Yuki Kawahisa is. work in progress. Yuki Kawahisa, native of Japan, is an actor, theatre creator, performing artist. She moved to New York in 2005, and actively performing her own works and others ever since. Kawahisa originally moved to Vancouver, Canada to study English and inspired by a drama teacher and playwright/director Maureen Robinson whom she had met at her ESL school, became an actor and playwright herself. Her original one woman-show The Kimono Loosened which was directed by Robinson received very positive reviews throughout Canada and in New York. She joined the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre’s Abroad Program in 2003, and traveled to Bali, Indonesia to study mask, dance and Wayang Kulit (Balinese shadow puppet theatre). She has also studied Nihon-Buyo (Japanese classing dance), Butoh and Clowning. She combines these forms to create her own unique dance and theater. She has participated in Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center Summer Program and performed in his dance piece KOOL Dancing in My Mind (Guggenheim Museum, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin) and SKIN MEAT BONE (Watermill Center). She has appeared in many of experimental, tour-de-force, downtown theatre pieces in New York. The New York Times hailed her as “simple and brutal as a knife to the throat” (Temporary Distortion’s Amerikana Kamikaze PS122, Creteil Maison des Arts, Paris, VIA Festival International, Maubeuge, Power House, Brisbane), “dynamite” (Andrew Ondrejcak’s FEAS, The Public Theatre), “beautiful central performance” (Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, Directed by Dan Rothenberg, A.R.T/New York Theatres) Other credits include Ondrejcak’s Elija Green (The KITCHEN), Aya Ogawa’s Ludic Proxy (Walkerspace), Kristina Haruna Lee’s Suicide Forest (The Bushwick Starr), Richard Foreman’s Bridge Project and more. She has also collaborated with international artist such as Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters of Taiwan (Plastic Holes), Chinese director Wang Chong (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2.0, APAF Asian Performing Arts Festival at Festival Tokyo 2017). She has also worked with choreographers (John Jasperse, Carla Blank, Jonah Bokear), collaborated and performed with dance companies (BALAM Dance Theatre, SHUA Group, Dance Theater E,T,C), Multimedia artist Ursula Endlicher, performance artist Marita Isobel Solberg and many musicians. Artist statement My motto as an actor is sincerity. No exaggeration, simple and clear, honest and sincere. It doesn't matter what character I play, as I am a medium delivering messages to the audience, I want my words to reach them as honest and sincere as possible. My goal as a performer is to be a great clown, to be the Fool. I think everybody is his own King, Queen and Fool. I want to be a humble King and a generous Queen. I want to be a purest Fool. I want to be an artist who, with fool’s purity, innocence and trust, opens up to the audience to show what I really am. Simple yet complicated task that is, I want to be a mirror on the stage, be the reflection of the audience to let them see themselves in it and laugh and cry. As an artist, I don't have a set goal. There is no one thing I stick with. My creative inspiration can be anything, something as simple as a line from a book, a dream I woke up from, snowflake that landed on my eyelashes, full bloomed lily in a vase on my bedside table, cooing pigeon on the AC outside of my bedroom window. It can be the moon of any shapes, the sky of any colors. It can be a doll in an antique store. It can be a paper bag. Little things interest me and move me and there, I create and recreate little things and I call them my art. For some people maybe they are worthless and that's okay too. I want to do art like I breathe. It doesn’t mean I want to do it so intensely like “without air (art), I die!”. I want it to be simple and easy, like breathing. I want my art to be so very simple. I enjoy learning, trying new things. I enjoy meeting new people-likeminded creatives- and being exposed to new ways of thinking and doing stuff. I enjoy collaborating, expanding my artistic field by working with people. I learn things not so much by reading or talking about it but a lot by doing. Working with professionals, creating things with my hands, creating something special (especially theatre is my passion) together with people is always a pleasure. I feel this is the most natural way for me to “get it”. I am still learning. I am always trying. And I enjoy that a lot. My work is deeply influenced and inspired by traditional Japanese Theatre such as Noh and Bunraku (self-taught). Also Butoh has been a great influence on my physical work. I see great beauty in stillness and silence. I dance still. I tell story in silence and I believe those are my uniqueness and strength. I hope