For those that do not know, act-age is getting a live action stage play on the Night of the Galactic Railroad arc!
――With the coronavirus still going on, what is the situation with the two of you now?
Matsui: Right now I'm writing a screenplay, and it's not that hard, but I'm having the anxiety that I don't know how long this situation will last, and I'm worried that I might lose my job. There is a feeling that I can only be decent by writing a script, and I am totally absorbed in it.
Matsuki: I'm basically working alone, so I can't use the coffee shop I usually use. However, when I write in the weekly series, I feel strange that the characters are not masking or that the opening ceremony is approaching. While the reality is shifting from the original shape, I feel that the things I am writing are becoming fantasy, or that I have reached the level at which such a feeling of strangeness occurs.
Matsui: The theater industry is now facing the problem of "what should we do in the future?" If you can't get to the theater, maybe you can do something online, like I'm talking online today. Or even if the theater can be restarted in the future, we should change the shape of the seats and the way of entering. I like the space of live performances, and I've going there for a long time. Then, I would like to find a way to get together in the entertainment industry and the arts field.
Matsuki: In my case, it's a medium called manga, so I'm doing it in a place far from "collecting". When I was writing a contemporary play, I felt that after 3:11, sudden accidents and unreasonableness were more likely to be accepted. Even if the main character character suddenly dies in an accident, the reader will accept it. In the same way, the content of writing may change due to the corona turmoil this time. What I originally wanted to write in Act-age, I kind of wonder if I really should write this now? It's a situation where I'm beginning to doubt that I'm going to be able to do anything.
■About the stage play "Act-Age"
--Under such circumstances, the stage play will be launched. What did you think when you first heard about the stage adaptation?
Matsuki: Basically, I'm afraid of media mix (laughs). Because I'm not good at re-reading even my own manga. Of course, I was hesitant about entrusting a person who didn't even know how to deal with his own work to someone else, and I thought it would be easier if I didn't touch it from the beginning. But after I read the plot, my thoughts changed a lot.
--How has it changed?
Matsuki: He was trying to do what I couldn't do on this stage, and I felt like I wanted to see it. When I look at your other works, I don't mean it in a bad way, but the direction is straightforward...you don't try to embellish it in a weird way. It's a very risky way of doing things to suit the actors. I thought it was a very good sense of balance and the staging policy of trying to show the minimum.
Matsui: Thank you very much. When I read Act-age, the first thing I felt was that it was written by a person who knows a lot about theater. From the outside, it doesn't portray how a play is magically created, but rather what kind of input the actors have, what they think, and how they put it into expression. Later, when I actually met with Matsuki, I felt that he was very careful and fearful in his portrayal of acting and people, and I felt a familiarity with him.
-What exactly do you mean by describing fearfulness?
Matsui - It may be a little different from a manga, but when I'm making a stage production, for example, I have an actor play the role of a murderer. Of course, neither I nor the actors have ever killed anyone before, so what kind of approach is there then? We will work together with you to think it through. When I was rehearsing the role of a murderer, my mind would start to deteriorate a lot, and I would start to have dangerous ideas, so I would create the role with care. In the same way, in Act-age, it was very moving to see one character face another with great care and gradually grow up together. When I met you, I felt that you were practicing this kind of "writing with fear of people and being afraid of people."
Matsuki: I understand the current way of saying, "I'm properly afraid of people. When you say "properly" in response to fear, it's really the case. Sometimes I feel like I'm so afraid that I've become violent... I've given it a lot of thought! In the end, I'd punch him (laughs).
Matsui: The reaction to thinking too much about it is to say, "That's enough" (laughs). I can relate to that feeling.
Matsuki: To begin with, I'm now serializing "Actage", but I really wanted to avoid writing the original manga on the subject of plays and actors.
Matsui: Is that so?
Matsuki: My debut work was a read piece on the subject of a film director, but that was also because I chose the "occupation category" when I applied for the "Stokin Pro" (a newcomer's award that specializes in storytelling) of Shonen Jump, and because I had been in the film industry until then, I was familiar with it. The actors and the director were very close, but I felt embarrassed and scared because of their closeness. So in the beginning, I was writing in a different genre, more normal and more Shonen Jump-like...
Murakoshi, the editor in charge of "Act-age: It wasn't very interesting (laughs).
Matsuki: I've read it recently, and it's been pretty funny too!
