User:Nkzag82/Greek Tragedy Study Club, University of Tokyo (GTSC)
Greek Tragedy Study Club, University of Tokyo (GTSC) was a student theatre company which was founded at The University of Tokyo to study and revive Greek tragedy and was active from 1957 to 1970. While the main members were students from Faculty of Letters of the university, experts from various fields and students from other universities also joined their productions. They performed eleven times in total in Tokyo, of which records are still preserved.
Overview[edit]
The club, first founded to study Greek tragedy as drama and then to revive and perform it in its original style, was registered as an official student society of The University of Tokyo in 1958 and named Greek Tragedy Study Club, University of Tokyo (GTSC). Their first production was Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles, performed at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall on the 2nd of June, 1958.
In the following years, starting from Antigone by Sophocles as their second production in May 1959, the club expanded their repertoire to Prometheus Bound (originally written by Aeschylus, performed in 1960), Agamemnon (id., 1961), Philoctetes (Sophocles, 1962), Troades (Euripides, 1963), Heracles (id., 1964), Persae (Aeschylus, 1965), Bacchae (Euripides, 1966). All the nine performances at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall were supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company.
During these years, they introduced masks in the original ancient Greek style for the production of Prometheus Bound. In Bacchae they even brought back the 'Three-Actor Rule', where three male masked actors play all the roles of drama.
After each production they held a review meeting to summarise their achievement in performance and study. These essays, together with the scripts for performance, were published as journals, Greek Tragedy Studies (up until the 5th performance).
In later years, the company moved their venue to Denen Coliseum. In their production there in 1968, Suppliants by Aeschylus, they followed the Greek tradition to perform tragedy in the daytime.
Their last production came on stage in 1970. Aeschylus's Seven against Thebes, performed in an indoor venue (Chiyoda Public Hall), marked the end of 14 active years of the club.
In October 2017, the club gathered again to hold a conference, To the Very Echo: Performances of Greek Tragedy by the <GTSC>, in a series of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Seijo University.
In March 2019, they published To the Very Echo: Performances of Greek Tragedy by the <GTSC> (eds. Mitsuya Mori, Atsuko Hosoi. Ronsosha). In addition to some records of the lectures given at their event in 2017, the volume also contains the data of each production since their foundation.
Production Data[edit]
- 1st performance - Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus
- Monday 2 June, 1958, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producers : Mikio Shibuya, Hisashi Abe, Minoru Morimura, Yusuke Hosoi
- Director : Sadao Nakajima
- Translators : Sadao Nakajima, Takeo Kamura
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 2nd performance - Sophocles, Antigone
- Saturday 30 May, 1959, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producer : Shun’ya Ito
- Director : Yusuke Hosoi
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 3rd performance - Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
- Saturday 4 - Sunday 5 June, 1960, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producer : Mitsuya Mori
- Director : Takeo Kamura
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 4th performance - Aeschylus, Agamemnon
- Saturday 3 - Sunday 4 June, 1961, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producers : Masahiro Yoshizawa, Yutaka Kohira
- Director : Takeo Takahashi
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 5th performance - Sophocles, Philoctetes
- Saturday 26, Monday 28 May 1962, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Tuesday 5 June, 1962, at Kyoritsu Hall
- Producers : Yoshiki Honda, Hideki Oishi, Akihiko Aida, Yusuke Hosoi
- Director : Masaaki Kubo
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 6th performance - Euripides, Troades
- Saturday 1 - Sunday 2 June, 1963, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producers : Hideki Oishi, Taketoshi Honma
- Director : Yusuke Hosoi
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 7th performance - Euripides, Heracles
- Saturday 30 - Sunday 31 May, 1964, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producers : Taketoshi Honma, Akira Numata
- Director : Tetsuo Tamura
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 8th performance - Aeschylus, Persae
- Saturday 5 - Sunday 6 June, 1965, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producer : Hiromichi Tokunaga
- Director : Tetsuo Tamura
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 9th performance - Euripides, Bacchae
- Sunday 5 - Monday 6 June, 1966, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall
- Producers : Shuichi Chubachi, Yusuke Kamiyama
- Director : Mitsuya Mori
- Translators : GTSC
- Supported by The Asahi Shimbun Company
- 10th performance - Aeschylus, Suppliants
- Friday 1 - Sunday 3 November, 1968 (only matinees), at Denen Coliseum
- Producers : Akira Mori, Fumiko Ishikawa
- Director : Yusuke Kamiyama
- Translators : GTSC
- 11th performance - Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes
- Friday 23 - Saturday 24 October, 1970 (matinees and soirees), at Chiyoda Public Hall
- Producer : Fumihiko Igarashi
- Director : Nobuyuki Onuma
- Translators : GTSC
External Links[edit]
[[Category:University of Tokyo]]
[[Category:Theatre archives]]