Rehearsal talk from the program of the January 2018 Tokyo International Forum production of West Side Story. Featuring: Makaze Suzuho (Tony), Hoshikaze Madoka (Maria), Serika Toa (Bernardo), Sakuragi Minato (Riff), Kazuki Sora (Anita), Joshua Bergasse (Guest Director/Choreographer), Inaba Daichi (Director)
JOSHUA: Until I came to Japan I couldn’t even begin to imagine how the Takarazuka version of West Side Story would turn out, but since we’ve gotten into rehearsals, everyone in the cast is absorbing the information I give them instantly, I’m completely blown away by their capabilities. Figuring out how to convey the specifics of the West Side Story that I’m feeling to the cast, and the process of finding common ground, are really interesting to me. Daichi (Inaba) also told me something like, “There are a lot of differences between English and Japanese, and rather than translate the words as they are, we want to convey the core of their meaning,” and that has left a big impression on me. Because the characters and the theme of this show are so well known in America, there isn’t really an opportunity to talk over the roles with the actors playing them. This time, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to each and every cast member and delve deep into what their characters symbolize and what they want, and even I’ve learned tremendously from it.
MAKAZE: I had a picture in my mind of what the character of Tony is supposed to be like, but just as Joshua said, he’s been explaining the intention behind why each and every word was used, and I’m discovering things that make me say “ah, I knew it!,” but also conversely “oh so that’s what that means!” So every day of rehearsal has been extremely motivating and fun. Even though I don’t go into it with the intention of thinking like a Japanese person, there are times when I notice it’s happening anyway, like places where it’s hard for me to connect with a joke, for example, but I always understand it with Joshua’s nuance (haha). The joke always lands with his model so I’m learning a lot. If I can study a bit each day and grow to embody Tony I’ll be very happy.
INABA: I feel that especially in the characters’ reactions. The way they laugh and the nuances when they tease each other etc. are totally different from us. Yesterday in the scene where Big Deal and Snowboy are picking on Bernardo, if I think about it from a Japanese perspective there wouldn’t be that kind of “whoosh” exhale before the laughter (haha). I felt that it’s those sorts of things that really set the mood for this show.
SERIKA: The way they tease each other, the movements, all of it.
MAKAZE: It has a slick and stylish feel!
SERIKA: Yeah, it’s slick.
MAKAZE: It’s totally different.
SERIKA: Just as everyone has said, the laughter is just one example of the many things we do differently. If we can’t represent it all properly it won’t be West Side Story. But we can’t convey everything in form alone, we have to make sure we get the meaning of the dialogue across to the audience completely, so the process of creating the character inside myself properly before I’ve fully arrived at that representation is very difficult for me.
HOSHIKAZE: Every little thing Joshua has taught me too has been fresh. I don’t think I can really embody the character of Maria just by mimicking what he tells me, so I need to completely think and act as Maria. I’m practicing so that I can play Maria while constantly grasping her way of thinking.
SAKURAGI: I also thought I really understood the world of West Side Story, but when I looked at the way Joshua embodies the characters and teaches them to us, I was able to understand ah, this is the sort of blood that runs through these people, and that’s why they are able to do what they do. It ties in with the choreography as well, and you can see even more depth in the confrontations. Since we have a very fuzzy idea of things like turf wars between ethnic groups, I’ve realized that first we have to take it all in ourselves, and then bring it into our dancing and singing and acting.
KAZUKI: When I watched this show, I sympathized with Anita as a woman, but as I began playing her myself I thought that what I felt watching it at that time was not a feeling I should show as is. What I have to embody is totally different. Act 2 has been added to rehearsal and we’ve gone through it, but I’m fully grasping the racial differences and Anita’s background as an immigrant who came to America, and I feel like that’s where I really have to live and breathe Anita to give an accurate performance.
INABA: This was Joshua’s idea, but right now the Jets and Sharks are sitting separately in the rehearsal room too.
JOSHUA: Yes, I think that’s especially necessary this time. Everyone has been standing on the same stage for however many years and the power of their unity is strong, so they have a special bond with no hint of the type of differentiation the Jets and Sharks have. Because of that I separated them, so the Jets and the Sharks would each be more strongly conscious of their camaraderie, and so they’d be able to feel each other’s power more during the fight scenes as well. I think it will help heighten the feeling of tension when they butt heads on stage.