Everyone laughs
-As a director, what do you think is the appeal of "Act-age" as a stage production?
Matsui: I think it's a manga that makes you want to act when you're reading it. I believe that acting is not so far removed from our daily lives, that everyone has moments in their lives when they think, "I just lied," or "I just acted." It makes me think about things like, "I usually don't act this way," or "I've acted this way, but what about this?" as I read it. So as far as putting "Actage" on stage, I want it to be a work that makes the audience want to act.
Matsuki: It's great to have a stage play that makes you want to act. I would be very happy if people who read "Act-age" felt that they wanted to act, and if they were able to express it on stage, I would definitely like to see it. That may indeed be the root of this work.
--In the Act-Age stage play, the original version of "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" will be depicted. Why did you choose it as your subject?
Matsuki: There were several candidates, such as "Hamlet" and so on. I just thought it was too early to let Yonagi do the story of the love affair. It may be because I had a strong impression of Kenji Miyazawa's "A Night on the Galactic Railroad". When I was in elementary school, I was made to memorize "Ame Ni Mo Makezu", and I can even relate to that now too. Maybe I was caught by Kenji Miyazawa's "Somehow, this person is frustrated by his own inner worries".
Matsui: "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" is a novel that's hard to understand. In "Act-age", the actors dig out parts of the script that were not written in detail in the original film, little by little, as they play out the script, which is really thrilling and interesting. Like the story about Araya going to Yonagi's house to grab the role of Giovanni. There's not much in the novel about Giovanni's mother who is sick and sleeping, but how the actor takes it. It's very new, and it goes into a place where I hadn't really thought about that way before. It even says that it's just a way for Araya to find an answer, but that it's not necessarily the right answer. I feel like I'm revisiting "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" once again.
--What is the most memorable scene in your version of "A Night on the Galactic Railroad"?
Matsui: Yonagi's line, "We're going to see the same scenery as Iwao-san just a little bit ahead," gave me goosebumps. It's also "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" and the situation we're in now, where reality and fiction all overlap nicely. Also, with the arrival of Yonagi, the people of the theatrical groul, Tenkyū are changing in a variety of ways. I think that Act-age is a story about a girl named Yonagi, who connects with the people around her as she drives them a little bit crazy or breaks them down. The version of "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" is a really good representation of that. So I thought, if we're going to do a stage production, I'd definitely want to do this series.
Masaki: I'm so sorry. In fact, I had to meet deadlines every week, so I didn't have that much foresight in my writing (laughs).
Matsui: The Show must go on... I guess you could say that once the show has opened, you have no choice but to run until the end. I want to convey that feeling on stage as well.
Matsuki: I'm honored that you read it like that, but I don't want you to care about the original work that much. This is my idea of a "galactic railway"! I don't want to see something like that, I want to see Mr. Matsui's "Galaxy Express". More to the point, it doesn't have to be "Actage" anymore.
Everyone laughs
Matsuki: The words "a stage that makes you want to act" are the same, and when you said that, you made me realize that maybe I was feeling that way myself... I had the feeling that you were finding out the parts of me that I was not aware of. I'm very interested in what would happen if Mr. Matsui directed that part of the story, so I said, "This is not how the original Kei Yonagi is! We don't want to get caught up in the back of the head.
Matsui: I am relieved to hear you say that. There's definitely a desire to write the stage version only, fantasizing about how interesting it would be to have such a character. But on the other hand, my first priority is to make sure that Yonagi, Araya and the others are there. It's not so much a service to the fans of the original work as it is a service to them as it is to have something happen on the stage and let that something dominate the theater. It is difficult to do this without the actors being able to imagine the world of Act-age and being clearly present in it.
Matsuki: It's not like, "Everyone, please wait for the Yonagi." I don't want you to create an idea in your head and then come back to me to answer it. I was wondering if there was a different way of looking at Act-age, or if Matsui-san had a different way of looking at it, or if maybe I was thinking this way. That kind of very personal stuff is what I'm hoping for.
--It was announced that the starring role of Kei Yonagi will be chosen through an audition. First of all, what kind of character is Kei Yonagi for you, Matsuki?
Matsuki: This character was born from an ideal that I thought it would be great if there was a girl like this. Yonagi herself doesn't want people to see her, but when you pass her on the train or on the street, she's the kind of person who looks back at you. It looks like it's out there somewhere, and if it is, I'm sure I'll see it.
