Performing Arts Japan 2013-2014
List of Awardees
The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce grant awards totaling US$246,000 to 9
organizations in the United States through the PAJ Program for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The
grant recipients are listed below. (Please contact the Japan Foundation, New York for further
information and finalized performance dates).

Touring Grant awards
Total projects: 5
Total funds allocated: $180,000
Grant amounts: $11,000 – $50,000

Bang on a Can (Brooklyn, NY) for a five city tour of Bang on a Japan that Bang on a Can
curated and commissioned from Japanese composers, such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mamoru
Fujieda, Somei Satoh, in a series of programs highlighting contemporary thought in Japanese
art music will be performed.
Tour Date: July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014
Tour Locations: Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA); Atlas Arts Center (Washington, DC);
Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis, MN); World Financial Center (New York, NY); Carlsbad
Music Fest (Carlsbad, CA)

Film Society of Lincoln Center (New York, NY) for a seven-city tour of The Great Edo Art ofLight and Shadow, a series of traditional Japanese Magic Lantern performances and workshops
featuring the Minwa-za Company of Tokyo and their revived art of Utushi-e, a spectacular
Edo-era entertainment with projections, music and storytellers.
Tour Dates: May – June, 2014
Tour Locations: Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.);
Film Society of Lincoln Center (New York, NY); New Bedford Whaling Museum (NewBedford, MA); Yale University (New Haven, CT); Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge, MA);
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL); Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, CA)

Japan Society, Inc. (New York, NY) for a five city tour of The Room, Nobody Knows by Niwa
Gekidan Penino theater company, founded and led by playwright/director and former
psychiatrist Kuro Tanino.
Tour Dates: January 4 –February 11, 2014

Tour Locations: Japan Society (New York, NY); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN);
Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH); Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (Philadelphia,PA); On the Boards (Seattle, WA)

Legion Arts (Cedar Rapids, IA) for a three-city tour of Anton, Neko, Kuri, a multi-disciplinary
performance by Faifai, a Tokyo-based theater group. The performance was originally createdby Faifai’s director Chiharu Shinoda.
Tour Dates: November 25 – December 14, 2013
Tour Locations: Legion Arts (Cedar Rapids, IA); DiverseWorks (Houston, TX);
Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans, LA); NPN Annual Meeting (New Orleans, LA)

ShadowLight Productions (San Francisco, CA) for a two-city tour of AINU SHADOWTHEATRE PROJECT, a new multidisciplinary shadow theatre work created by Larry Reed incollaboration with OKI, Marewrew and UrotsuteNoyako Bayangans.
Tour Dates: October 1, 2013 – January 31, 2014
Tour Locations: Cowell Theater (San Francisco, CA); The Hopkins Center (Hanover, NH)

Collaboration Grant awards
Total projects: 4Total funds allocated: $115,000
Grant amounts: $7,000 – $25,000

Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Jr. University (Stanford, CA) for the world premiereof Linked Verse, by composer Jaroslaw Kapuscinski and the digital media collective
OpenEndedGroup, in collaboration with sho player Ko Ishikawa and cellist Maya Beiser.
Project Period: July 2013 – June 2014

Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center (Atlanta, GA) for Theatre for the Very Young Production:
Little Song About Raindrops, a collaboration between puppeteer Michael Haverty andLullatone, a Japanese musical duo based in Nagoya.
Project Period: July 2013 – May 2014TAIKOPROJECT (Los Angeles, CA) for a collaboration with Ryutaro Kaneko to create aninnovative full-length taiko concert program entitled “LifeRhythm.”
Project Period: October 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014

Theatre Arts Japan (New York, NY) for Our Planet, a collaborative development by New
York-based actor Alec Duffy and Japanese motion graphics designer Nobuyuki Hanabusa.
Project Period: July 1, 2013 – December 9, 2013

PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2012)

Ms. Cathy Edwards (Director of Performance Programs, International Festival of Arts andIdeas)Mr. Vallejo Gantner (Artistic Director, Performance Space 122)
Mr. Aaron Greenwald (Director, Duke Performances, Duke University)
Mr. Ben Johnson (Director, Northrop Concerts and Lectures, University of Minnesota)
Ms. Angela Mattox (Artistic Director, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art)
Mr. Jordan Peimer (Vice President & Director of Programs, Skirball Cultural Center)
Ms. Tina Rasmussen (Director, Harborfront Center, Toronto)
Mr. David Ravel (Director, Alverno Presents)
Mr. Sixto Wagan (Co-Executive Director/Performing Arts Curator, DiverseWorksArtspace)