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Shizuko (left) tells her friend
Mitsuko (right)
that the doll visits her home at midnight
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The main reason for my visit to Ichigi Elementary School in Toyota City
was to see The Secret Friend, a children’s play about a
Blue-eyed Doll named Grammy sent from North Carolina to a Japanese elementary
school in 1927. This play was performed by the Urinko Theater Company in
Nagoya, which has been performing plays for children since 1973. Urinko
performed the play twice at Ichigi Elementary, once in the morning for the
1st to 3rd graders and again in the afternoon for the 4th to 6th graders.
I thought the play was GREAT!! Even though the play took place in the
gloomy times of World War II, the children laughed in many places, such as
when the people in the play bumped into each other going through the door or
when the "brave boy" showed his fear upon seeing the Blue-eyed Doll
come to life. The children really laughed hard when they saw the two boys in
slow motion playing that they were fighting with swords by using brooms. The
fake swordplay of the two boys required a lot of athletic ability.
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Two boys engage in sword play with brooms
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The play emphasizes the importance of friendship, mainly between the
5th-grade girl named Shizuko and the Blue-eyed Doll named Grammy. Even when
others criticized Shizuko for taking care of this doll from America, who was
Japan’s bitter enemy during World War II, she remained steadfast in her
friendship with Grammy. Shizuko thought that Grammy had been destroyed when
an official from the local government forced the principal and one of the teachers to
take the doll away. When Shizuko was 73 years old, she discovered from her
granddaughter, who attended the same school as Shizuko, that Grammy had been
found and was on display in a glass case at the school. Even after over 60
years, Shizuko remained close friends with Grammy. Although the play had many humorous
parts, I had tears in my eyes a couple of times near the end. Several of the children's
comments about the play (from a promotional brochure published by Urinko)
also mention how they cried near the end of the play after enjoying the many
humorous parts.
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Grammy introduces herself to
Shizuko's friend (right)
"Brave" boy scared to see Grammy alive (left)
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I think the children (and adults) could relate more to Grammy when she
came alive and appeared to her friends between midnight and one o’clock.
When Grammy came alive, she taught American dances to Shizuko and her
friends, and she explained that her rose brooch would bloom when she made
many friends. Everyone was happy at the end of the play when they saw that
her flower had bloomed. The Secret Friend had some similarities with
the story of Cinderella,
since a transformation happened at midnight and since one night Grammy lost
one of her red shoes as she hurried out of Shizuko’s bedroom.This past spring Mizuho Nakahata, a member of the Urinko Theater Group,
sent me the script for The Secret Friend. I thought it was a
wonderful story when I first read the script, but seeing the actual play was
a much more meaningful and emotional experience. Attending the play allowed
me to see the humor and emotions of the actors and actresses.
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Backstage with the cast of The Secret Friend
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After seeing the play, I had the opportunity
to go backstage to meet the cast of the play. This group has
performed The Secret Friend about 30 times since May 2002, and they
plan to continue the performances for three years. The play is usually
performed in Aichi Prefecture around the Nagoya area, but the group has
been asked to perform the play by an elementary school as far away as
Gunma Prefecture.
The play's cast required very strong voices
for the performance at Ichigi Elementary, since the gymnasium's acoustics
were not good and since rain was pattering on the roof during most of the
play. When I first saw the cast before the play, I was somewhat surprised
by the variety of stretching and voice exercises they were performing at
various place around the gymnasium. However, when I saw the acrobatics of
the two boys playing in slow motion with swords and heard the clear
powerful voices of the cast, I understood why they required such warm-up
exercises.
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4th-grade class
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I ate lunch with one of the 4th-grade classes at
Ichigi Elementary School. I tried to answer their many questions about America
while eating at the same time. The children were quite excited to receive
Halloween stickers of ghosts, jack-o'-lanterns, Draculas, bats, black cats,
and Frankensteins.
Two staff members of the Urinko Theater Company
took me by car to visit the Urinko Theater in Nagoya. In addition to
performing plays at schools, the theater company also has its own small
theater to give public performances and to rehearse.
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With staff at Urinko Theater
and Mizuho Nakahata (bottom right)
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In addition to the team that performed The
Secret Friend, the Urinko Theater Company has three other teams that
perform different plays. These plays are performed for children from
elementary school to high school.
When I went to the Urinko Theater, I had the
opportunity to meet members from the other three teams and the staff members
working at the office of the theater group. The people there were all very
nice, and I received photos for use on this page and many brochures about
Urinko's other plays. They even let me borrow a photo book about the homecoming
of Miss Gifu, which they had
received from Katsuhiro Natsume,
who I first met last year when I visited Saigo
Elementary School in Aichi Prefecture.
I hope someday to have the chance to see again
this wonderful play, The Secret Friend, performed by the Urinko Theater
Company!!
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