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Mar. 26, 2019

The 63rd (2018) Kishida Drama Award winner is Shuntaro Matsubara

The final judging of the 63rd Kishida Drama Awards organized by Hakusuisha Publishing Co. took place on March 12th and the winning drama chosen was YAMAYAMA (I Would Prefer Not to) by Shuntaro Matsubara.

Shuntaro Matsubara is a Kyoto-based playwright. Born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1988, Matsubara graduated from the Economics Department of Kobe University. Discovery of the works of Samuel Becket and James Joyce led him to begin writing novels. His encounter with theater began with Fatzer by the Kyoto-based theater company Chiten, after which Matsubara began writing plays. In 2015, his first play Michiyuki won the 15th AAF Drama Grand Prix. His representative works as a playwright are Wasureru Nihonjin and Shomen ni Kiwotsukero, and in short stories Mata no Tame ni.

The award-winning play this time was a co-production with KAAT (Kanagawa Arts Theatre) and Chiten directed by Chiten’s Motoi Miura that premiered at KAAT in June 2018. Taking as its motifs labor and love (Chekhov), life and death (Becket), the treatment of every symbol and stereotype (Jelinek) and the “great” American novelist Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, Matsubara’s play tell the story of the new resistance of a family living between the once-beautiful mountains and pollutants.

Jury member Toshiki Okada said of the play that, “Matsubara has the power to bombard us with incredibly powerful words that show us the reality we face in a dramatic way that attains an abstract aspect. The opinions of the jury were split, but I think [Matsubara] is amazing and unmatched. I hope his words will lead Japan’s theater world into a new future.

Finalists
Yuji Sakamoto Mata Koko ka (Little More edition)
Roba Shimori Atom ga Kita Hi (stage script)
Misaki Setoyama Watashi, to Senso (stage script)
Shuko Nemoto Aiken Polly no Shi, Soshite Kazoku no Hanashi (stage script)
Hideo Furukawa Roma Teikoku no Mishima Yukio (in Shincho, October 2018 edition)
Shuntaro Matsubara   YAMAYAMA (I Would Prefer Not To) (in Higeki Kigeki July 2018 edition)
Shoko Matsumura Hanpuku to Junkan ni Fuzui Suru Bonyari no Boken (stage script)
Momoji Yamada Kyoshu no Oka Romantopia (stage script)

Jury:
Ryo Iwamatsu
Toshiki Okada
Keralino Sandorovich
Hideki Noda
Oriza Hirata
Akio Miyazawa
Miri Yanagi

Kishida Kunio Drama Award (Website in Japanese)
http://www.hakusuisha.co.jp/kishida/