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Kyoto Art Theater(Shunjuza/studio21)

Kyoto Art Theater

Photo: Osamu Watanabe

Kyoto Art Theater (Shunjuza and studio21) was opened in Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2001. It is the first full-scale theater to be managed by an institution of higher education in our country. The theater is consists of two completely different types of dramatic spaces:a large theater (Shunjuza) mainly built for the purpose of kabuki performances, and a small theater (studio21) created to enable staging of modern plays and dance. Due to this unique structure it can boast the facilities, which make it possible to stage a wide array of performing arts, ranging from traditional theatrical forms of entertainment to the latest multimedia performances.

Shunjuza

A special feature of the larger theater, Shunjuza, is the fact that although in terms of both the seats for the audience and the stage it was built based on the orthodox kabuki style, it was at the same time designed so as to be adaptable to allow dramatic presentation of modern plays and other performances. While having such prerequisites for kabuki performances as the passage leading to the stage, trap-doors, revolving stage, toriya, and mechanisms for midair performance, the theater is also equipped with the orchestra pit for opera and other similar performances, which is utilizable for all kinds of stage expressions.

Total floor space 8,921.95m2
Proscenium width 18m, height 6m30cm
Stage depth 17m
Circular part of the rotating stage about 13.5m in diameter
Large trap-door about 10.8 m x 2.1m
Small trap-door about 3.6 m x 1.2m
Length of the passage leading to the stage 17.4m
Trap-door on the passage leading to the stage about 1.8 m x about 0.9m (2 partitions)
Batons for manual hanging 63
Number of seats 852 (648 seats of the first floor and 204 on the second)
Art supervisor Ennosuke Ichikawa (kabuki actor, professor of Kyoto University of Art and Design)

studio21

studio21

Photo: Osamu Watanabe

The smaller theater (studio21) is an experimental space allowing for staging of various performing arts, such as modern plays, dance, and various other kinds of performances. It is equipped with moveable facilities of stage lighting control and audio equipment, the equipment and artistic installations can be hung where needed onto the grid installed under the ceiling, and, also, as the seats themselves are moveable, the space can be used both lengthwise and breadthwise.

Space: width about 11.3 m x length about 25.3 m x height about 5.45m (the layout of the hall is adjustable) Number of seats: if pipe chairs and the gallery are used, about 120.

Kyoto Art Theater (in Japanese)