If you start out with the idea of wanting to be seen, I think it's hard to have children like this. I don't think that would be possible in reality, but that's what makes it a manga.
Matsui: I see. Rather than how a person behaves on stage or in front of others, I think it's in the "gaps" you see when they suddenly lose their strength that you can see what kind of person they are. It may be a good part of the person, or it may be a habit, but it may be both. What's interesting about Act-Age is that it also portrays the high hopes and desires of the actors to control even those gaps.
Matsuki: I also believe that a non-acting amateur is the ultimate actor. In other words, I believe that "stealing a character" is one of the ultimate theatrical acts that makes a non-acting person into a show. The ideal of an actor is to be able to control that...that's the starting point of Yonagi.
--Why did you decide to go for the role of Yonagi through an audition, rather than nominate a professional actor?
Matsui: Just like the original story, it starts from nothing, and the sense that the person who is like a proto-stone, Kei Yonagi, is involved with the people around him... I wanted to be involved in that. I think such things will happen in the auditions and in the rehearsals afterwards, but the most exciting part for me is that it would be interesting if this stage play project itself proceeded like a play that superimposed fiction and reality.
Matsuki - It is Mr. Matsui's policy how he directs it, so I leave it to him. I think it's very effective and I appreciate the fact that Horipro Group is holding auditions as a way to screen as many girls about the age of Yonagi as possible. I think it will increase the number of auditions and increase the chances of meeting good actors.
--You're also welcome to have no acting experience.
Matsuki: I think it's fine either way. I don't know if having acting experience is an advantage or a disadvantage. That doesn't mean that inexperienced people are better, though.
Matsui: That's right. I used the word "proto-stone" earlier, but that doesn't mean that you have no experience in theater. I don't want to "steal a person" as Mr. Matsuki said, but I want to steal a person's attraction that he or she is not aware of, regardless of whether they are experienced or not.
Matsuki: I don't think it's necessary for people to aim for Yonagi just because it's an audition for her role.
Matsui: Yes. I don't have a specific personality profile that I envision this kind of person wanting. It's a question of how we can attract that unique "feeling that only this person can do" - how we can follow their eyes, how we want to hear their voice, how we want them to move like this, how they react when they're with someone else.
When you get a concrete picture of a person like that, then you start to come up with ideas like, "I want this person to play Yonagi in this way. Yonagi herself is the type of person who destroys her own vessel and goes beyond the person she has been. I would like to emphasize that kind of growth.
Matsuki: I don't think I want them to act the way they did in the original. For the auditioners, as well as for you, I was wondering what you were going to express by chance using the manga material. That's what I want to see.
Matsui - I don't think there are many people who would come to this audition who would say, "Let's play Yonagi as the original character."
Matsuki: I see.
Matsui: Because Act-age itself has a clear message that it's not about that. The story of how to capture the role well as you are is carefully portrayed in the original story, so I think there are a lot of people who apply, not because they want to play whoever they want to play, but because they want to draw out (if there are) parts of themselves that are similar to the role...
I feel that "Actage" itself creates a standard by which auditioners are selected to some extent.
--What do you think of the audition method when the corona peril has not yet subsided?
Matsuki: Because our target audience is minors between the ages of 12 and 17. I think that everyone, including them and their parents, must be very anxious.
Mr. Yatabe, Director of Horipro International: Yes. For this audition, the second round will be a video screening, and those who pass the first round (document screening) will be asked to shoot and send a video in accordance with the theme, which will then be judged.
Matsui: We're looking into it after the audition. I don't know how long this situation will last, but if I have limited time available for workshops and rehearsals, I could film them, have them practice, or answer questions online. It's my first case, so I have no choice but to go ahead with this process. I'm thinking about what I can do to help.
In addition to workshops and full-length rehearsals, there is a need for "time to get used to acting". In order to seamlessly connect life and acting, and to give it form as an expression, you have to have conversations with a few people and follow the details of how to behave at that time, and that's a big part of it. I'm not sure how far we can go with that remotely, and it's going to take some time to figure out how to do it.
Matsuki: To be honest, I'm also anxious about announcing this stage adaptation and audition at this time. When I Mr. Matsui said that if we don't do it now, the culture of theater itself will decline or disappear, I felt that we can't remain conservative.
