Backstage with Nakamura Kanzaburo,
the 18th generation Kabuki actor.
Nakamura Kanzaburo, preparing his stage character's make-up.
Backstage at Damrosh Park, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2004
Nakamura Kanzaburo, just left the stage and is doing a costume 'Quick-Change' in the wings, with his dressers, to reappear moments later as a very different character on the stage.
Nakamura Kanzaburo has changed into a full body Irezumi (tattoo) costume before returning to the stage.
Damrosh Park, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2004
Nakamura Kanzaburo, after a 3 hour performance, back in his dressing room.
Damrosh Park, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2004
3 years later, Nakamura Kanzaburo and his troupe were invited for new performances at Lincoln Center.
Dress rehearsal of the Kabuki play 'Hokaido', Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2007
Kantaro, his elder son, actor, in the make-up room,
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2007
Shichinosuke, his younger son, preparing for the stage
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2007.
Kantaro, Shichinosuke and the actor Kamezo in mirrors.
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC, 2007.
Nakamura Kanzaburo and his troupe were the guest of Honor at the
International Theater Festival in Sibiu, Romania in 2008.
Nakamura Kanzaburo with actor Yajuro, rehearsing their Kabuki play in the borrowed stage of a just ended run of a German 'Faust" opera, making for a mismatched set for a few days, while a temporary Kabuki stage is being built inside a neighboring metals factory.
Sibiu, Romania, 2008.
Kabuki troupe actors on the side of the borrowed 'Faust' set, during rehearsals.
Sibiu, Romania, 2008.
Yajuro, the Kabuki actor, concentrating backstage, before going onstage.
Sibiu, Romania
Senjaku, the Kabuki actor, in the wings.
Sibiu, Romania
Shichinosuke, his younger son, in Onegata costume (Woman's role) before going on stage, opening night.
Sibiu, Romania
Kanzaburo, moments before going on stage, in the wings of the newly built temporary Kabuki theater,
inside the available space of a metals factory.
Sibiu, Romania
Kanzaburo during a sword fighting scene.
Sibiu, Romania
Nakamura Kanzaburo, cleansing his soul with buckets of water, after having had to kill his character's father in a fight.
Sibiu, Romania
Curtain call
On Kanzaburo's one day off, I asked if I may do a personal portrait of him in a 16th century Eastern Orthodox church
that had given us permission. Sibiu, Romania, 2008.
Nakamura Kanzaburo in a 16th century Eastern Orthodox church.
Sibiu, Romania
Nakamura Kanzaburo in a 16th century Eastern Orthodox church.
Sibiu, Romania