show and literally a character in The Lily's Revenge) is an American poet, university professor and literary critic born in 1952.

susan

She teaches the history of poetry, aesthetics, and the philosophy of literature, most recently at Princeton University. Stewart is also a translator, most recently having translated Euripides' Andromache with Wesley Smith and the poetry and selected prose of the Scuola Romana painter Scipione with Brunella Antomarini. Professor Stewart holds degrees from Dickinson College (B.A. in English and Anthropology), the Johns Hopkins University (M.A. in Poetics) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in Folklore).

Her collected essays on art, The Open Studio: Essays in Art and Aesthetics, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2004. Her other books of criticism include Poetry and the Fate of the Senses (2002), which received both the 2002 Christian Gauss Award for Literary Criticism from Phi Beta Kappa and the 2004 Truman Capote Award in Literary Criticism; as well as Crimes of Writing: Problems in the Containment of Representation (1991); Nonsense (1989); and On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (1984).

On Longing

Her most influential work on The Lily's Revenge is quoted at length during the play.

If you'd like to know more about Nostalgia, the Here and Now, the Gigantic and the Miniature read excerpts of On Longing here.

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