Matsui: That's right. As I mentioned at the beginning, I don't want to give up on people coming together. Isn't it the simple desire to get together that sets people apart from "getting together to do something"?
It's not that I'm looking for efficiency, it's a kind of waste. We get together and start doing something - singing a song, dancing a dance, praying to the gods - and I think that's something that humans do that other animals don't do. Isn't it a dangerous thing for human beings that such a place will suddenly disappear?
Matsuki: I had been making a film with a friend for the past year or two, but we had to postpone it under these circumstances. After listening to what you just said, I felt that I had to make a move at some point.
Matsui: I feel a sense of crisis in the current situation where everyone's behavior is limited to one thing. It's easy for the world to drift in such a direction that if you're not with everyone else, you're going to be prosecuted.
In reality, there are all kinds of people and they do all kinds of things - some fall in love, some sing, some like to be alone. Even in a play, some people fight and some people get drunk. I hope that by watching the play, people will feel that they can behave in different ways and that it doesn't have to be one thing. I think if you think that way, you can be a little kinder to people and forgive others when they do something different from you. I would like to tell people that it's okay to behave in various ways.
--Lastly, please give a message to those who are auditioning for the role of Kei Yonagi.
Matsui: I think there are times in your daily life when you feel like this is not the place for you. In the theater, it's common to find the place where they belong in unexpected places. Joining the drama club made me realize that it's okay to lie, and that playing in a world that is different from reality can be an "expression" that someone else will find interesting.
I hope that those who apply will find such a place through this audition, and that they will be able to show their own charm in a place that is different from the usual. If you're not only confident, but also if you're not sure if you have a talent but like to lie, or if you think the world of fiction is interesting, give it a try.
Matsuki: I would be happy if this audition became an entry point into my acting life. I hope that this work will inspire you to go into the wider world, rather than being used as a synonym for "that person".
I would be honored if the Act-Age stage play is a fitting start to a person's long and active career as an actor.
--Thank you very much.
Official Stage Play Website & Twitter
It will premiere in Japan in 2022.
So without further ado, here is the interview between the author of act-age and the director/screenplay writer Shu Matsui about the wonderful manga becoming a real life play.
■About the current situation
――With the coronavirus still going on, what is the situation with the two of you now?
Matsui: Right now I'm writing a screenplay, and it's not that hard, but I'm having the anxiety that I don't know how long this situation will last, and I'm worried that I might lose my job. There is a feeling that I can only be decent by writing a script, and I am totally absorbed in it.
Matsuki: I'm basically working alone, so I can't use the coffee shop I usually use. However, when I write in the weekly series, I feel strange that the characters are not masking or that the opening ceremony is approaching. While the reality is shifting from the original shape, I feel that the things I am writing are becoming fantasy, or that I have reached the level at which such a feeling of strangeness occurs.
Matsui: The theater industry is now facing the problem of "what should we do in the future?" If you can't get to the theater, maybe you can do something online, like I'm talking online today. Or even if the theater can be restarted in the future, we should change the shape of the seats and the way of entering. I like the space of live performances, and I've going there for a long time. Then, I would like to find a way to get together in the entertainment industry and the arts field.
Matsuki: In my case, it's a medium called manga, so I'm doing it in a place far from "collecting". When I was writing a contemporary play, I felt that after 3:11, sudden accidents and unreasonableness were more likely to be accepted. Even if the main character character suddenly dies in an accident, the reader will accept it. In the same way, the content of writing may change due to the corona turmoil this time. What I originally wanted to write in Act-age, I kind of wonder if I really should write this now? It's a situation where I'm beginning to doubt that I'm going to be able to do anything.
■About the stage play "Act-Age"
--Under such circumstances, the stage play will be launched. What did you think when you first heard about the stage adaptation?
Matsuki: Basically, I'm afraid of media mix (laughs). Because I'm not good at re-reading even my own manga. Of course, I was hesitant about entrusting a person who didn't even know how to deal with his own work to someone else, and I thought it would be easier if I didn't touch it from the beginning. But after I read the plot, my thoughts changed a lot.
--How has it changed?
Matsuki: He was trying to do what I couldn't do on this stage, and I felt like I wanted to see it. When I look at your other works, I don't mean it in a bad way, but the direction is straightforward...you don't try to embellish it in a weird way. It's a very risky way of doing things to suit the actors. I thought it was a very good sense of balance and the staging policy of trying to show the minimum.
