14 - STEPPING OUT Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, June 20, 2012
PRICE CHAMBERS / NEWS&GUIDE FILE PHOTO
Photography captures only a blur of Hiroshi Koshiyama pounding taiko drums on Town Square during the 2010 Jackson Hole Fire Festival.
Jackson Hole Fire Festival hosts Play reading blazing finale on Town Square en plein air ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Who: Jackson Hole Fire Festival What: Street Fair and Fire Ceremony When: 6 to 11 p.m. tonight Where: Town Square How much: Free Web: JHFireFestival.org –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Who: Off Square Theatre Company, Jackson Hole Fire Festival What: Page-to-Stage reading of Narui Yutaka’s ‘Farewell to Huckleberry’ When: 1 p.m. today Where: Center for the Arts lawn How much: Free for Off Square members; $5 suggested donation for others Web: OffSquare.org ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
By Katy Niner The mikoshi have spent the week journeying all over the valley, reaching out to the elemental spirits they were designed to shelter. Forrest McCarthy trekked the Earth mikoshi to the Enclosure on the Grand. Aaron Pruzan of Rendezvous River Sports floated the Water mikoshi from Slide Lake down the Gros Ventre River. Matt Poluga of Hoback Sports cycled the Air mikoshi from the outdoor Sculpture Trail celebration at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. At 5:30 p.m. today, the mikoshi and the spirits they have gathered will process from the Center for the Arts to the Town Square, signaling the start of the Japanese-style Street Fair and Fire Ceremony, the blazing finale to the Fire Festival. A celebration of gratitude, the Fire Festival aims to thank not only the natural world but also the volunteer firefighters in the valley, said Candra Day of Vista 360, who borrowed the 600-year-old tradition from Fujiyoshida, Japan, and brought it to Jackson in 2007. To cue tonight’s party, Taiko Project, a taiko drumming troupe from Los Angeles, will take to the top of Snow King and send their percussive signals out across the valley. People will be positioned at various locations — around town and even as far away as Grand Teton National Park — to determine where the beats travel. The mountaintop event, Taiko in the Landscape, begins at 5 p.m.
By Katy Niner
ANGUS M. THUERMER JR. / news&guide
Miette Sanchez helps launch the Jackson Hole Fire Festival on Thursday, joining a procession of cyclists hauling a Japanese-style mikoshi shrine from the National Museum of Wildlife Art down the new pathway to the Center for the Arts. The festival concludes this evening on Town Square.
Taiko Project echoes the creative spirit of the Teton festival. In much the same way that the Jackson Hole Fire Festival has adapted the centuriesold Japanese tradition, Taiko Project has taken a traditional form of Japanese drumming and adapted it to LA, Amanda Flosbach, the festival’s communications and partner liaison, said. The troupe will perform throughout the evening — at 6:30, 7:30 and 9:15 p.m. — on a stage set up on the square. Beyond drums, the Street Fair will ignite all kinds of creative festivities, including booths devoted to Japanese artistic traditions like flower arranging and calligraphy. A teahouse will stage tea ceremonies. Local chefs will serve Japaneseinspired fare from rice balls to bento boxes, miso corn to mini cupcakes,
yakitori and yaki soba. Children’s games will pepper the square, and chalk art — organized by Teton County Library — will decorate the pavement on East Deloney. Riot Act Inc. will conduct a stage combat demonstration, and the Wyoming Karate Club will perform. At 8 p.m. the mikoshi will circle the square on the backs of burly Jacksonites, then torches will be lit for the Fire Ceremony. The Jazz Foundation of Jackson Hole will close the evening with big band music. Like the Fujiyoshida Fire Festival, the Teton adaptation aims to involve the whole community. Tonight’s schedule will likely do just that, enticing all to celebrate in whatever way they enjoy most.
For a young boy, a paddle opens a portal on adventure and emotion. “Farewell to Huckleberry,” by contemporary Japanese playwright Narui Yutaka, will be read in translation today outdoors on the Center for the Arts lawn. The play reading, presented by Off Square Theatre Company and produced by Natalia Duncan in collaboration with the Jackson Hole Fire Festival, runs from 1 to 2 p.m. People are encouraged to bring picnic blankets and lunches. The reading, part of Off Square’s Page-to-Stage series, is free for Off Square members or a $5 suggested donation for nonmembers. A family-friendly event, it is recommended for children ages 9 and older. The staged reading will be followed by a talkback with guest director Tara Rodman and Kyoko Yoshida of the U.S./ Japan Cultural Trade Network, as well as the cast: Jeff Bratz, Lucas Hakoshima, Jackie VanZanten, Brian Van Hatten, Molly Moon Thorn, Emma Detrick, Craig Kirkpatrick and Thomas Macker. Rodman, a doctoral candidate in theatre and drama at Northwestern University, is examining the circulation of modernist theatre and performance among Japan, Europe and the U.S. between 1885 and 1937. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she performed with the American Mime Repertory Theatre Company in New York City and studied Noh theatre in Tokyo.