Tokyo Fish Story Study Guide by TheatreWorks Education

TheatreWorks S I L I C O N V A L L E Y

STUDY GUIDE

OUR PARTNERS IN EDUCATION TheatreWorks thanks our generous donors to the Education Department, whose financial support enables us to provide in-depth arts education throughout Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the 2014/15 season alone, we served approximately 25,000 students, patients, and community members, making over 60,000 educational interactions

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FOR TEACHERS The student matinee performance of tokyo fish story will be held on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 11:00 am, at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. The expected runtime is approximately 95 minutes with no intermission. The performance will be followed by a discussion with actors from the show. Student audiences are often the most rewarding and demanding audiences that an acting ensemble can face. Since we hope every show at TheatreWorks will be a positive experience for both audience and cast, we ask you to familiarize your students with the theatre etiquette described below.

THE ROLE OF THE AUDIENCE As the audience, you are a part of the production, helping the actors onstage tell the story. When the performance is about to begin, the lights will dim. This is a signal for the actors and the audience to put aside concerns and conversation and settle into the world of the play. The performers expect the audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full attention and focus. Performance is a time to think inwardly, not a time to share your thoughts aloud. Talking to neighbors (even in whispers) carries easily to others in the audience and to the actors on stage. It is disruptive and distracting. Food is not allowed in the theatre. Soda, candy, and other snacks are noisy and therefore distracting. Please keep these items on the bus or throw them away before you enter the audience area. Backpacks are not allowed in the theatre. Walking through the aisles during the performance is extremely disruptive. Actors occasionally use aisles and stairways as exits and entrances. The actors will notice any movement in the performance space. Please use the restroom and take care of all other concerns outside before the show. Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off before the performance begins. Do not text during the performance, as it is distracting to the audience members around you.

IN THIS GUIDE TEXT Plot Summary Understanding Plot Character Match Exploring Characters CONTEXT Setting: Tokyo & Beyond Disappearing Fish Sushi Speak Sushi, Sushi Everywhere SUBTEXT Themes Four Big Questions Playwright Kimber Lee Student Evaluation Teacher Evaluation

TEACHERS: Please be advised, tokyo fish story contains mature language.

PLOT SUMMARY

OKIMARI “it has been decided” In the early morning hours, Koji rides his bike toward the Tsukiji fish market, we hear the squeak of his bicycle. Takashi turns on the lights in the Sushi Koji kitchen. Nobu wakes and rinses his face in this bathroom. Oishi is asleep. Nobu arrives, and he and Takashi begin to prepare food for the restaurant. It is very early. They discuss the fact that Oishi is late. In fact he is always late. He is Koji’s nephew though, so they have to overlook his lateness. Nobu confronts Takashi about the fact that he lived in America once but never talks about. Takashi avoids the question, but says, “If you really want something in this world, you do whatever you have to do to get it.” Lights go up on Koji at the fish market. He is inspecting fish very carefully but can’t find anything that suits him. Alone with the tuna that appear to be too young to eat, he speaks to a particular baby tuna. He speaks of a woman who is gone, but we don’t know who this woman is or where she is gone. He says that when she left, he found a sushi creation he had never seen before. Back at the restaurant, Nobu and Takashi are hard at work. Nobu massages an octopus and plays hip hop music loudly, and neither he nor Takashi hear Koji arrive. Nobu brings in the fish that Koji has brought from the market, while Takashi informs Koji that most of the lunch guests have canceled their reservations. Koji decides to cancel the lunch seating. Oishi knocks on the front door wanting to be let in. Takashi lets him in, but Oishi is so disrespectful, clearly not knowing that he has offended them by being late, that Koji grabs him by the collar and locks him outside. Oishi sees the Help Wanted sign in the window and realizes he’s been fired. Koji retires to his office where he does some accounting, while Takashi interviews new employees to replace Oishi. We meet a cadre of characters. Toru is a spoiled hipster who is allergic to water. Daisuke, an older restaurant entrepreneur, shows up and tries to buy the restaurant. Yuji enters with brand new sushi knives and is extremely nervous, but right before his interview, Ama Miyuki arrives to interview as well. Takashi hires Yuji on the spot, telling Ama Miyuki that the position has been filled. She doesn’t believe him, but Takashi is firm. Koji notices people down the street lining up for a cheap sushi restaurant called Boku Wa Sushi. He wonders why it is so popular, and Takashi tells him it’s because they get free appetizers and a dessert option with their meal. They quarrel. Koji is offended by the thought of this cheap but popular sushi restaurant. We then watch the dinner service at Sushi Koji unfold. It is like a performance, the guests seated at the bar, watching Koji craft the meal. A mysterious woman with a black braid sits at the end of the bar.