—BUILDING THE CHARACTERS—
SERIKA: I have a question! Bernard really wants to fight with Tony. That isn’t only because Tony danced with Maria, but since he was once the leader of the Jets, Bernardo has a grudge against him, right?
JOSHUA: Yes, Bernardo wants to fight Tony because he danced with Maria. But at the same time, of course he hates him because he used to be the Jets’ leader, and when Bernardo first came to America the Jets treated him as an enemy and attacked him. Every one of the Jets says well since we were born in New York we’re Americans and since the Sharks were born in Puerto Rico that makes them immigrants, but actually the Jets members’ parents are also immigrants from Europe. And on the other hand, Puerto Rico was part of America then too. So everyone born in Puerto Rico was technically an American citizen. When Bernardo calls Tony a “lousy Polack,” he’s aware that he and the Sharks are Americans born in America just like the Jets. But the reason he wants to fight first and foremost is that Tony danced with Maria.
SERIKA: I think the reason Bernardo has such an imposing presence from the moment he appears on stage is he has a strong desire to protect Maria, Anita, and the Sharks. He doesn’t say a lot or take a lot of action, so I think his presence comes from thinking “I will protect them.” Listening to Joshua talk just now I realize that Bernardo understands he was born an American, but in his lines he tells Anita that he doesn’t especially want to become an American, that his heart lies in Puerto Rico… I think that’s difficult.
JOSHUA: Bernardo loves Puerto Rico but came to New York in hopes of living a better life. But in reality when he came to New York he was not welcomed by the people there. That’s why his sense of needing to protect Maria and Anita and his friends is so strong. Since the Jets consider every Puerto Rican their enemy, he’s frantic.
SERIKA: He wants to stand tall and live as an American, but there is also prejudice at work, and at his core he feels pride as a Puerto Rican, and in the end the result of that conflict is to fight, like WAAAAH (she makes a punching motion).
EVERYONE: (laughs)
JOSHUA: Yes, that’s precisely his conflict.
SERIKA: I’m not the type of person who has any of those sorts of feelings toward fighting, so that has been really hard for me. I need to delve deeper into it.
INABA: The fact that the Puerto Ricans face discrimination from white people just because of the color of their skin is also a factor, and they feel hurt because they are not welcome. They’re aware that they crossed the sea and came to America, but in the end, aren’t the others just immigrants too? Yet despite that they get treated this way based on their skin color, and I think that is what makes them throw down a fight.
JOSHUA: Exactly. They don’t really want to fight. They’re fighting for their own survival.
INABA: However, they hold their own prejudices against white people too.
SERIKA: Yes, they do.
MAKAZE: Yes, that’s tricky isn’t it, to say they don’t really want to fight and would prefer to live in peace, I have a feeling that’s not necessarily true.
SERIKA: I agree.
JOSHUA: Their prejudice was born from perceiving the way they’re being treated.
SERIKA: (nods)
INABA: Yes, about that, what I asked Joshua about today was why the Jets want to fight. I think the people who make up the Jets are those who have been forced out of their homes or their own environments, right?
JOSHUA: Yes. The Jets are a collection of people who have been chased out of other gangs, who are on the run from the police, who haven’t been blessed with families or didn’t have anyone to raise them, and they’ve formed a group to ensure their survival. In some cases they’ve joined because they want protection. Among them only Tony has begun to think that there must be some different world beyond this, so he has removed himself.
INABA: Well Tony established the Jets with Riff, so I think at the time there must have been something missing from his life for him to want to form a gang…
JOSHUA: Yes. Because there were some other gangs to confront, it was necessary to have comrades around for protection, so he formed the Jets. That happened before the Sharks even showed up. In the month since Tony has removed himself from the Jets, every morning he’s had a feeling like something is about to come into his life. Might it be a place he feels like he belongs, like he felt when he was a member of the Jets? Working at the drug store now, the second he meets Maria Tony understands that’s what it was.
MAKAZE: (nods deeply)
JOSHUA: Had it been a month earlier he’d have been singing and dancing with everyone in the “Jets’ Song” in the prologue.
MAKAZE: I might be in that number where everyone is moving around on their knees too.
