Solo theatre show with original animation and music, inspired by Sachie’s family and 2011 Japan Earthquake.
Set in an old brothel and legendary noodle shop by the sea, “Fish Saw” takes you, the audience, to the mid-1950s and present day Japan where you’ll meet characters like The Little Girl, Fish and The Hungry Ghost. There’s a love story, a clown, idea of life and death and a good amount of noodles.
On March 11, 2011, one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded in the history hit my hometown, Sendai, Japan. Knowing where my family lived, less than 80 feet from the water, I was so sure that I had lost my mom and my sister. Though miraculously both of them survived and found each other in a shelter 30 miles from home, we lost several family members who were very close to us. My mom was particularly devastated by one very young girl’s death. She was only four years old. As I watched my mom grieve over the next few years, I daydreamed that somewhere, somehow, the young girl who died and my mom meet, and something happens that allows my mom to move on. “Fish Saw” started from there. I wanted to ease my mom’s pain, in my imagination, set in real life, family and events.
Through the eyes of a talking Fish, a magical encounter of two girls across time and oceans tells a story of an eccentric family, an incredible natural disaster and how to deal with what’s left. Japanese physical performer and musician, Sachie, and the international team of artists bring you “Fish Saw,” a theatrical bilingual solo show with original animation and musical score.
As of January 2017, “Fish Saw” is scheduled to play in the following festivals.
6-10 March Auckland Fringe Festival New Zealand
13-18 March Dunedin Fringe Festival New Zealand
30 May-10 June London Fringe Festival Ontario, Canada
10-18 June Ottawa Fringe Festival Ontario, Canada
Pending Orlando International Fringe Festival, USA
In the beginning, I wanted to make the show so I could ease my mom’s pain even if it was only in my imagination. Now I feel that empathy and laughter are needed more than ever so we can move on, be there for each other and face what’s ahead.
And with artists from Japan, USA and Argentina working together, “Fish Saw” is a one-of-a-kind international collaboration. All seen and told through a giant talking fish, “Fish Saw” uses magical realism and mixed style and media to tell the five- generation family history and a strong message that I want to share with as many people as possible.
You’ll be supporting the creation of a truly unique performance project.
Sachie (co-writer, performer, composer) Originally from Sendai, Japan, Sachie works internationally in theatre, circus variety and music. Sachie has appeared at numerous performance venues and festivals around the world including Alice Spring Desert Festival, Falls Music Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival, Tasmanian Circus Festival (Australia), Ferrara Music Festival (Italy), Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit, where she won Best Cabaret/Variety as Egg in The Birdmann in Momentous Timing, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Scotland), where the same show was nominated for Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality in 2014.
Sachie studied acting and clowning at Freehold Theatre Lab Studio in Seattle, USA, where she met her long-time collaborator, George Lewis. The two created a solo clown piece “Birthday Surprise” in 2006, and as part of the Seattle-based absurdist performance group Le Frenchword, they once again collaborated on a modern clown show “Fancy Mud” in 2009-2010 which was performed extensively in Seattle as well as in Canada.
Since 2013, Sachie has been working as the resident composer of Down Underground Production based in Australia. In the past year, she scored a theatrical solo show “I Forgot To Fly Today” which toured Canada and a short film “Coffeehead” which recently aired on ABC Australia.
George Lewis (co-writer, director), is an internationally recognized Movement Theatre Artist, who has been working as an actor, director, and teacher since 1971. He studied for 3 years at L’ École de Mime Etienne Decroux and the Ecole Nationale du Cirque in Paris, and worked for seven years with the Russian Master of Meyerhold’s Biomechanics Gennadi Bogdanov. From the beginning he focused his career on creating, acting in, and directing original works, with the companies Omnibus in Montreal, Mirage in Boston, and Freehold Theatre, Le Frenchword, and threeCompany in Seattle. He has also directed numerous plays, including The Tempest of Shakespeare, The Imaginary Invalid of Molière, and The Suicide of Nikolai Erdman. He has acted in in Chekhov’s The Seagull Chekhov, Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Cohelo, and Playing Don Juan by Brecht/Chekhov/Moliere. In Argentina he has co-created and directed several works of clown, including La Ultima Vez with Victoria Almeida, Amor Mito, with Santiago Legon / Juliana Ramirez, Mal de Mar with Nata Voltaje, and has directed the physical comedy in Ingue (Yanina Frankel) and Seis (Marina Barbara). Mr. Lewis is an internationally recognized teacher of physical comedy and movement. He co-founded Freehold Studio/Theatre Lab in 1990 in Seattle, Washington, the most important private acting studio in the Northwest United States. Since 1978 he has taught classes in an vast number of renowned training centres, including: L’ École du Mime du Quat’Sous (Montreal), The Mirage School of Corporal Mime (Boston), and Freehold, Cornish College of the Arts and Antioch University (Seattle). In the last 8 years he has been teaching Meyerhold’s Biomechanics, Clown, Acting, and Physical Comedy in his studio Espacio Transparente in Buenos Aires, as well as in Uruguay and Brazil. Currently he is performing in his one-man show Door, directed by Yanina Frankel; his direction of Jean Tardieu’s i: una buena preguntita banal is completing a successful 2 month run and he just completed filming Aterrados in the role of Rosentok.
Sandra Lía Iurcovich (animator, design consultant) graduated in painting and drawing in the National School of Fine Arts “Prilidiano Pueyrredon” (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón). She took courses in design and carpentry between the years of 1983 and 1992. Also during that period she studied stage sculpture with Raúl “Pájaro” Gómez and attended workshops with the artists Carlos Gorriarena, Juan Doffo and Martín Evar. She participated in the workshops free of sculpture and drawing at the High School of the Cárcova (Escuela Superior de la Cárcova) as well.
During that period she was dedicated to teaching stage and fine arts as a co-founder and coordinator of the fine arts workshops in The next door House (La casa de al lado). This was a cooperative of artists and teachers who produced neighborhood events, plays, exhibitions, Publications, radio programs, etc.
From 1993 to the present, she developed her presence as scenographer and art director in films, TV, theater and events. Some of her works include: set and costume design of the “Maldoror” an opera by Leo Masliah at Colón Theatre of Buenos Aires in 2003 and “Tea party” by William Rowsey at the Recoleta Cultural Center, art production design at the films “Adiós, Querida Luna” and “Aballay, el hombre sin miedo” both by Fernando Spiner; “La memoria del muerto”, El Propietario” and “The Rotten Link” (“El eslabón podrido”) all three by Javier Diment; “El túnel de los huesos” by Nacho Garassino, “Diablo” by Nicanor Loreti; “Fermín, glorias del tango” by Oliver Kolker and Hernán Findling; etc. In Television she designed stage sets and directed the art of several programs and miniseries such as “Gira Pokerstars” 2010 and 2011, “Circles” by Alberto Lecchi, “Dos para una mentira” by Nicanor Loreti, “Bichos Rare” by Matías Bertilotti, etc. She also designed events for the Ministry of Culture of the Nation, such as MICA 2011.
Here’s the breakdown of where Kickstarter money will go.
Making a theatrical production is a lot of work. And making a theatrical production that could travel with just one person has many challenges.
Animation will play a huge part in telling the stories in “Fish Saw.” It is very important as content and as my on-stage partner, as well as for being transportable by a 5-foot person (me!). Aside from actually making the animation that is tailored to the show, that works with choreography and overall style, we’ll need the right equipment (projector) and create a portable screen.
By successfully raising the fund to do this, I can bring “Fish Saw” to many places around the world and share the stories.