Francis Jue / Photo Kevin Berne

OKONAMI “as I like it” The next morning we see Koji ride his bike to the fish market again. At the restaurant, Yuji washes rice and is so startled when Takashi arrives that he trips backwards and hits his head on the prep table, knocked out cold. Nobu tells Koji not to worry about it—Yuji did the same thing the day before. Yuji calls his mom to pick him up, and once again, Takashi and Nobu are short an employee. Meanwhile, at the fish market, Koji and Hirayama discuss the changing seas, how there are fewer and fewer fish left to be caught. Hirayama hints that he will retire soon, and Koji tells him he will be missed. Back at the restaurant, Takashi makes nigiri, and Nobu rubs octopus. Takashi teaches Nobu how to make nigiri, and it blows Nobu’s mind when he tastes Takashi’s perfect creation. He urges Takashi to show Koji what he can do, what he’s capable of making. Takashi deflects this praise, saying, “Do you think anything I could ever do with a piece of damn fish matters more than Koji?” Nobu accuses Takashi of erasing himself “to make room for Koji.” Takashi tells Nobu he knows how he feels, because he used to feel trapped by the restaurant and by Koji when he was nineteen, and that’s why he left Japan to go to California to find his mother. She lived in Pacific Grove and taught him how to make the nigiri lily. Koji collapsed from a stroke one night in the kitchen while he was gone, and Takashi came back and has stayed ever since. Meanwhile, Koji pauses by the Sumida River to tell it the news of the neighborhood, how all of the old businesses that he used to know have left and been replaced: the print shop that printed his first menus, the bookstore, the soba shop. He tells the river, “In some way I feel Mm We flow backward these days Does it seem so to you” He asks the river where the fish have gone, and if they followed “her” when she followed “you” and went across the ocean. He asks the river if it will deliver a message for him, and at that moment, a woman appears with a long black braid. It is the same woman who appeared at dinner before. Koji tries to speak to her, but she disappears with the sound of the waves. Koji then opens a styrofoam box and releases the eels to the ocean. He continues to release the fish that he bought at the market into the water, and then the woman appears again. She releases a long flowing sleeve and casts it across the river toward Koji. He grabs the sleeve and steps in the river, but the woman disappears again. Koji is chest-deep in the river. Ama Miyuiki arrives in the woman’s place and calls out to see if Koji is OK. She runs to the other side of the river and throws one end of her scarf to Koji for him to grab onto.

James Seol / Photo Kevin Berne

Meanwhile, at the restaurant, Nobu and Daisuke drink tea and discuss Koji’s stubbornness at refusing to update his restaurant, to conform to modern standards of dining. We learn that Koji has refused to be rated in the Michelin Guide. Daisuke warns that Koji’s “way” of doing things is dying out. Ama and Takashi help a dripping wet Koji inside while Nobu and Daisuke escape to the alley to continue their conversation. We learn that Daisuke’s father was once Koji’s apprentice and then left to start his own hip chain of sushi restaurants that are wildly popular. He offers Nobu a job. Daisuke leaves, and we return to Takashi and Ama in the restaurant. Ama tells him that Koji called her by her name when he saw her but thought she was someone else. We learn then that Takashi’s mother, Koji’s wife, was named Ama too. Takashi tells her that his mother passed away a long time ago. Ama asks Takashi again for a job working at the restaurant. She’s taken a job at Boku Wa Sushi, but she really wants to work for Koji. Takashi tells her women and sushi are not a good mix. He invites her to stay for dinner.

Nicole Javier & Linden Tailor / Photo Kevin Berne

Later, Nobu accuses Ama of deliberately pushing Koji into the river so they would be short-staffed. Ama is infuriated by the accusation. Koji and Takashi quarrel, because Takashi asks him where the fish from the market are, and this makes Koji angry. He collapses and confesses that he threw the fish into the river. Koji retires to his office, telling Takashi that he is now in charge of dinner. Takashi, surprised, orders Ama to put on a uniform—he has hired her. Together, Takashi, Nobu, and Ama prepare dinner for their guests. It is a huge hit. When the guests leave, Koji emerges from his office and eats the lily nigiri that Takashi makes for him. He savors it, and clasps his son’s arm in gratitude and recognition.

OMAKASE “I leave it up to you” We see Takashi riding Koji’s bicycle towards the fish market. It is dawn. At the restaurant, Ama and Nobu debate whether technique or art is more important when it comes to being a craftsman or “shokunin.” Takashi negotiates with the tuna dealer’s son at the fish market—Koji always used to work with the tuna dealer directly and knew he always kept a secret stash of tuna just for special customers. Takashi forges this new bond and connection with the tuna dealer’s son. Lastly, we see Koji on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific, writing a letter to Takashi. He is happy and he thanks Takashi for a hat that he has sent him. On the beach, a ways away, Koji sees his wife and he goes to her.

