▼「演劇ぶっく」誌で初めて特集された、佐藤佐吉賞2015最多6部門受賞作の紹介記事
First featured in “Theatre book” magazine, an article introducing Sakichi Sato Award 2015 winner in the most six categories
The group is led by playwright Shintaro Ito and produces productions featuring “unique girls”. They have presented their stage productions mainly at theaters in Tokyo, but also in Taipei and other foreign countries. The group also strives to promote its activities to junior and senior high school students by holding its own WS performances, in which professional actors and high school students collaborate on productions under the title of “real high school students vs. fake high school students.
●2014 – “Girls and Arithmetic” received the “HACHIYO Special Award for Best Challenge” and “Excellent Advertising Art Award” at the Sakichi Sato Theatre Festival 2014+ for “Girls and Arithmetic”.
●2015 – Received the “Best Screenplay Award,” “Best Leading Actress Award,” “Best Sound Award,” “Best Lighting Award,” “Best Stage Design Award,” and “Best Advertising Art Design Award” in six categories, the most among all groups, at the Sakichi Sato Theatre Award 2015 for “All About Lolicon,” a story about something more important than freedom of expression, or harmless art.
●2016 – “Ikinari Maou” (planned, scenario, and directed by Shintaro Ito), which was exhibited and presented at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space Atelier East, won the Tyrano Game Fest 2016 Semi-Grand Prix [Excellence Award], and at the same time was selected for the Japanese-English game translation contest “LocJAM JAPAN”. Sayaka Fujimoto won the “Best Leading Actress Award” at the Sakichi Sato Theatre Award 2016 for “Quantum Girlfriend” performed in November.
直近の海外上演歴 Recent Overseas Performances
●大稻呈国際芸術節2019（ダダオチェン国際芸術祭＠台北）「Are you really a girl from the 1920s？」など。
● Dadaocheng International Arts Festival 2019 (Dadaocheng International Arts Festival at Taipei), “Are you really a girl from the 1920s?” etc.
● In 2014, the group officially changed its name to “NICE STALKER” and participated in the Sakichi Sato Theatre Festival 2014+, performing “Girls and Arithmetic”. The play has become NICE STALKER’s signature work, with audiences exceeding capacity at every stage and many still requesting a repeat performance. The same work won the “HACHIYO Special Award for Best Challenge” and the “Excellent Advertising Art Award.
● In 2015, he held the story-branching play “As God Says 2: Summer Night Dreams Super Express,” in which the audience decides the development of the play by real-time voting from their own smartphones and cell phones. The voting system was developed together with programmers, and after an actual test performance called a beta test performance, the full-length play was performed at Theater Fushikaden. Various projects, including a 1,000,000 yen ticket that multiplied the voting rights by 100 times, attracted attention as an event and were covered by many media, including Theater Book and Theater Guide.
● The 2015 performance “”All About Lolicon,” a story about something more important than freedom of expression, or harmless art.” won six categories at the “Sato Sakichi Theater Award 2015,” the most among all groups that performed at Oji Little Theater at the end of the previous year. The response from the audience was so great that the March 2016 issue of Theater Buku featured a four-page feature article on the production, making it an epoch-making work for the group.
● In 2016 July , the group held an exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre’s Atelier East to showcase the results of its activities to date, and also made its past scripts into open IPs, which attracted much attention. It won the semi-grand prize. In November of the same year, the performance “Quantum Girlfriend” presented a unique work titled “New Honkaku ☆ Science Theatre,” in which the lead actress Sayaka Fujimoto won the “Outstanding Leading Actress Award” at the “Sato Sakichi Theatre Award 2016.
● In 2017 May, the company expanded to Shimokitazawa Ekimae Theatre to perform “1999 no Koibito (Lovers of 1999),” breaking attendance records. It also held an after-talk event with critic and HEAD representative Atsushi Sasaki as a guest. In the summer and fall, he was a WS instructor at a joint camp for high school students in Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture, and a judge at a regional high school theater competition in Yamanashi Prefecture, among other activities in the high school theater world.
● In 2018 August, he performed again at Shimokitazawa The Suzunari with his masterpiece “All About the Pedophile,” a story about what is more important than freedom of expression or harmless art. It broke the record for the highest attendance. The after-talk featuring Taro Yamada, former member of the House of Councillors and representative of the Association for the Protection of Freedom of Expression, was a hot topic of conversation.
● In 2019 January, an experimental performance “Real High School Students vs. Fake High School Students” will be held, in which current high school students and adult actors will perform “Shugaku Ryoko” by Seigo Hatazawa, a masterpiece of the high school theater world. The performance became a topic of discussion because it asked which was more “high school”: the “fake high school” performance by the “real actors” or the performance by the current high school students. In September, “Violent Senpai,” a new feature film about diversity and political correctness, was released and was described as the group’s best work, and was featured in an 8-page feature article in “Enbu” magazine. In October, the group participated in the Dadaocheng International Arts Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, where it performed a short piece, marking its first overseas performance.
● In 2020 April The company’s new full-length work, “Speculative Fiction! which was scheduled to be performed, was suddenly postponed due to the “state of emergency” declared after the Corona disaster. While the date of the postponed performance remained undecided, we held an online event to accept “advance reservations” and suspended performance activities for a time, promising to resume performances with audiences.
● In 2021 December, “Speculative Fiction! which was canceled the previous year, at the same venue and with the same cast and crew. It was the first performance in two years. This performance marked the revival of the group’s creative activities that had been interrupted by the pandemic.
● In September 2022, the theater company staged its first work-in-progress performance of a foreign classic, “A New Translation of ‘Aware She is a Whore’ Work-in-Progress,” in which Shintaro Itoh performed a newly translated version of the play written by John Ford in 17th century England.
