EXHIBIT FEATURES COSTUMES &
SETS OF NOTED LOCAL THEATER DESIGNER
One of Hiroshi
Iwaski's backdrops from
Carlo Gozzi's The Green Bird
Hiroshi Iwasaki, senior lecturer
and designer/technical director of theater at Bryn Mawr College,
wants his exhibit of sets and costumes at Cantor Fitzgerald
Gallery to re-create a theatergoer’s sensation of entering
another world.
“I want to evoke the sense
of a theatrical space where reality and illusion co-exist,”
he says.
The exhibit, running from September
26-October 26, includes Iwasaki’s costumes from productions
of Macbeth (Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, 2003),
Chay Yew’s Red (Wilma Theater, 2003), and Auguste
Strindberg’s A Dream Play (staged twice at Bryn
Mawr), backdrops from Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird,
and a toy theater used in Hamlet (Big House, 1995).
“I want all sorts of
incoherent, disparate images to create a sense of a waking dream,”
he says.
Iwaski's toy
theater used in Hamlet (Big House, 1995)
A French literature major at Osaka
University for Foreign Studies in Japan and Université
de Lyons in France, Iwasaki first came to the United States
on a trip and stayed to pursue his M.F.A. in theater at Boston
University. He combined his interest in language and literature
with his talent for visual representation.
“The word-centered intellectual
world is often suspicious or afraid of the parallel existence
of the non-verbal force that surrounds us and compels us often
unconsciously,” he says. “I am most interested in
exploring the interplay between the word and image in dramatic
sense that is the core of the theatrical experience.”
Hiroshi Iwasaki has designed scenery,
costume and lighting for a variety of productions. His most
recent Philadelphia credits include Red and Kiki
and Herb, Pardon Our Appearance at the Wilma Theater;
Julius Caesar and Macbeth at the Philadelphia
Shakespeare Festival; James Joyce is Deadand So
is Paris at Pig Iron Theatre Company; and The Threepenny
Opera at Bryn Mawr. He has also designed for dance and
performance art at Headlong Dance Theater and Festival Cubano.
With director Mark Lord he formed a unique experimental performance
company, Big House (plays & spectacles), for which he has
designed The Ride Across Lake Constance and Across.
He is also actively involved with the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
The Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery
is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays. Hiroshi Iwasaki will give a Gallery Talk Tuesday,
October 7 at 4:15 p.m. For more information, contact the Gallery
at 610-896-1287.