UNDERSTANDING PLOT Identify the moments in tokyo fish story that best correspond to: Exposition

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Rising Action ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Climax

RISING ACTION When the protagonist faces a series of challenges; what complications are there?

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Denouement ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Resolution

EXPOSITION The beginning of the story; what is going on when the characters are introduced; what is the important background information; is there already a major conflict in place?

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CLIMAX The most exciting part of the story, when all of the action peaks, and we learn something new or something changes DENOUEMENT The after-effects of the climax; what happens right after the story peaks? RESOLUTION The conclusion or unraveling of the story

Climax Rising Action DenoueExposition

Resolution

CHARACTER MATCH Match the character name with the correct description.

Koji

The only girl who interviews for a job at Koji’s restaurant; later she saves Koji’s life.

Takashi

The older entrepreneur and restaurant owner who tries to persuade Koji to sell his restaurant; was once Koji’s apprentice.

Nobu Koji’s nephew who repeatedly shows up late to work and who is eventually fired.

Yuji Koji’s son and right-hand man.

Ama Miyuki

A mysterious woman with a long black braid who appears to Koji every so often.

Daisuke

The owner and creator of Sushi Koji.

Hirayama

A young man who works in Koji’s restaurant, assists Takashi, and who loves hip hop.

Oishi

When Oishi is fired, Takashi hires this young man who turns out to be very nervous all the time.

A woman

A master shrimp seller at the fish market with whom Koji discusses the changing seas and the lack of fish.

EXPLORING CHARACTERS List each character in either the Old, New, or Somewhere in Between column below.

New

Somewhere in Between

Old

In 2-3 sentences, explain why you placed the characters where you did.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Why do you think Takashi left Tokyo and went to America those many years ago? • What do you think happened between Koji and his wife? • Why is Koji so reluctant to change his restaurant? • Do you think Ama pushed Koji into the river? • Why is Takashi so reluctant to let Ama work for Sushi Koji? • What do you think Koji means when he says, “Eating moments is what adds real weight to a body?” • Who do you think is the protagonist of tokyo fish story? Why do you think that?

SETTING: TOKYO AND BEYOND Tokyo Fish Story is set in present day Tokyo, Japan, “in and around a dingy, declining restaurant called Sushi Koji which is located in a dingy side street, in a dingy, declining neighborhood.” We also follow Koji on his morning trips to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market and as he chats with the Sumida River. Tokyo is the capital of Japan and is also its largest city. It is situated on the eastern coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu. Over five hundred years old, Tokyo began as a small fishing village called Edo. Now it is a sprawling metropolis, home to over 37 million people.

The Tsukiji Fish Market The Tsukiji Fish Market is one of the great wonders of Tokyo, drawing culinary artists, food lovers, and tourists daily. It is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. The market has been around in some form or another for the past five hundred years, changing locations every so often. After a huge earthquake struck Tokyo in 1923, the market relocated to Tsukiji, a district in Tokyo right by the Sumida river. Due to the worldwide popularity of the market, visitors are restricted from entering certain areas at certain times. Its outer edges are open to the public at all times, however. Tsukiji Fish Market is busiest in the early morning hours from 5:30am to 8:00am. Tsukiji Fish Market will be moving to a new location of Tokyo in November of 2016. As Japan gets ready to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, a lot changes are being made to the city, and the market is in a prime, central location.

Pacific Grove, CA During the play, we learn that Takashi once visited his mother in Pacific Grove, CA. Pacific Grove is a city in Monterey County, on the central coast of California. A direct flight from Tokyo to San Francisco takes about 9 hours and 20 minutes today. From there, it takes about 2 hours to drive south to Pacific Grove.

DISAPPEARING FISH • Leading scientists estimate that if we keep fishing at the rate we are currently fishing without giving the ocean time to regenerate, the ocean could be empty of fish by 2050.

• Aquaculture pulls over 63 million tons of fish from the ocean every year.

• Wild catch pulls over 67 million tons of fish from the ocean every year.

• One billion people rely on fish as their main animal protein source. • According to the UN, 30% of fish stocks have already collapsed. • A global study in 2013 concluded that 90% of large fishes have disappeared from the ocean.