Matsui: Thank you very much. When I read Act-age, the first thing I felt was that it was written by a person who knows a lot about theater. From the outside, it doesn't portray how a play is magically created, but rather what kind of input the actors have, what they think, and how they put it into expression. Later, when I actually met with Matsuki, I felt that he was very careful and fearful in his portrayal of acting and people, and I felt a familiarity with him.
-What exactly do you mean by describing fearfulness?
Matsui - It may be a little different from a manga, but when I'm making a stage production, for example, I have an actor play the role of a murderer. Of course, neither I nor the actors have ever killed anyone before, so what kind of approach is there then? We will work together with you to think it through. When I was rehearsing the role of a murderer, my mind would start to deteriorate a lot, and I would start to have dangerous ideas, so I would create the role with care. In the same way, in Act-age, it was very moving to see one character face another with great care and gradually grow up together. When I met you, I felt that you were practicing this kind of "writing with fear of people and being afraid of people."
Matsuki: I understand the current way of saying, "I'm properly afraid of people. When you say "properly" in response to fear, it's really the case. Sometimes I feel like I'm so afraid that I've become violent... I've given it a lot of thought! In the end, I'd punch him (laughs).
Matsui: The reaction to thinking too much about it is to say, "That's enough" (laughs). I can relate to that feeling.
Matsuki: To begin with, I'm now serializing "Actage", but I really wanted to avoid writing the original manga on the subject of plays and actors.
Matsui: Is that so?
Matsuki: My debut work was a read piece on the subject of a film director, but that was also because I chose the "occupation category" when I applied for the "Stokin Pro" (a newcomer's award that specializes in storytelling) of Shonen Jump, and because I had been in the film industry until then, I was familiar with it. The actors and the director were very close, but I felt embarrassed and scared because of their closeness. So in the beginning, I was writing in a different genre, more normal and more Shonen Jump-like...
Murakoshi, the editor in charge of "Act-age: It wasn't very interesting (laughs).
Matsuki: I've read it recently, and it's been pretty funny too!
Everyone laughs
-As a director, what do you think is the appeal of "Act-age" as a stage production?
Matsui: I think it's a manga that makes you want to act when you're reading it. I believe that acting is not so far removed from our daily lives, that everyone has moments in their lives when they think, "I just lied," or "I just acted." It makes me think about things like, "I usually don't act this way," or "I've acted this way, but what about this?" as I read it. So as far as putting "Actage" on stage, I want it to be a work that makes the audience want to act.
Matsuki: It's great to have a stage play that makes you want to act. I would be very happy if people who read "Act-age" felt that they wanted to act, and if they were able to express it on stage, I would definitely like to see it. That may indeed be the root of this work.
--In the Act-Age stage play, the original version of "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" will be depicted. Why did you choose it as your subject?
Matsuki: There were several candidates, such as "Hamlet" and so on. I just thought it was too early to let Yonagi do the story of the love affair. It may be because I had a strong impression of Kenji Miyazawa's "A Night on the Galactic Railroad". When I was in elementary school, I was made to memorize "Ame Ni Mo Makezu", and I can even relate to that now too. Maybe I was caught by Kenji Miyazawa's "Somehow, this person is frustrated by his own inner worries".
Matsui: "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" is a novel that's hard to understand. In "Act-age", the actors dig out parts of the script that were not written in detail in the original film, little by little, as they play out the script, which is really thrilling and interesting. Like the story about Araya going to Yonagi's house to grab the role of Giovanni. There's not much in the novel about Giovanni's mother who is sick and sleeping, but how the actor takes it. It's very new, and it goes into a place where I hadn't really thought about that way before. It even says that it's just a way for Araya to find an answer, but that it's not necessarily the right answer. I feel like I'm revisiting "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" once again.
--What is the most memorable scene in your version of "A Night on the Galactic Railroad"?
Matsui: Yonagi's line, "We're going to see the same scenery as Iwao-san just a little bit ahead," gave me goosebumps. It's also "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" and the situation we're in now, where reality and fiction all overlap nicely. Also, with the arrival of Yonagi, the people of the theatrical groul, Tenkyū are changing in a variety of ways. I think that Act-age is a story about a girl named Yonagi, who connects with the people around her as she drives them a little bit crazy or breaks them down. The version of "A Night on the Galactic Railroad" is a really good representation of that. So I thought, if we're going to do a stage production, I'd definitely want to do this series.