JOSHUA: Right, he might have danced in “Cool” too.
EVERYONE: (laughs)
MAKAZE: Tony must have formed the Jets because Riff and his other dear friends had been hurt. I think that no matter what time period, there are people who differ from others in their ability to see the bigger picture and understand things, whose thoughts deviate from everyone else’s. Those people’s ideas persist and are carried through to subsequent generations, and I think it’s because of that that we’ve come to have the freedom we do now. This has really made me think about so many different things… (haha). Tony was in a gang just like everyone else, but of course maybe because he’s grown up a bit, he’s the type of person who can feel things like that. And then, Maria and Anita are amazing, aren’t they. In the end…
INABA: They’re survivors, aren’t they.
MAKAZE: I mean, all their men are dead right?
SAKURAGI: Everyone dies. There’s no one left.
MAKAZE: Man, no matter the era men are always falling apart.
EVERYONE: (laughs)
KAZUKI: (Haha) You’re right, of course. I’ve been thinking about the best way I can express Anita’s feelings… Since I’m normally an otokoyaku I’ve been wondering how I should play an onnayaku*, but that’s not all there is to it. I’ve gotten a lot of advice from the staff and the upperclassmen, and I think Anita is a separate category altogether…
MAKAZE: Yeah, I totally totally understand.
SERIKA: Like “otokoyaku,” “onnayaku,” “Anita”?
MAKAZE: (Haha) so the three things are otokoyaku, onnayaku, and Anita now?
KAZUKI: Yes. It doesn’t feel right to call her an onnayaku…
INABA: “Onnayaku” puts her in kind of a strong category…
MAKAZE: You could say the same thing about Maria.
INABA: Yes, definitely.
MAKAZE: The characters in this show do not have the sorts of relationships you typically see in Takarazuka, person to person. Since there is friendship and romance there those messages come out really strongly, don’t they. The first time I watched this show was a video of a foreign production, but Maria and Anita really took hold of my heart. I think since so many women will be coming to see this, there are a lot of places where they’ll feel sympathy.
KAZUKI: At the end of the second act too, the conversation and the feelings within it are both really complex…
MAKAZE: The women are pretty much the stars of Act 2.
SERIKA: The women’s story.
KAZUKI: That’s right. The way their feelings change after watching all these people die, the scene where Anita and Maria sing together, Tony appears, and then Anita goes to the drug store, etc… anyway since the emotions involved are so bewildering, I hope the differences in thinking come through clearly.
HOSHIKAZE: In rehearsal there have been so many parts that have moved me to tears… but if I let those feelings dictate how I play Maria her strength as a woman won’t show. But, it’s not only sad that the women get left behind in the end, it also ties into the future… I want to be able to show that as the theme of this show clearly. I think I especially carry that burden in Act 2, so I want to make sure I act it well.
JOSHUA: Now that we’ve proceeded through both acts in rehearsal, I feel like I’ve already passed on all the information I need to pass on to you guys, so from now on I want you to share information with each other through exchanging each and every line, and with that we’ve come to the stage where your reactions are extremely important. Particularly where your 5 characters are concerned, you’ll have to listen well to each other’s words, and then react. That part is really difficult, but I think up to this point you’ve really studied the original work and have come to understand it.
INABA: Every performance eventually reaches that stage. But I think the circumstances are especially difficult for this show. Both the Jets and the Sharks have so many characters, so how are you going to communicate information to that person? You have to play your own character more precisely, like if we look at Riff, we’re at the point where he needs to catch everything about his fellow Jets and deepen the unity of the group.
SAKURAGI: (thinking hard) …I see…yes…I’ll try
EVERYONE: (laughs)
SAKURAGI: I’ll do my best! Um, is it ok if I ask something as Riff, or rather as a Jet? Tony removed himself from the Jets one month prior and hasn’t shown his face since, but no one can understand why he’s done that. Since the Jets’ meeting place is the drug store where Tony works, wouldn’t everyone see him when he’s working…?
JOSHUA: Riff and Tony live together. But Tony goes to work, while Riff wakes up late and meets the gang members. The other guys feel like why would Tony want to do such a stupid job. But Tony doesn’t let that bother him. He sees Riff and the other guys regularly, but he plays no part as a member of the gang. The Jets are really disappointed that Tony has separated himself from them. Because he was the strongest in a fight.
