Green T Productions Mission and History
Green T Productions’ mission is to promote and produce theatre. We believe theatre reflects the culture in which it arises and provides opportunity to learn about and to diversify culture. Inspired by the world’s theatrical traditions, Green T Productions seeks to produce plays that explore culture, history and philosophy through, theatre, dance and music.
Green T Productions has been producing theater in the Twin Cities since 1999. Our early productions looked to traditional Asian performance styles such as Japanese kabuki, Balinese kecak and Vietnamese water puppetry. Artists studied these performance styles to learn by doing and produced successful shows including:
·our sell-out inaugural show Kabuki!, at the Bryant Lake Bowl in 1999
·Road to Kyoto, co-produced with the Bloomington Art Center
·The Not so Attractive Mallard, a water puppet play in Minneapolis lakes
·Medea Bali, called “powerful” by the City Pages’ Max Sparber at the Old Arizona
·The Lion’s Pride in Pamona, California in honor of renowned kabuki scholar, Leonard Pronko’s retirement and subsequently published in the “Mime Journal.”
In recent years Green T has been experimenting with using traditional performance styles as inspiration to create a new approach. Recent
Green T shows include:
·1000 Cranes which used kabuki-inspired movement to tell the story of a girl dying of radiation poisoning and was performed at the opening
of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts new wing.
·Tales of Rashomon called “stylish…assured and wrenching” by the City Pages’ Quinton Skinner this past December at Mixed Blood Theater
·Medea: a Noh Cycle, in collaboration with Theater Unbound last April, called “arrestingly dramatic” with “gripping stylized performances…” by the Star Tribune’s John Townsend.
Green T Productions has been producing theater in the Twin Cities since 1999. Our early productions looked to traditional Asian performance styles such as Japanese kabuki, Balinese kecak and Vietnamese water puppetry. Artists studied these performance styles to learn by doing and produced successful shows including:
·our sell-out inaugural show Kabuki!, at the Bryant Lake Bowl in 1999
·Road to Kyoto, co-produced with the Bloomington Art Center
·The Not so Attractive Mallard, a water puppet play in Minneapolis lakes
·Medea Bali, called “powerful” by the City Pages’ Max Sparber at the Old Arizona
·The Lion’s Pride in Pamona, California in honor of renowned kabuki scholar, Leonard Pronko’s retirement and subsequently published in the “Mime Journal.”
In recent years Green T has been experimenting with using traditional performance styles as inspiration to create a new approach. Recent
Green T shows include:
·1000 Cranes which used kabuki-inspired movement to tell the story of a girl dying of radiation poisoning and was performed at the opening
of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts new wing.
·Tales of Rashomon called “stylish…assured and wrenching” by the City Pages’ Quinton Skinner this past December at Mixed Blood Theater
·Medea: a Noh Cycle, in collaboration with Theater Unbound last April, called “arrestingly dramatic” with “gripping stylized performances…” by the Star Tribune’s John Townsend.
Personnel
Kathy Welch, Artistic Director
Kathy has been involved in all aspects of theatre including writing, directing, acting, tech and design. She has directed over 100 productions over the past 25 years. Kathy’s work is varied and eclectic spanning everything from Greek tragedy to Japanese kabuki to American musicals to children’s theater. She studied kabuki for over ten years in Hawaii and Japan. She earned a Ph.D. Asian Theatre from the University of Hawaii under renowned kabuki scholar and Japanese "Order of the Rising Sun" recipient Dr. James R. Brandon. She was the recipient of the Japanese
Ministry of Education Grant (Monbusho,) the Japanese equivalent of the Fullbright. She lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years studying traditional dance, shamisen, koto, tea ceremony and conducting dissertation research on kabuki theatre at the Kabuki, Minami and National theatres. She studied kabuki acting under the late Japanese Living National Treasure, Nakamura Matagorô, and kabuki dance for six years under Onoe Kikunobu. Kathy's experience with Asian theatre forms also includes Beijing opera, Balinese kecak, kyogen, noh and bunraku.
Ministry of Education Grant (Monbusho,) the Japanese equivalent of the Fullbright. She lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years studying traditional dance, shamisen, koto, tea ceremony and conducting dissertation research on kabuki theatre at the Kabuki, Minami and National theatres. She studied kabuki acting under the late Japanese Living National Treasure, Nakamura Matagorô, and kabuki dance for six years under Onoe Kikunobu. Kathy's experience with Asian theatre forms also includes Beijing opera, Balinese kecak, kyogen, noh and bunraku.