Masaki: I'm so sorry. In fact, I had to meet deadlines every week, so I didn't have that much foresight in my writing (laughs).
Matsui: The Show must go on... I guess you could say that once the show has opened, you have no choice but to run until the end. I want to convey that feeling on stage as well.
Matsuki: I'm honored that you read it like that, but I don't want you to care about the original work that much. This is my idea of a "galactic railway"! I don't want to see something like that, I want to see Mr. Matsui's "Galaxy Express". More to the point, it doesn't have to be "Actage" anymore.
Everyone laughs
Matsuki: The words "a stage that makes you want to act" are the same, and when you said that, you made me realize that maybe I was feeling that way myself... I had the feeling that you were finding out the parts of me that I was not aware of. I'm very interested in what would happen if Mr. Matsui directed that part of the story, so I said, "This is not how the original Kei Yonagi is! We don't want to get caught up in the back of the head.
Matsui: I am relieved to hear you say that. There's definitely a desire to write the stage version only, fantasizing about how interesting it would be to have such a character. But on the other hand, my first priority is to make sure that Yonagi, Araya and the others are there. It's not so much a service to the fans of the original work as it is a service to them as it is to have something happen on the stage and let that something dominate the theater. It is difficult to do this without the actors being able to imagine the world of Act-age and being clearly present in it.
The characters in Act-age are all involved in the play in different ways, and through hard work, they all manage to acquire their skills. I think it's connected to the way we live, and the way each person lives is expressed on stage. They're very attractive people and it's an interesting world, so I want to bring that to the stage as much as possible.
Matsuki: It's not like, "Everyone, please wait for the Yonagi." I don't want you to create an idea in your head and then come back to me to answer it. I was wondering if there was a different way of looking at Act-age, or if Matsui-san had a different way of looking at it, or if maybe I was thinking this way. That kind of very personal stuff is what I'm hoping for.
■About the audition for the role of Kei Yonagi
--It was announced that the starring role of Kei Yonagi will be chosen through an audition. First of all, what kind of character is Kei Yonagi for you, Matsuki?
Matsuki: This character was born from an ideal that I thought it would be great if there was a girl like this. Yonagi herself doesn't want people to see her, but when you pass her on the train or on the street, she's the kind of person who looks back at you. It looks like it's out there somewhere, and if it is, I'm sure I'll see it.
If you start out with the idea of wanting to be seen, I think it's hard to have children like this. I don't think that would be possible in reality, but that's what makes it a manga.
Matsui: I see. Rather than how a person behaves on stage or in front of others, I think it's in the "gaps" you see when they suddenly lose their strength that you can see what kind of person they are. It may be a good part of the person, or it may be a habit, but it may be both. What's interesting about Act-Age is that it also portrays the high hopes and desires of the actors to control even those gaps.
Matsuki: I also believe that a non-acting amateur is the ultimate actor. In other words, I believe that "stealing a character" is one of the ultimate theatrical acts that makes a non-acting person into a show. The ideal of an actor is to be able to control that...that's the starting point of Yonagi.
--Why did you decide to go for the role of Yonagi through an audition, rather than nominate a professional actor?
Matsui: Just like the original story, it starts from nothing, and the sense that the person who is like a proto-stone, Kei Yonagi, is involved with the people around him... I wanted to be involved in that. I think such things will happen in the auditions and in the rehearsals afterwards, but the most exciting part for me is that it would be interesting if this stage play project itself proceeded like a play that superimposed fiction and reality.
Matsuki - It is Mr. Matsui's policy how he directs it, so I leave it to him. I think it's very effective and I appreciate the fact that Horipro Group is holding auditions as a way to screen as many girls about the age of Yonagi as possible. I think it will increase the number of auditions and increase the chances of meeting good actors.
--You're also welcome to have no acting experience.
Matsuki: I think it's fine either way. I don't know if having acting experience is an advantage or a disadvantage. That doesn't mean that inexperienced people are better, though.
Matsui: That's right. I used the word "proto-stone" earlier, but that doesn't mean that you have no experience in theater. I don't want to "steal a person" as Mr. Matsuki said, but I want to steal a person's attraction that he or she is not aware of, regardless of whether they are experienced or not.
