As a playwright, stage director, Osaka University professor, manager of the Komaba Agora Theater in Tokyo and leader of the city¡¯s Seinendan theater company he formed in 1983, Oriza Hirata ¡ª whose ¡°contemporary colloquial theater¡± set the scene for much of Japan¡¯s new drama over the last 20 years ¡ª has long been in the forefront of Japan¡¯s theater world.
Lately, however, he¡¯s also been spreading his wings internationally ¡ª and into other realms as well.
That¡¯s because Hirata, 52, has been working since 2008 on what he calls his Robot Theatre Project ¡ª assisted in fusing art and technology by Hiroshi Ishiguro, a famed robot developer and fellow professor at Osaka University.
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