Being Backstage of a 600-Year-Old Noh Theater World: My Journey From War-Torn Beirut to Japan

Madeleine A. Jalil Umewaka, President, MJU Public Relations
Recorded on February 8, 2024.
Madeleine A. Jalil Umewaka escaped the Lebanese Civil War and married Noh master Naohiko Umewaka, whose family has transmitted the tradition of Noh theater, from father to son, for more than 600 years in a line that no foreigner had previously joined by marriage. This lecture will recount this meeting of two cultures.
Madeleine A. Jalil Umewaka is the author of the autobiographies The Noh Master’s Wife (『レバノンから来た能楽師の妻』), published by Iwanami Shoten in 2019, and J'ai épousé un maître de Nô, published by le Prunier Sully in 2023. She serves as President of MJU Public Relations, organizing artistic and cultural events. Mrs. Umewaka received a B.Sc. Hons in computer science from the University of Reading, England, and pursued graduate studies at the University of Southern California, Osaka University, and the University of Tokyo. She has promoted and produced Noh theater, including contemporary Noh plays, in Japan and around the world. In 2014, she received an award acknowledging her activities in promoting Japanese and Lebanese cultures from Notre Dame University-Louaize. She is a producer of Tomorrow We Will See, a documentary about the thriving art culture in Lebanon, which received an achievement award from Lebanon's Ministry of Culture in 2015.
Links to all the Noh performances featured in Mrs. Umewaka's lecture slides (including one that she did not have time to show the attendees):
• Noh Theatre
• Ong Keng Sen - Lear (1...
• Ong Keng Sen - Lear Dr...
• A pianist's dream of K...
• Noh x Capoeira x Karat...
Mrs. Umewaka's book (Japanese): www.amazon.com...
Mrs. Umewaka's book (French):
www.amazon.com...
This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.