tao: drum heart - Skirball Center for the Performing Arts

Press Contacts
Matt Ross Public Relations – (212) 756-1248
Matt Ross / Nancy Alligood / Anna Bencivengo
[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]
TAO: DRUM HEART
ARRIVES IN NEW YORK CITY
FOR THE FIRST TIME
FEBRUARY 11-14, 2016
at THE NYU SKIRBALL CENTER
FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS in TAO's FOURTH NORTH AMERICAN TOUR (New York – November 12, 2015) From the creative team behind the four-time Tony
Award-nominated revival of Pacific Overtures comes the New York debut of TAO:
DRUM HEART. The new production will play a strictly limited engagement at NYU
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts from Thursday, February 11, 2016
through Sunday, February 14, 2016 before TAO continues its fourth North American
tour.
Direct from TAO’s successful, sold-out world premiere run at the Edinburgh Festival
Fringe, this brand new production will be revealed in New York, and TAO will tour
North America in the winter of 2016. The new show will bring you athletic bodies and
contemporary costumes combined with explosive Taiko drumming and innovative
choreography. TAO has critics raving about their extraordinary precision, energy, and
stamina. With hundreds of sold-out shows and more than 6.5 million spectators, TAO
has proven that modern entertainment based on the timeless art of Japanese
drumming, thrills international audiences again and again.
“It’s been always my dream to return to New York after directing Pacific Overtures,”
said Director Amon Miyamoto. “It’s especially exciting to reunite with the Pacific
Overtures production team, including costume designer Junko Koshino and scenic
designer Rumi Matsui, and to work with the most acclaimed Japanese Drum
entertainment group on TAO: DRUM HEART. We look forward to bringing the
explosive energy of this heart-shaking story to life with the deep passion that TAO
brings to all of their work. This new, sensational piece from TAO will shake audience
members to their core.”
TAO: DRUM HEART will be directed by Amon Miyamoto (Pacific Overtures) and
feature costumes by Junko Koshino (Tony nom for Pacific Overtures) and stage
design by Rumi Matsui (Tony nom for Pacific Overtures).
TAO established a partnership with Ippudo restaurants in 2010, and they have since
opened collaborative Ippudo TAO restaurants in Japan and Singapore. In combining
Japanese food and theatre, the two companies aim “to deliver smiles, vigor, courage,
and vitality” to the world. While TAO: DRUM HEART is in New York, a limited TAO
ramen and cocktail menu will be available at Ippudo’s East Village and West Side
locations.
The performance schedule for TAO: Drum Heart is as follows: Thursday, February 11
at 8pm; Friday, February 12 at 8pm; Saturday, February 13 at 3pm and 8pm; Sunday,
February 14 at 3pm and 8pm.
"Powerful, dynamic and unique"
TIME OUT
"Extraordinarily talented...incomparable muscular zeal"
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"Undoubtedly one of the finest shows on offer"
EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS
TAO NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
1/20
1/21
1/23-24
1/26
1/29
1/30
1/31
2/2
2/3
2/5
2/6
2/9
2/11-14
2/16
2/18
2/19
2/20
2/21
2/25
2/26
2/27
2/28
3/1
3/2
3/4
3/6
3/8
3/9
3/10-11
3/12
3/13
3/15
3/16
3/18
3/19
3/21
Montreal, QC, Canada
Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
Quebec, QC, Canada
Salle Louis-Frechette
Rama, ON, Canada
Casino Rama
Rutland, VT
Paramount Center
Greenvale, NY
Tilles Center Concert Hall
Union, NJ
Wilkins Theater
Bethlehem, PA
Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center
Portland, ME
Merrill Auditorium
Amherst, MA
Fine Arts Center Concert Hall
Portsmouth, NH
The Music Hall
Morristown, NJ
Mayo Performing Arts Center
Indiana, PA
Fisher Auditorium
New York, NY
The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
Lewisburg, PA
Sigmund and Claire Weis Center for the Performing Arts
Durham, NC
Carolina Theatre - Fletcher Hall Auditorium
Newport News, VA
Ferguson Center for the Arts Concert Hall
Wilmington, DE
DuPont Theatre
Fairfax, VA
Center for the Arts Concert Hall
Boerne, TX
Boerne – Samuel V. Champion High School Auditorium
Galveston, TX
The Grand 1894 Opera House
Longview, TX
S. E. Belcher Jr. Chapel and Performance Center
Midland, TX
Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center Performance Hall
El Paso, TX
Magoffin Auditorium
Santa Fe, NM
The Lensic Performing Arts Center
Albuquerque, NM
Popejoy Hall
Tuscon, AZ
Fox Tuscon Theatre
Malibu, CA
Smothers Theater
Palm Desert, CA
McCallum Theatre for Performing Arts
Scottsdale, AZ
Virginia G. Piper Theater
San Diego, CA
Copley Symphony Hall
Santa Clarita, CA
Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center Proscenium Theater
Redding, CA
The Cascade Theatre
Medford, OR
Craterian Theater
Modesto, CA
Mary Stuart Rodgers Theater
Folsom, CA
Stage 1 – Harris Center for the Arts
San Luis Obispo, CA
Harman Hall, Christopher Cohan Center
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
http://www.drum-tao.com/main/english
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BIOS:
Amon Miyamoto (Director)
Born in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, Miyamoto has been involved in Japanese traditional
dance, tea ceremony and Japanese fine arts since his early childhood. He became
interested in musicals when he visited New York at the age of 21, and he later made his
debut as a director with an original musical "I Got Merman," which portrayed Broadway
star Ethel Merman’s life. He received the National Arts Festival Prize (the most
prestigious directing award in Japan) with this musical. In 2001, he directed "I Got
Merman" for the Stanford Center in Connecticut. His production of "Pacific Overtures"
premiered in the U.S. at Lincoln Center Festival in 2002.
