by Stephen Tortora-Lee on February 29, 2012
What do cell phones, natural disasters, and the industrial revolution have in common? LOL: The End (written and performed by Michi Ilona Osato, Una Aya Osato, and Yoshimasa “Sen” Osato) sets out to investigate how the world got to where it is, starting with Man’s earliest domination over nature in order to create shelter, and ending with the isolation that can occur as Man becomes more and more enmeshed in the virtual world of hand-held devices. Though there are less than a dozen words squeaked out in this dense multimedia interaction (which includes curated new media samples from YouTube, ultramodern kabukesque pieces of clowning, and interpretive dance) the message of this show is still clearly vital, diversified, and meaningful.
The central push of this piece is to show how our scramble for comfort is never-ending and essentially the more we have the more our smaller problems require higher costs to avoid them. The end of the world has never been so engrossing as with the physical comedy and funny dramatic redirections of the audience by Michi as the personification of Greed with its quest to maintain power over others. She sets us in our place while we have pity for Una’s embodiment of the innocence of the havenots around the world and throughout history.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 20, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
LOL: The End.
Keep It Movin’ Productions
Come to a place where tragedy meets comedy meets stupid. A funny and physical look at natural and human-made disasters through the eyes of three clowns. Award-winning writer/performer Una Aya Osato is joined by her family, Michi Osato and Yoshimasa Osato.
Show Times:
- Fri 2/24 @ 10:30pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 2:30pm
- Tue 2/28 @ 10:30pm
- Fri 3/2 @ 7:00pm
- Sun 3/4 @ 7:00pm
Answers by
Una Aya Osato (co-playwright/co-performer)
and Michi Ilona Osato (co-playwright/co-performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
The Osatos: LOL: The End is a funny and physical look at natural and human-made disasters seen through the eyes of three clowns. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of destruction we all live with, our family looked to clowns with the hope that by allowing the “idiot” to interpret for us, that we would be better able to understand disaster and find the ways that still remain to come out hopeful and laughing. LOL: The End as a title came about through a back and forth juggling of the ideas of the show between us sisters. Natural disaster, apocalypse, human created unjust catastrophes, the media, the future, hope…ultimately LOL: The End made the most sense.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 27, 2011
JapJAP written and performed by Una Aya Osato (photo by Ari Issler)
When we first meet JapJAP (Una Aya Osato) she’s a green blob projected onto a screen – rolling around joyfully and joyously. Cleverly, her projected image rolls from the screen in two dimensional form onto the stage in glorious 3-D. This is a device that Osato will continue to use throughout the performance, and it serves her well; enabling her to be multi-dimensional as well as keep her characters separate.
On the stage JapJAP is a lovable creature – childlike, unblemished, a sweet creation of unknown origin who says nothing but “JapJAP”, not unlike a Pokemon says its own name over and over. Clumsily, dizzily, happily dancing about in an effervescent homage to the unrestrained happiness that is an existence free of names, labels, classifications, designations and even further breakdowns, JapJAP appears to be content as is. Soon enough, however, she is corralled by the Left and the Right – played by Osato’s Left Hand and her Right Hand – clad in Blue and Red satin gloves respectively (and appropriately).
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