Coronet Inside Out: Satoshi Miyagi
We are thrilled to share an interview with the General Artistic Director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Satoshi Miyagi, giving an insight into his creative process, along with excerpts of his work.
Miyagi is known for fusing contemporary interpretation of major classical texts such as Medea, Mahabharata and Antigone with the physical techniques and stylisations of Asian plays.
Click here to see the other work available to watch for free on Coronet Inside Out.
Satoshi Miyagi
Born in 1959 in Tokyo, Satoshi Miyagi is the General Artistic Director of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC).
He studied the theory of drama under Yushi Odashima, Moriaki Watanabe and Hachiro Hitaka at Tokyo University, and founded Ku Na’uka Theatre Company in 1990. Since then he has engaged in various international performance activities, and has been widely praised for his direction fusing the contemporary interpretation of text with the physical techniques and stylisations of Asian plays. He was appointed as the General Artistic Director of SPAC in April of 2007.
As well as presenting his own original plays, Miyagi also invites to SPAC a variety of works from around the world that sharply depict contemporary society as he aims to make theatre “a window to look out toward the world.” After the success of his Mahabharata at the Avignon Festival in July 2014, in 2017 he was invited to present his version of Antigone as the opening act of the Festival in the Cour d’honneur du Palais des papes. It was the first time in the Festival’s history that an Asian play was selected as the opening act, and the world it depicted met with a great reaction. His other renowned works include Medea and Peer Gynt.
Miyagi received the Grand Prix of the 3rd Asahi Performing Arts Awards (2004), the 2nd Asahi Beer Art Prize (2005), and the 68th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for Drama (2018).