In 2004, he became the first Asian director of a Broadway musical when he directed
"Pacific Overtures" at Studio 54, which received four TONY award nominations. In
2009, he served as a director of the 150th anniversary of Opening of Yokohama Port and
invited the Emperor and Empress of Japan. In 2010, he directed "The Fantasticks,"
which opened at the Duchess Theater on West End, London. Miyamoto directed an
original musical version of "The Nutcracker," composed by Michael John LaChiusa in
Tokyo in 2001, and he conceived and directed a new musical "Up in the Air," composed
by Henry Krieger, which premiered at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, D.C. in 2008.
In 2010, Miyamoto was inaugurated as the first Artistic Director of the Kanagawa Arts
Theatre (KAAT) in Yokohama, Japan, and served until 2014. As an opening project of
the new theatre, he turned a famous novel by Yukio Mishima into a play: "The Temple of
the Golden Pavilion," which was officially invited to the Lincoln Center Festival in July
2011. It was recently remounted in Tokyo in April 2014.
Junko Koshino (Costume Designer)
Junko Koshino is one of Japan’s most highly acclaimed fashion designers, best known
for her wide array of different designs, including her Junko Koshino line, corporate and
sports team uniform designs and musical performance costumes.Born in Osaka, Junko
Koshino won the prestigious Soen Award while studying in Bunka Fashion College’s
Design program. Her Paris collection was held from 1978 to 2000 and she has produced
fashion shows around the world including the 2008 opening reception and fashion show
at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She has also been involved in cultural
exchange through her fashion design activities in such countries as China, Vietnam,
Cuba, Italy, France, and the U.S. and was appointed by Japan’s Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport as the 2008 Yokoso! Japan Ambassador. She is renowned
for costume design in such productions as the operas “Madame Butterfly” and “The
Magic Flute”, the Broadway musical play “Pacific Overtures” (for which she received a
Tony Award nomination) Muscle Musical, and The Art of Japan Drum."DRUM.TAO"
Rumi Matsui (Stage Designer)
Rumi Matsui is one of the leading set designers in Japan. In 1985 Matsui completed her
BA in graphic design at Tama Art University and joined Shiki Theatre Company. This
led her into further education in theatre design at Central School of Art and Design (now
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design) in London. After her return to Japan in
1990, Matsui began her career as a set designer and scenographer, and in 1991, she
established Centreline Associates Inc. She has designed over four hundred theatrical
productions and won numerous awards including Yomiuri Drama Grand Prix for the
best set designer and the Kinokuniya Drama Award. In 2004, her Broadway debut
Pacific Overtures at Studio54 was nominated for the Tony Award’s Best Scenic Design
of a Musical. The Fantastick was taken to theatres in London’s West End in 2010. She
has also designed a number of opera sets such as Junior Butterfly for the 52nd Puccini
Festival at Torre del Lago Puccini in Italy and Tea: A Mirror of Soul at Santa Fe Opera
in New Mexico. In recent years, she is expanding her practice to concert set design as
seen in AKB48 concert at the National Athletic Stadium, Tokyo in 2014. Matsui was one
of the juries for Prague Quadrennial 07 and she was listed as one of the Honorable
Scenographers by OISTAT (International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre
Architects and Technicians) in 2007. Matsui is currently a guest instructor at Tokyo
University of the Arts. She is a president of Centreline Associates Inc., one of the major
theatre set design companies in Japan.