Session Four was a panel discussion focusing on the works and experience of members of Theatre Nohgaku, founded by Richard Emmert in 2000. The panel was convened by Thomas O’Connor, the Managing Director of Theatre Nohgaku.  O’Connor started the session with a discussion of the history of Theater Nohgaku. Laura Sampson, a professional performer based in London, discussed her journey of noh next. The third speaker Richard Emmert shown the development of an English noh with a demonstration from the kuse session of the noh play Sumidagawa. This was followed by John Oglevee who examined noh in translation contrasting performances in Japanese with English. Gary Mathews then presented segments from Blue Moon Over Memphis, together with music scores, to discuss the singing style of the “theme song” of the noh play. The last speaker of the panel was Elizabeth Dowd, another professional performer based in the U.S. She shared with the audience the noh training projects that she engaged with in the past and those in progress.

We have edited the video recording of the panel presentation into smaller segments by each presenter for easier viewing. Each video comes with a brief summary on the page.