Artists / Projects
- chelfitsch / Toshiki Okada
- Nibroll / Mikuni Yanaihara
- Azumabashi Dance Crossing
- Takao Kawaguchi
- Fuyuki Yamakawa
- Ujino Muneteru
- Takagi Masakatu
chelfitsch / Toshiki Okada
Profile
The company's name, "chelfitsch," is Okada's coinage. It comes from a baby-like disarticulation of the English word "selfish," which evokes the social and cultural characteristics of today’s Japan, not least of Tokyo: infantilism.
Main works: On the Harmful Effects of Marihuana(2003), Five Days in March (2004), Post＊The End of Toil(2005), Air-Conditioner(2004)
Toshiki Okada (Playwright, director)
Born in Yokohama in 1973, Okada formed the theater company "chelfitsch" (always spelled with a small "c") in 1997. He has practiced a strange sort of methodology for creating plays. Even though he employs some, he nevertheless makes a point of "not getting too comfortable with a particular methodology or holding on to one style to the point where it holds him back." He has been using slangy Japanese, for which he has become famous since March 2001. The unique choreography, another hallmark of Okada's plays from then on, endows the actors with "noisy" corporeality.
In 2005, Five Days in March(2004) won the 49th Kishida Drama Award. The judges praised Okada's work for the powerful questions it posed to the discourses of theater and for the fresh ideas the playwright used when turning his sense of dissatisfaction into a work of art. Okada has also been acclaimed for the skills he has displayed in carving out the elusive state of things in contemporary Japan.
Through the manipulation of the actors' bodies, Okada creates peculiar corporeality, which sometimes seems to—and at other times does not—exaggerate our everyday gestures. For this reason, his choreography has been compared to dance by some critics. In fact, Okada participated in "Toyota Choreography Award 2005: Discover the Choreographer for Next Generation" with Air-Conditioner (2005), making it to the finals. An original concept of the body that he eloquently articulated in the work defied the conventional idea of "choreography," taking the contemporary dance scene by storm.
In September, 2005, Okada won Yokohama Cultural Award/Yokohama Award for Art and Cultural Encouragement. As the representative of his country, he took part in "Stuecke'06/International Literature project in the course of the Football World Cup 2006." In December of the same year, he produced Enjoy at New National Theatre,Tokyo. He has also served as the director for 2006-2007 "Summit", an annual drama festival hosted by the Komaba Agora Theater (General producer: Oriza Hirata)