KOJI: Can you tell me Sumida-san Do you know where all the ﬁsh have gone Did they follow her When she followed you out into the bay and across the ocean

SUSHI SPEAK Boku Wa Sushi: in the world of tokyo fish story, Boku Wa Sushi is the rival sushi restaurant down the street from Sushi Koji, owned by Daisuke. In Japanese “boku wa sushi” literally means “I am sushi,” but in the context of eating at a restaurant, it can mean, “I will have sushi.” daikon: pronounced “DI-kuhn” or “DI-cone,” a winter radish and Japan’s top vegetable crop (more daikon is grown in Japan than any other vegetable) hamachi: a slice of usually young amberjack; the Japanese amberjack is a fish native to the northwest Pacific Ocean ikura: bright orange salmon eggs (like caviar) kusa: literally translated, grass; slang for seaweed Michelin Guide: a French guidebook published every year reviewing the best restaurants around the world; the guide awards one to three stars depending on the quality of the cuisine. nigiri: a slice of fish on top of a compacted oblong of vinegared rice, often wrapped in seaweed. noren curtain: traditional Japanese curtains hung between rooms shokunin: a craftsman, artisan, or master of one’s profession Shoyu: a soy sauce made from a mash of soy beans and wheat (whereas Tamari soy sauce is made without wheat) tamagoyaki or tamago: a type of Japanese omelette used with sushi and cooked in a rectangular pan; often the batter is made with sugar, soy sauce, and mirin (rice wine)

SUSHI, SUSHI EVERYWHERE Sushi is a 14 billion dollar industry in Japan. There are as many different kinds of sushi as there are fish in the sea (sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves). Below is a list of some of the most popular sushi out there:

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Ikura Gukan Sake Nigiri Kappa Maki Maguro Nigiri Uni Toro Hamachi Ebi Nigiri Amaebi Ika Nigiri Anago Aji Tekkamaki Saba California Roll Futomaki

ACTIVITY Choose from a list of sushi above. On your own time, research this particular kind of sushi, answering the following questions:

• • • • •

What is this sushi made of? How do you make it? How do you serve it? What is the history of this sushi? Is there anything else interesting and relevant to this particular kind of sushi?

Once you’ve answered those questions, prepare a 5–10 minute presentation using your research. If possible, provide pictures and/or videos.

THEMES tokyo fish story explores the following themes:

• • • • • •

Old vs. New Love Loss Family Craft/Mastery Change

ACTIVITY Choose a theme from the list above. Consider how this theme operates throughout tokyo fish story. In the space below, sketch images of how you see the theme evolving over the course of the play. For example, using the theme of “change,” you might sketch lots of fish under the section marked Beginning. Then, you might sketch empty tables at the Tsukiji Fish Market or an empty river under the section marked Middle. Lastly, you might sketch Koji on a beach next to an ocean full of fish under the section market End.

Beginning

Middle

End

Now, working in groups of 3–4, choose a theme from the list above. Create three tableaus that you think best represent the theme you’ve chosen at the Beginning, Middle, and End of the play. The tableaus need not be frozen—you can use simple, repetitive movement to help illustrate your theme.

FOUR BIG QUESTIONS Do you think change is necessary in order to survive? Is it good to keep tradition alive? __________________________________________________________________________________________________

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How is change good in tokyo fish story? How is it bad? __________________________________________________________________________________________________

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What role do women play in the world of tokyo fish story? Think about Ama, Kojiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife, and Ama Miyuki.

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Are you happy for Koji at the end of the play?

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PLAYWRIGHT KIMBER LEE Few playwrights are able to traverse diverse worlds as masterfully as tokyo fish story author Kimber Lee. From Idaho to Tokyo, her plays navigate territory as varied as the world around us. Her works defy conventional labels, and challenge the assumptions we make about playwrights and the kinds of art they produce. Kimber Lee grew up in Nampa, Idaho, where hers was the only Asian American family in town. Before she turned her attention to writing, Lee was a performer, working in and around Seattle. Eventually, though, the types of roles she was being offered began to feel limiting. “I was feeling a little restless about the range of expression that I was allowed as an Asian American actor.” At the suggestion of a friend, she began hosting informal readings of her own material in her living room. Suddenly she was free to tell her own stories, not just those written for her. Lee made the decision to devote herself to playwriting, and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her MFA in 2011, and lost no time establishing herself as a rising star in the world of American playwrights. Her play fight won the 2010 Holland New Voices Award, and was a finalist for the 2011 Ruby Prize and the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Like many playwrights, Lee found inspiration close to home when she penned different words for the same thing. Set in her hometown of Nampa, Idaho, different words is an ensemble piece, and has been likened to a multiethnic, 21st century Our Town. It was a finalist in several playwriting competitions in 2012 including the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and had its world premiere at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles in 2014. For a playwright who grew up in a small town in Idaho to write about a small town in Idaho may seem unsurprising. For that same playwright to find inspiration in a Brooklyn boxing gym is decidedly less expected. Having stepped into the ring simply for the exercise, Lee soon realized she had a real passion for the sport. For her, boxing was like playwriting—“a very complicated, delicate dance, developing the courage you need to get through the difficulties while maintaining your openness to the world.” In 2012, Lee read about a young boxer whose life was cut short by gun violence. Struck by the tragedy and by the fact that the event went largely unnoticed by the outside world, Lee was moved to write brownsville song (b-side for tray). The play won one of six coveted spots at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2013, and premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in the spring of 2014. Lee’s latest work, tokyo fish story, tackles an altogether different topic—the intersection of tradition and progressivism in Japanese sushi culture, and in the modern world. Fascinated by the art of sushi