MAKAZE: (laughs)
JOSHUA: They also hope he’ll return because he had a lot of charisma as a leader.
SAKURAGI: I see.
INABA: So Tony and Riff see each other when they return home.
MAKAZE: They spend every day together don’t they (haha).
JOSHUA: Yes, every day.
SAKURAGI: That’s kind of unusual isn’t it.
MAKAZE: It’s really as if they’re brothers.
JOSHUA: Exactly. Even though they aren’t doing the same thing anymore, they spend their time like brothers.
HOSHIKAZE: OOH! (Raising her hand)
EVERYONE: (laughs)
HOSHIKAZE: I also have something I’d like to ask… Maria attends her first dance party at the gym, and gets really excited amidst everyone dancing and having a good time, but since she spends all her time with Bernardo and his gang watching over her, she also feels a little bit afraid to face the Jets. But she also wants to have fun… and I’m feeling a little bit lost about now much of that to express…
JOSHUA: Maria doesn’t have any racial prejudices in the first place, so although Bernardo has said to her that the Jets are different from us and you should be careful, that doesn’t really make much sense to her.
EVERYONE: (Surprised understanding)
JOSHUA: So when Maria arrives at the dance hall, she’s really just feeling pure excitement. It’s extremely exciting and she’s very happy. She watches Anita and Bernardo dance and thinks wow, how wonderful! She’s overwhelmed by the spectacle before her eyes. Now, these are the kinds of things I thought we should put a bit of into that scene. When Maria tries to join the dance, Bernardo stops her and says “no, stay right there.” Maria tries to dance by herself a bit on the edges… and when she tries to join, Chino is kind of waiting to go along with her…
MAKAZE: I see.
JOSHUA: The only thing Maria sees is a room full of people enjoying dancing the same way. It hasn’t even been a month since she’s come to New York, and she’s done nothing but commute between her house and the bridal shop.
MAKAZE: That makes sense. So that’s why you thought she’d be scared.
HOSHIKAZE: Yes.
MAKAZE: So she feels something approaching trepidation…
HOSHIKAZE: I don’t know if I’d call it fear… but that was my interpretation, since she’s always home with her brother telling her not to go out…
SERIKA: Like a puppy who’s just gone outside for the first time?
MAKAZE: Yeah, like that. Maybe instead of trepidation it’s more like curiosity.
HOSHIKAZE: Curiosity, ok.
INABA: They’re charmed by each other, she and Tony.
HOSHIKAZE: Yes, I got that. So then Maria comes to America to marry Chino, and there’s a line where she says she doesn’t dislike Chino, but… when they’re together… how should I say it…
INABA: Their communication, right?
HOSHIKAZE: Right. She doesn’t really know how to communicate with him.
JOSHUA: Maria thinks Chino is a good person, but he just doesn’t excite her.
MAKAZE: That’s… that’s rough!!
SERIKA: You’re too nice, Chino!
JOSHUA: But stuff like that happens all the time, doesn’t it?
EVERYONE: (laughs)
INABA: But Chino likes Maria, doesn’t he?
JOSHUA: Chino probably thinks he’s lucky to be able to marry Maria. But perhaps he hasn’t fallen in love with her yet.
INABA: Oooh…
JOSHUA: Bernardo trusts Chino, and he knows he’ll take care of Maria for the rest of his life. But Maria is very young, and she wants to meet people and find new love and experiences in this new world.
HOSHIKAZE: Got it, thank you so much.
JOSHUA: But, it’s not necessary to be unkind to Chino.
MAKAZE, SERIKA: Give him a break!!
EVERYONE: (laughs)
KAZUKI: I have a question about Anita’s pride as a Puerto Rican… Of all the Sharks, she probably has the strongest yearning for America, and she even tells Bernardo what a great place America is, but since I imagine she also feels pride as a Puerto Rican, what is the relative weight of that, or rather where should I show it…?
EVERYONE: Ooh yeah.
MAKAZE: Like her motivation, which part is her strongest thought that holds the most weight.
SERIKA: As a Puerto Rican…
KAZUKI: Yes. Listening to the conversation I can’t help but feel like I should make her Puerto Rican pride a little more obvious.
