Masahiro Iwasaki
Masahiro Iwasaki
Born in 1963, Masahiro Iwasaki is a playwright, director and leader of the theater company Gekidan Taiyozoku. He has long been one of the standard-bearers of the Kansai region’s small theater scene. While a student in the Theatrical Arts Dept. of Osaka University of Arts, he formed the “Gekidan Osaka Taiyozoku” company and began company activities in 1982. In 1990, the company name was changed to 199Q Taiyozoku and the present name “Gekidan Taiyozoku” was adopted in 2001. His play Koko kara ha Toi Kuni (A Country Far from Here) based on the poison gas terror incident perpetrated by the Ohm Shinrikyo cult in 1995 that shook Japanese society won the 4th OMS Drama Grand Prix. His plays have won a strong reputation for their treatment incidents and phenomena that affect society, the feeling of entrapment experienced by people in contemporary society and the complexity and chaos involved in human relationships. In particular, his style of directing that makes full use of the interplay of illusion and reality, time and space unique to the theater medium to create experiences of extra-ordinary worlds has won Iwasaki a large base of devoted fans. He is also active as an instructor of playwriting and directing workshops for high school students and others that result in community-participation production at venues such as the Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center, the Nagasaki Brick Hall and other public halls and theaters around the country. Since 2008 Iwasaki has served as theater director of the Itami City AI Hall.