Matsuki: I don't think it's necessary for people to aim for Yonagi just because it's an audition for her role.
Matsui: Yes. I don't have a specific personality profile that I envision this kind of person wanting. It's a question of how we can attract that unique "feeling that only this person can do" - how we can follow their eyes, how we want to hear their voice, how we want them to move like this, how they react when they're with someone else.
When you get a concrete picture of a person like that, then you start to come up with ideas like, "I want this person to play Yonagi in this way. Yonagi herself is the type of person who destroys her own vessel and goes beyond the person she has been. I would like to emphasize that kind of growth.
Matsuki: I don't think I want them to act the way they did in the original. For the auditioners, as well as for you, I was wondering what you were going to express by chance using the manga material. That's what I want to see.
Matsui - I don't think there are many people who would come to this audition who would say, "Let's play Yonagi as the original character."
Matsuki: I see.
Matsui: Because Act-age itself has a clear message that it's not about that. The story of how to capture the role well as you are is carefully portrayed in the original story, so I think there are a lot of people who apply, not because they want to play whoever they want to play, but because they want to draw out (if there are) parts of themselves that are similar to the role...
I feel that "Actage" itself creates a standard by which auditioners are selected to some extent.
--What do you think of the audition method when the corona peril has not yet subsided?
Matsuki: Because our target audience is minors between the ages of 12 and 17. I think that everyone, including them and their parents, must be very anxious.
Mr. Yatabe, Director of Horipro International: Yes. For this audition, the second round will be a video screening, and those who pass the first round (document screening) will be asked to shoot and send a video in accordance with the theme, which will then be judged.
Matsui: We're looking into it after the audition. I don't know how long this situation will last, but if I have limited time available for workshops and rehearsals, I could film them, have them practice, or answer questions online. It's my first case, so I have no choice but to go ahead with this process. I'm thinking about what I can do to help.
In addition to workshops and full-length rehearsals, there is a need for "time to get used to acting". In order to seamlessly connect life and acting, and to give it form as an expression, you have to have conversations with a few people and follow the details of how to behave at that time, and that's a big part of it. I'm not sure how far we can go with that remotely, and it's going to take some time to figure out how to do it.
Matsuki: To be honest, I'm also anxious about announcing this stage adaptation and audition at this time. When I Mr. Matsui said that if we don't do it now, the culture of theater itself will decline or disappear, I felt that we can't remain conservative.
Matsui: That's right. As I mentioned at the beginning, I don't want to give up on people coming together. Isn't it the simple desire to get together that sets people apart from "getting together to do something"?
It's not that I'm looking for efficiency, it's a kind of waste. We get together and start doing something - singing a song, dancing a dance, praying to the gods - and I think that's something that humans do that other animals don't do. Isn't it a dangerous thing for human beings that such a place will suddenly disappear?
Matsuki: I had been making a film with a friend for the past year or two, but we had to postpone it under these circumstances. After listening to what you just said, I felt that I had to make a move at some point.
Matsui: I feel a sense of crisis in the current situation where everyone's behavior is limited to one thing. It's easy for the world to drift in such a direction that if you're not with everyone else, you're going to be prosecuted.
In reality, there are all kinds of people and they do all kinds of things - some fall in love, some sing, some like to be alone. Even in a play, some people fight and some people get drunk. I hope that by watching the play, people will feel that they can behave in different ways and that it doesn't have to be one thing. I think if you think that way, you can be a little kinder to people and forgive others when they do something different from you. I would like to tell people that it's okay to behave in various ways.
Matsui: I think there are times in your daily life when you feel like this is not the place for you. In the theater, it's common to find the place where they belong in unexpected places. Joining the drama club made me realize that it's okay to lie, and that playing in a world that is different from reality can be an "expression" that someone else will find interesting.
I hope that those who apply will find such a place through this audition, and that they will be able to show their own charm in a place that is different from the usual. If you're not only confident, but also if you're not sure if you have a talent but like to lie, or if you think the world of fiction is interesting, give it a try.
Matsuki: I would be happy if this audition became an entry point into my acting life. I hope that this work will inspire you to go into the wider world, rather than being used as a synonym for "that person".
I would be honored if the Act-Age stage play is a fitting start to a person's long and active career as an actor.
--Thank you very much.
Source: Shonen Jump issue No. 26
Nice dude.
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