preparation and the sushi master’s lifelong pursuit of perfection, Lee spun a beautiful tale exploring the delicate balance between preserving custom and adapting to a changing world. TheatreWorks audiences were delighted by an early reading of tokyo fish story during our 2014 New Works Festival, and the play had its world premiere at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa in March 2015. Following TheatreWorks’ production, tokyo fish story will be produced by the The Old Globe in San Diego this June. Looking only at her body of work, one may be hard-pressed to draw many conclusions about Lee’s background. In a 2015 interview, she admitted that people were surprised to find she wasn’t “a woman of color” when she penned brownsville song, and that she was neither Japanese nor had she grown up in a sushi restaurant, when working on tokyo fish story. “When someone says something like that, I take it as a compliment that the voice [of the play] is feeling authentic to people.” Still, the tendency to want to label artists and their work is something she wishes would fade. If we must label Kimber Lee, let it be as a brilliant playwright—one who draws inspiration from the world around her, and deftly conjures characters and stories that resonate with all of us. Hers are very human tales, beautifully crafted, that embody TheatreWorks’ mission to tell authentic stories that celebrate the human spirit.

THEATREWORKS STUDENT MATINEE: TOKYO FISH STORY STUDENT EVALUATION Performance Tasks based on CA State theatre arts standards.

Name _________________________________________

Grade ___________

School _________________

Select and complete on of the following activities:

• Rewrite the ending of the play. How would you like to see it end? Why?

• Pick a moment in the play that affected you. Describe the stage elements that created that moment for you (the script, acting, lighting, music, costumes, set design, sound design and/or direction).

• Write a review of the play or an actor.

• Describe something you would change in the production. Describe what benefit that change would create in the production and why.

• Identify and describe how this production might affect the values and behavior of the audience members who have seen it.

• Write about any careers you learned about in attending this production (example: stage hands, set designers, etc.)

ASSESSMENT SURVEY

Maybe

Yes

I learned a lot from this experience

I would like to do this kind of project again

I will remember what I learned

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THEATREWORKS STUDENT MATINEE: TOKYO FISH STORY STUDENT EVALUATION (CONTINUED) The most important thing I learned from this play was...

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Besides getting out of class, the best thing about attending this student matinee was...

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Learning through theatre is different from my regular class because...

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If I could change something about attending a student matinee, I would...

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Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to use what I learned, saw, or experienced by...

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THEATREWORKS STUDENT MATINEE: TOKYO FISH STORY TEACHER EVALUATION Please rate your tokyo fish story experience below.

Strongly Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

PLANNING I received sufficient and timely information from TheatreWorks before the performance

TheatreWorks maintained communication and/or involved administrators at my school

It was clear to me that production and study guide incorporated curriculum

Supported other curriculum areas/subjects

Targeted students’ educational needs

Provided a grade-appropriate experience

Engaged students’ interest and attention

I would like to learn how to lead more of these kinds of activities on my own in the classroom

Students were engaged in this experience

The experience was valuable to my students’ education

The “Performance Tasks” were useful in helping my students understand their experience

I would be interested in bringing more drama related experiences into my classroom

MATINEE WORKSHOPS

POST-SHOW

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THEATREWORKS STUDENT MATINEE: TOKYO FISH STORY TEACHER EVALUATION (CONTINUED) For your classroom, please list the strengths of watching a student matinee. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________

In terms of your teaching, did this particular performance give you any arts integration ideas for your curriculum? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________

We are very interested in your feedback. What worked for you about this experience? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did not work for you? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Additional Comments: __________________________________________________________________________________________________

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TheatreWorks student matinees tend to fill up quickly. Tickets for the 2016/17 season are available nowâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; please visit theatreworks.org for the most up-to-date information. Keep us updated with your current contact information, and let us know if you have friends who would like to be added to our mailing lists.