to continue to develop and perform work that represents my Japanese origin, the rich culture and the old, beautiful traditions and to bring both traditional and modern stories internationally. I believe that everything happens for a reason and I meet who I meet for the same reason. And I believe I am here, this monstrous city of New York for the reason to create something only I can create as me, a person, as a Japanese, as a stranger in America, as a woman, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend to share stories with you. I do art to prove myself who I am, for searching to understand what I am. I am still learning. I am still growing. My art is growing with me. My art is changing with me. Art for me is something like that. Yuki Kawahisa as Yuki Kawahisa in Andrew Ondrejcak’s ELIJAH GREEN Photo by Georgia Nerheim, Hair and Makeup Design by Marco Campos Costumes by Andrew Ondrejcak in collaboration with Alba Clemente and the Ethical Fashion Initiative ELIJAH GREEN was awarded a MAP Fund Grant and a New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project Grant in 2016 Elijah Green by Andrew Ondrejack Final production movement by John Jasperse ELIJAH GREEN premiered at The Kitchen, March 2016, and was developed during residencies at the Park Avenue Armory, The Kitchen, LMCC Artist Studios on Governors Island and at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Kawahisa was the sole performer, the main collaborator and the principle actor worked on this project from the very beginning to the end, for three years, participating in all the artist in residencies. Photos from Artist in residence at Baryshnikov Arts Center Yuki Kawahisa as Yuki in Temporary Distortion’s Americana Kamikaze Text, Direction, Set Design and Lighting Design by Kenneth Collins Video Design and Video Direction by William Cusick Composition and Sound Design by John Sully Costumes by TaraFawn Marek Co-creation by Kenneth Collins and William Cusick Performers: Brian Greer, Yuki Kawahisa, Lorraine Mattox and Ryosuke Yamada Performed at Performance Space 122 (NYC), Maison des Arts de Créteil (Paris, France), Le Manège (Maubeuge, France), Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane, Australia) Reviews: Yuki Kawahisa on Americana Kamikaze “And then there’s the chilling glare of Yuki Kawahisa’s Yuki, a despairing woman at the edge of sanity who describes marriage as a “long-term mutual torture.” Her disintegration in person and on screen is as simple and brutal as a knife to the throat.” Jason Zinoman, New York Times “SMOOTH OPERATOR Kawahisa places a scary call; Photographs: Jon Weiss “the chameleonic Yuki Kawahisa” Helen Shaw, Time Out New York “Yuki Kawahisa is resplendent” Alexis Soloski, The Village Voice “The actors Yuki Kawahisa and Ryosuke Yamada are excellent” Alexis Clements, The L Magazive Yuki Kawahisa as Concubine 4 in Andrew Ondrejcak’s FEAST FEAST was presented at The Public Theater, New York, in the Under the Radar Festival, 2014, in association with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann. FEAST was originally presented at Incubator Arts Project, New York, 2012. Writing, Direction, and Design Andrew Ondrejcak Music to Belshazzar (1744) George Frideric Handel Libretto to Belshazzar Charles Jennens Costumes Adam Selman Sound Design Kristin Worrall "For You For You" music by DM Stith "For You For You" played by Anthony Romaniuk Music on Harpsichord by Daniel Gower Wig Design Enver Chakartash Make-up Design Naomi Raddatz Costume Assistant Baille Younkman Stage Manager Heather Englander Stage lighting concept in collaboration with Christina Watanabe Stage design concept in collaboration with Leong Leong Architecture Cast: Reg E Cathey, Peter Cullen,Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa, Jason Robert Winfield (In the original production: THE KING was played by Okwui Okpokwasili, Lighting Design by Scott Bolman, Technical Direction by Brendan Regimbal, Jewelry by Fenton/Fallon, Assistant Stage Design Amanda Shin) Reviews on Yuki Kawahisa on FEAST “Ms. Kawahisa (especially dynamite in a strong cast) repeats, in what might be a summation of the feelings that “Feast” engenders: “The world is too much and simultaneously not enough.” Claudia La Rocco, New York Times “These four—Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa and Jason Robert Winfield—do a superb, frequently hilarious job” Helen Shaw, Time Out New York "Her Concubines - Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa, and Jason Robert Winfield - are sharp and flexible, excavating musicality and complexity of language with suprising, terrifying and hysterical results." Adam. R.Burnnet, NewYorkTheater.com “An Asian concubine (Yuki Kawahisa) is a sad, bulimic figure who deals with woes about food and her body. Her monologues are heartfelt, and she breaks the quick pace of the show to question how bacteria stay in her