#Japan #Tokyo #Bassam Ghazi #Tokyo Borderless #Cultural Dialogue

Call for Participants: Tokyo Borderless Theatre Project 2025

The Tokyo Theatre Arts Center is excited to announce the call for participants in the "Tokyo Borderless Theatre Project 2025," which aims to create theater through intercultural dialogue. As part of the Arts Council Tokyo's Creative Wellbeing Tokyo Partner Program of model development for multicultural coexistence, this project invites individuals with overseas roots to engage in theater production and resource research leading up to our Work-in-Progress presentations in November 2025.

The project not only emphasizes artistic creation but also focuses on empowering voices from diverse backgrounds. Participants will learn and collaborate through training programs structured around three stages: "Know, Experience, Create." These programs are designed for directors, facilitators, and coordinators, encouraging equitable collaboration and creativity.

We are proud to welcome Bassam Ghazi, an esteemed figure in intercultural theater, as our artistic director for this project. Bassam hails from Lebanon and has a rich education in theater and teaching from Heidelberg, Berlin, and Cologne. He served as the artistic director of "Import Export Kollektiv" – a civic participation theater group focused on immigrants and second- or third-generation residents – from 2015 to 2021. Recently, he has been leading another participatory civic theater group, "Stadt:Kollektiv," at the Düsseldorf City Theatre. Bassam was awarded the German Theatre Prize “DER FAUST” in 2024 for his direction of “Solingen (1993),” exploring a historical event of immigrant exclusion. He is also a diversity trainer, conducting workshops on empowerment and diversity for educational and cultural institutions.

Project Overview

• - Project Name: Tokyo Borderless Theatre Project 2025
• - Practice Period: August to October 2025
• - Presentation Dates: November 1-2, 2025
• - Venue: Rehearsals in Tokyo (areas like Ikebukuro and Takadanobaba), with presentations at the Tokyo Theatre Arts Center.
• - Website: Tokyo Theatre Arts Center

Project Components

The project comprises two main courses:

1. Memory Door Course
Throughout their daily lives, individuals may recall memories related to their roots or hometowns through various triggers like sounds or scents. We refer to these triggers as "doors." This project, dubbed "Door to Door," invites participants with foreign roots to discover their everyday "doors" and express these memories through theater.

2. Exploring Ikebukuro Course
Participants will explore Ikebukuro by walking through the city while sharing and listening to memories, discovering a new narrative of Ikebukuro. Engaging in walking, conversing, and listening will allow participants to create a memory map together as they develop the theatrical piece.

Target Participants

Both courses welcome participants who meet the following criteria:

• - Age 18 and over
• - Anyone fitting into one of the following categories (nationality does not matter):

1. Individuals with overseas roots (immigrants or those with parents or grandparents from outside Japan).
2. Those raised in various countries or cultural environments.
3. Individuals interested in different cultures (applicable only to the Exploring Ikebukuro course).

• - Ability to communicate in simple Japanese
• - Availability for all practice sessions
• - No prior theater experience is required.

Application Deadline

• - Deadline for applications is August 7, 2025, at 15:00 (if the number of applicants exceeds capacity, selections may be made).
• - Capacity: 9 for Memory Door Course, 6 to 8 for Exploring Ikebukuro Course.
• - Please read the application guidelines on the official website and apply accordingly.

Hosting Organizations

The project is organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo Metropolitan History and Culture Foundation (Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Theatre Arts Center) as part of the Creative Wellbeing Tokyo initiative aimed at developing programs for multicultural coexistence.

Related Initiatives

The project will feature workshops led by Bassam Ghazi again in 2023, inviting diverse participants to explore participatory theater despite the global trend towards exclusion. Participants will engage in activities based on Bassam's techniques implemented in Germany.

• - Language: German (with Japanese interpretation available)
• - Dates: September 16-22, 2025, with an orientation session on September 10.
• - Location: Tokyo Theatre Arts Center.

Contact Information

For inquiries, please contact the Tokyo Theatre Arts Center (Tokyo Metropolitan History and Culture Foundation) at the Business Planning Division, Project Coordination Section, or email work#geigeki.jp (replace # with @).