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| "Women's Life and Health" is the interview series that features active professional women about their health, lifestyle and career. |
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| Interview
vol.4 |
Azuki Mashiba, Actress and scriptwriter
-Part2 |
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| How much practice does it take to perfect the timing of so many lines and movements? I was amazed at the tremendous stamina required. |
| We rehearse for about a month. But rehearsal itself isn’t as hard as making it through the scheduled performances. Theaters do not have very good ventilation. They are closed spaces and so very dry and dusty. On top of that, when you’re up on stage, the lights are on you the whole time. That’s why we have humidifiers backstage and everyone takes Chinese herbal medicine to protect their throat. Those in charge of meals, too, take care with the menu, making sure that everyone eats as many vegetables as possible (laughs). |
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| What do you look after most…the throat? |
| Yes, the throat. The vocal cords are muscles that naturally wear out the more you use them. You know how when you suddenly break into a run, the amount of lactic acid in, say, your calves increases? Well, the same goes for vocal cords. What they really need is a rest, but that won’t do so we either cool them or take some medicine. In fact, the whole body has an effect on throat muscles. |
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| The whole body? |
| The throat isn’t the only part of the body you should look after. You will actually see actors running around inside the theater or outside for exercise. |
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| Throat muscles don’t build up naturally and their condition depends on how well the whole body is balanced. Is that what you’re saying? |
| Yes. For example, bad posture makes it difficult to project your voice. If you want to be able to project your voice well, though you don’t have to be as good as an opera singer (laughs), you have to build up your back and abdominal muscles. You need to do a certain amount of exercise and warm up your body if you want to move around freely. |
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| Would you say then that the real enjoyment of stage acting comes from moving around, depicting a role with your whole body? |
| Yes. But of all the straight play theater companies in Tokyo with a similar age demographic to ours, we use our bodies the most. Narui, you see, is a bit impatient, which makes people move into position quickly without having to black out the stage (laughs). |
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| In order to sustain yourselves over a long and regular performance schedule, you would have to build yourselves up mentally as well as physically, wouldn’t you? |
| Absolutely. At the time of our establishment, we did five shows in three days. When we first did more than 30 shows, about 10 years ago, we were all over the place. Watching from the wings, we were thinking, “Haven’t we already done this scene?” And when reviewing our performance after each show, we found it hard to distinguish between yesterday and today. It was a first for everyone and we realized we had to do something about it. We came up with the idea of bringing something different, anything, to the theater each day, such as the memory of a nice breakfast that morning, or picking out slight differences in the person acting opposite to you. |
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| It must be hard maintaining fresh spirits day after day. |
| Nowadays we usually do around 50 shows for one play, and anyone who has been with us for a while should be able to handle it both physically and mentally. Recently, I have enjoyed going to rakugo performances. Rakugo performers have said that they have to tell the same stories over and over again but the conditions are never the same because each audience is different. Each occasion really does come round only once. I believe the same goes for us, and that requires stamina. The moment a show finishes I am already thinking about tomorrow. I might share a drink to say “Nice performance!” while taking in enough nourishment to get me through the show the next day. Then if I have to get up early, I go home, relax in the bath and go to bed. Actors’ bodies are like musical instruments and need to be maintained in a good condition. You realize this the older you get. |
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