JOSHUA: I think you’re spot on in that she feels both. Immigrants tend to preserve their identities as immigrants. The Puerto Ricans too, they preserve their own customs and system of values when they come to America. It’s not that Anita wants to throw away the things that make her Puerto Rican, it’s that she wants to live in New York as a Puerto Rican. But she’s self-aware of her pride as a Puerto Rican too. She understands that it’s not important to choose one over the other. She’s in America, she’s thrilled to be better off in this environment. Is that enough of a reference point?
KAZUKI: Yes, thank you very much.
INABA: Considering the time period, I think she’s yearning for a life of material possessions. A car, a washing machine, a television… she never had those things in Puerto Rico. That’s what she sings about in “America,” but in translation, no matter what you do there just aren’t enough words so we couldn’t put everything in there. They mention bringing a washing machine and a television back to Puerto Rico, but over there they don’t have the electricity to power any of it. At that time America had become a totally material society manufacturing all kinds of things, and during a period of such expansion in the country I think Anita felt like it was a dream.
JOSHUA: That’s right. At that time, jobs and development were scarce in Puerto Rico.
INABA: Even if you were able to work in Puerto Rico you’d be poor. That’s why Bernardo and the others came to New York. In the 1950s, there was a tremendous sense of yearning for the advancement that came in the wake of the end of World War II.
—ENTHUSIASM FOR THE PERFORMANCE—
KAZUKI: I’m so happy to have the opportunity to perform in such a famous foreign musical. Since the subject matter also applies to current issues, I really want to do everything I can to live and breath as Anita within the story in order to be able to convey something to everyone in the audience.
SAKURAGI: It’s a show that’s been re-staged numerous times, and there’s meaning behind every little bit of direction, and all of that accumulates and solidifies in the final scene; I was really hit with that realization once we made it through a full rehearsal. With our excitement for putting on this show anew, I want to devote every single thing I’ve got to making sure everything comes together in that last scene!
SERIKA: The more I perform this role, the more doubts and questions rise to the surface… I think it’s a really difficult production. It’s a story with a strong message, but I don’t just want the people who come see it to feel something; I hope they feel something and then take that feeling back home with them. Bernardo’s thoughts and feelings are packed into every bit of choreography and movement I was given, so as for how clearly I’ll be able to portray them, all I can do now is give it my best effort!
HOSHIKAZE: Thinking about these issues that were so real in the 1950s, and that once more have meaning in today’s world, rather than bring Maria closer to myself, I want to fully embody Maria, and I’m concentrating every day on what I can express through this production, so that I can properly convey its message to the audiences of this era.
MAKAZE: Now, at this stage of rehearsal, of course each role and how it should be is really coming together, but just as Joshua said, I think we need to further deepen the feeling of communication between people, and the sense of incorporating each individual scene into one whole unit and expressing that. The story is quite short at around 2 hours, and I hope we can get through that time with awareness, without thinking too much, keeping things simple. In order to achieve that, now during rehearsal we’re diving deeper into what we have to do, and everyone is going to give it their all on the road to opening day.
INABA: Every day of choreography and song rehearsal was extremely thorough, and I’ve learned a great deal about the acting in this show as well, and now, everyone just has to concentrate and do it. Everyone is thinking about the things that Joshua brought up in order to get down even deeper into this production, and I’m going through rehearsal trying to help as much as I can. I hope we can all come together and continue the great form our powers of concentration have taken in rehearsal and bring that to the stage.
JOSHUA: This is a production that is staged so often, but the people performing in it are always different. Each and every time the players show something new, and have a different understanding. That’s tied to the particular characteristics of playing a role. We don’t want to make something that’s going to sit in a museum; we want to breathe new life into it, and perform it as a work of art living in this moment. The relationships and the sincerity toward your characters that grow when everyone creates something together on stage, and the reliance you all have on each other… those are the most important things. I believe that with this kind of communication, everyone will be able to perform on stage with true sincerity from their hearts, so going forward we will follow this process, and head toward that first rise of the curtain.
EVERYONE: Thank you very much!
—————
*Otokoyaku = male roles, onnayaku = female roles. I chose to use them as is rather than translate them because obviously Anita is a female role, and I think this part of the conversation makes more sense using “onnayaku” in a larger symbolic Takarazuka sense rather than a literal sense.