Compiled by Janet Hamilton
Corpus Christi College in Cambridge owns a small theatre called the Playroom in which student plays are performed. In November 2000, the late show was called "Transplant". The program was in the form of the traditional Fortune Teller/Salt Cellar with the name of the show emblazoned on the top four squares and the titles Good, Evil, Thanks and Playroom on the interior flaps. Unfolding the flaps lead to further details about the production. If nothing else it kept the audience occupied while waiting for the play to begin.
The play "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" was performed at the House Theater in Seattle on September 6, 2003 as a benefit for the Book-It All Over! touring program. http://www.book-it.org/
Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2005 - A photograph in the paper about Susanne Sulby's interdisciplinary one-woman piece, Sanctuary, shows her balancing several origami cranes on sword blade. In this one-woman show, multiple characters "expose the connections between fear, bigotry, power, religion and battle, and the women have played throughout time in these issues. It's an energetic a multi-media exploration of the struggles and tragedies of warfare, and humanity's need for sanctuary." The show played at the Society Hill Playhouse, Red Carpet Cabaret and Theater Cataylst in September 2005.
May 2000 - A production of 'Centerstage' had a folded modular unit hanging on one of the dorm room walls.
A play called "HECHIZO" (Spell), features origami in one of the more romantic parts of the play. "Once, a little boy had a crush on a little girl, but he didn't know how to let her know. One day, in a flash of inspiration, he made a paper plane. After school, he went up to her and said, 'Here. This is for you.' She smiled puzzled. 'What's this?' 'It's my paper airplane. I want you to have it.' 'But why me?', she asked, already delighted. 'Because you're my sky.' "
Scheduled November 25, 2005, at the Maltings Arts Theater in St. Albans, UK, is "The Paper Boat Show". "In 2003, Perrier Best Newcomer Nominated comedian Tim FitzHigham broke a 383 year old world record by rowing a boat made entirely of paper down the whole length of the Thames in 8 days. In the process he raised over £10,000 for Comic Relief. His adventures were televised all over the world and across all the newspapers but now, for the first time, the full story of the paper boat is told in this brand new unique mix of sketches, stand up and gaffer tape." http://www.stalbans.gov.uk/leisure/events/front.php?item_code=1283
The London (UK) based theater group Oily Cart have a performance called
"If All the World Were Paper". Aimed at children aged 2-5, it is
written and directed by Tim Webb. The story is about a little paper girl who is
separated from her sisters. She embarks on a series of adventures through a
magical world of paper, during which she learns how to sing and dance and
discovers color. The key theme of the show is how exploring new places and
learning new things can be fun, not scary. http://www.oilycart.org.uk/
http://www.oilycart.org.uk/very_young/world_were_paper.htm
"The Spencers Come to New Brunswick [NJ]" describes the magic act scheduled for 10/13/2006 at the State Theater: "Their tricks include: Split Personality, a modern-day sophisticated version of cutting a woman into two pieces; Origami, in which a woman is placed inside a 26-inch box and then folded up--with the woman inside--to a 12-inch box; and, The Spencer's unique Windshear trick, in which the magician visibly penetrates the whirling blades of an industrial fan." http://www.upstagemagazine.com/articles/getarticle-new.php?ID=3248&wherefrom=mainpage
A play called "1000 Cranes" was performed in Columbia, South
Carolina (USA) 11/6/2006 at the Hand Middle School. Cranes folded during
the play were sent to Japan. Caption for the photo below: "Jad Sheehi shows
one of the Origami cranes he made for the play 1000 Cranes."
English National Ballet’s The Nutcracker, a collaboration between the choreographer Christopher Hampson and the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. "Scarfe’s invention spills between the acts. The inhabitants of the Land of Snow fly out of a gigantic refrigerator. Clara and her now-humanised Nutcracker (Arionel Vargas) depart it on the wings of a giant origami bird." http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk:80/article/0,,14936-2498736,00.html
A review in Stage Edinburgh of Rebecca Drysdale's show "Baby Belly" calls it "a satirical take on her own Bat Mitzvah, a skit in which a space traveller ends up stuck in Ancient Rome arguing with her boyfriend on their spaceship, a hapless assault victim fighting back with origami and a song asking “When we can make fun of 9/11?” " http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/reviews/review.php/17935/rebecca-drysdale-is-one-woman-in-several
October 2007 - Australia’s BalletLab dance group performs an original piece called “Origami”. "Company director Phillip Adams enlisted Australian architects, visual designers and an origami expert to create a movable, tessellated dance floor. So the floor itself became a part of the art, with the mosaic complementing the expressiveness of the dancers’ movements. (That mosaic, by the way, ingeniously suggested the intricacies of origami, the Japanese art of folding squares of paper into representational shapes.)"
March 5, 2008 - The Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Co. in Kansas City stages “The Wolfman, or, Another Bad Hair Day” (written by Dan Hall), starring Clint Griffey in his "calculatedly ridiculous performance" as Dr. Sigmund Origami, a scientist from the East who knows that juice from the Maraphasia flower is the only known cure for lycanthropy. http://www.kansascity.com:80/entertainment/performing_arts/story/518093.html
A new play by playwright Rajiv Joseph is being staged at the Second Stage Theater in NYC Summer 2008. It is called Animals Out Of Paper. All three of the play's characters are origami folders, and origami is a central theme and metaphoric device throughout the script. http://www.2st.com/seasonShow.php?show=5&menuItem=5
April
2008 - The set design by Fang Chyi for "Okiku: A Tragedy Retold" was
nominated for the Boh Cameronian Arts Award for Set Design. The play,
based on a 400-year-old Japanese story about a ghost , uses sets inspired by
origami. “It’s like origami as it folds and unfolds to become something else
and I thought of Pandora’s box because every time it opens up, it reveals
something new,” said Fang..."
"The Life of Paper - An Origami Theater Event" is planned for May
23-June 1 2008. "The Life of Paper is a theatre event featuring
the work of word-class origami artist Joseph Wu and theatre artists from East
and West. Join us for a live theatrical journey through time and cultures,
uncovering the ancient art of paper folding; you will never look at paper the
same way again." Sculptures, costumes, props, set, masks, puppets, and
musical instruments will be made of folded paper. http://www.pangaea-arts.com/lifeofpaper/ http://www.flickr.com:80/photos/josephwuorigami/2514197036/
May 2009 - The Theatre Royal's egg theater for children (Bath UK) presents
Mimirichi's Paper World, "a fast-paced, physical comedy show with
uproarious slapstick, incredible origami and the biggest paper fight in
Britain." http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/the-egg/shows/paper-world/
May 2008 - The Oddfellows Playhouse Stage (Middletown CT) Two Players present "A Thousand Cranes," a play by Kathryn Schultz Miller based on the true story of a Japanese girl who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.